The r/Fantasy Top Novels Poll: 2017! Now With Star Wars -- Results thread

[u/lyrrael]

Hey, look what I found!

Our original voting thread was here.

I want to give y'all a sincere apology that this is so late. Unfortunately, moderators really are only human, and sometimes life gets in the way. I dug this up and finished it up this week, and hopefully it's all good.

Thanks go out to u/Potterhead42, u/LittlePlasticCastle, u/Megan_Dawn, and u/The_Real_JS, who have all worked hard on this list. I'm only the last one to have my sticky fingers on it.

This list had 5758 valid votes on it! Seriously, holy cow! Also, we have consolidated as many books into series as possible. Hopefully that's okay. There are almost certainly errors, not least of which are typos. I hope you forgive me for them -- this was massive.

So, with no further ado -- this is the full list, available in a Google Sheet for you to mess with.

And here are the top votes!

Ranking	Num of Votes	Title
1	251	A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin
2	241	The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson
3	226	Middle-Earth Universe by J. R. R. Tolkien
4	218	The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss
5	196	Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling
6	175	Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
7	166	Gentleman Bastard by Scott Lynch
8	165	The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan
9	143	The First Law by Joe Abercrombie
10	139	Discworld by Terry Pratchett
11	133	The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson
12	126	Realms of the Elderlings by Robin Hobb
13	101	The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
14	84	Worm by Wildbow
15	74	Dune by Frank Herbert
16	73	Red Rising by Pierce Brown
17	71	Riyria by Michael J. Sullivan
18	66	The Broken Empire by Mark Lawrence
19	56	Lightbringer by Brent Weeks
20	53	The Chronicles of the Black Company by Glen Cook
20	53	The Dark Tower by Stephen King
21	50	Enderverse by Orson Scott Card
22	46	Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons
23	44	The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
24	42	His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
25	41	American Gods by Neil Gaiman
26	40	The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
27	39	The Broken Earth by N. K. Jemisin
28	38	Powder Mage by Brian McClellan
28	38	Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay
29	37	The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
30	33	Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
30	33	The Witcher by Andrzej Sapkowski
31	32	Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
31	32	The Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K. Le Guin
32	31	The Magicians by Lev Grossman
33	30	Kushiel's Universe by Jacqueline Carey
33	30	The Books of Babel by Josiah Bancroft
34	27	Abhorsen by Garth Nix
34	27	Sandman by Neil Gaiman
35	26	The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
36	25	The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
37	24	World by the Five Gods by Lois McMaster Bujold
37	24	Uprooted by Naomi Novik
38	23	New Crobuzon by China Mieville
38	23	Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
38	23	Culture by Iain M. Banks
39	22	The Bartimaeus Sequence by Jonathan Stroud
39	22	Tortall by Tamora Pierce
40	20	Redwall by Brian Jacques
41	19	The Shadow Campaigns by Django Wexler
42	18	The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini
42	18	The Expanse by James S. A. Corey
42	18	The Second Apocalypse by R. Scott Bakker
42	18	The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny
42	18	Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams
42	18	Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn
43	17	The Belgariad by David Eddings
43	17	Foundation Universe by Isaac Asimov
43	17	The Empire Trilogy by Janny Wurts and Raymond Feist
43	17	Vorkosiga Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold
43	17	The Riftwar Cycle by Raymond Feist
43	17	Twig by Wildbow
44	16	Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks
44	16	Raven's Shadow by Anthony Ryan
44	16	The Acts of Caine by Matthew Woodring Stover
45	15	The Drenai Saga by David Gemmell
45	15	Codex Alera by Jim Butcher
45	15	The Divine Cities by Robert Jackson Bennett
45	15	The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson
45	15	The Princess Bride by William Goldman
46	14	Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
46	14	Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
46	14	The Sarantine Mosaic by Guy Gavriel Kay
46	14	The Demon Cycle by Peter V. Brett
47	13	Watership Down by Richard Adams
47	13	Percy Jackson & the Olympians by Rick Riordan
48	12	Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
48	12	The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sandson
48	12	Wars of Light and Shadow by Janny Wurts
49	11	The Dagger and the Coin by Daniel Abraham
49	11	The Traitor Son Cycle by Miles Cameron
49	11	Inheritance Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin
49	11	The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
49	11	The Stand by Stephen King
49	11	Pact by Wildbow
50	10	The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson
50	10	The Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne by Brian Staveley
50	10	The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon
50	10	The Dandelion Dynasty by Ken Liu
50	10	Book of the Ancestor by Mark Lawrence
50	10	The Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock
50	10	Greatcoats by Sebastian de Castell
50	10	Wayfarers by Becky Chambers

[u/[deleted]]

moderators really are only human

Nice try.

Haha, fun to see Books of Babel both in the under-read and best list.

Thanks for the list!

[u/lyrrael → u/[deleted]]

This only human moderator isn't filling in 800 books worth of Goodreads links, haha. ;)

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

The moderators were human once, but now they are mere spirits, noble specters who patrol the server kingdom, hunting trolls and slaying spam dragons. They are the Ghost Knights of r/Fantasy!

[u/HumanSieve]

I'd like to see a breakdown of this list about publishing dates, to see if there is a bias towards new/currently published work. I suspect there is. I would make it, but I'm off traveling.

[u/lyrrael → u/HumanSieve]

Feel free to make a copy of the sheet and do the research; 800 is a bit too many for me to do. :/

[u/AccipiterF1]

Just four months later my vote would be significantly different.

[u/wishforagiraffe → u/AccipiterF1]

Funny how that works, isn't it? I had a similar reaction

[u/lyrrael → u/wishforagiraffe]

I forgot to vote. o.o

[u/Tioben]

Having read 62% of these, I'm wondering if it is simply time to move on to another genre...

[u/lyrrael → u/Tioben]

I think it's time for you to move on to the underread/underrated list. ;)

[u/HiuGregg]

How is X above Y? How can Z be at Nth when it isn't even fantasy? Wtf, my favourite book isn't on this list. I didn't realize that one series had so many fans, I thought it was trash.

---

I'm all seriousness though, fun list! Nice to see Wayfarers on there.

[u/TidalPawn → u/HiuGregg]

Oh sure, give XYZ all the love, just ignore all that ABC has done for the genre.

[u/BatBoss → u/HiuGregg]

You bastard! X is the most revolutionary fantasy series in 100 years! Y is derivative garbage that is only on here because of nostalgia.

[u/[deleted]]

If Oathbringer doesn't disappoint, I wouldn't be surprised if Stormlight tops ASOIAF next year. 10 votes is already extremely close.

[u/TRRichardson]

Traitor Son Cycle

49

I see my work here on Earth is not yet done

[u/vokkan]

There's really a huge variation of styles in the top 10-15 placers, making a great showing of the diversity of the genre.

(and it makes me think that it wasn't made up of a hundred people with the exact same nominees just in slightly different orders)

[u/DjangoWexler]

Someone should do diffs of each year's list, so we can see which series rise and fall, like on music charts.

[u/AmethystOrator]

"When will the The r/Fantasy Top Novels Poll: 2017 poll results be posted..." Oh wait, it's here! Huzzah!!

Thanks very much to everyone who put in so much work.

[u/[deleted]]

I can't believe it was that long ago. I had pretty much forgot about it.

Thanks for the list! It's always fun seeing these.

[u/lrich1024]

I see some new entries on the list, nice! Thanks for the work in putting this together!

[u/pornokitsch]

Wow, well done!

[u/thequeensownfool]

This is great! Thanks for all the hard work.

[u/tolandruth]

Read everything up to first law might have to start reading that. Have read 26 out of the top 50 list.

[u/catfishbilly_]

The Macht Travelers Gate The Crimson Empire The Twilight Reign

All should be on there above some, but I haven't voted on any so yeah.

Twilight Reign series was great, imo. The Crimson Empire hasten books out and is looking pretty good too.

[u/lyrrael → u/catfishbilly_]

Have you checked the extended list?