The 25 best fantasy books
The 25 highest-ranked fantasy books in our ranking of 2,816, scored on how much readers love them, their prize, best-list and bestseller record, and current buzz. We rank 459 fantasy books in all. How we rank
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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone96.8Must-Read ScoreHarry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Harry Potter has spent ten years sleeping in the cupboard under the stairs of his cruel aunt and uncle's house when a letter arrives that changes everything: he's a wizard, and he has a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Why it made the listHugo Award winner (2001, for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)One of the best-selling books ever (about 120 million copies)#1 New York Times bestseller (2 weeks at #1)Hugo Award finalist (2000, for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) - 2
A Game of Thrones96.2Must-Read ScoreA Game of Thrones
Lord Eddard Stark rules the cold North and wants nothing to do with the royal court.
Why it made the list150 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2011Nebula Award finalist (1997)Hugo Award finalist (2012, for A Dance with Dragons)PBS Great American Read - 3
Fourth Wing93.8Must-Read ScoreFourth Wing
Violet Sorrengail was meant for the quiet life of a scribe, until her mother, the commanding general, orders her into Basgiath War College to train as a dragon rider.
Why it made the listGoodreads Choice (romantasy) winner (2025, for Onyx Storm)#1 New York Times bestseller (14 weeks at #1)One of the ten best-selling books of 2023, 2024 and 2025 (Publishers Weekly) - 4
The Fifth Season91.9Must-Read ScoreThe Fifth Season
The Stillness is a supercontinent wracked by earthquakes, and every few centuries a catastrophic Season of ash, darkness and famine nearly ends civilization.
Why it made the listHugo Award winner (2016)Hugo Award winner (2018, for The Stone Sky)Hugo Award winner (2017, for The Obelisk Gate)Nebula Award finalist (2015) - 5
Dungeon Crawler Carl91.8Must-Read ScoreDungeon Crawler Carl
One night, aliens destroy every building on Earth and turn the survivors into contestants on an intergalactic game show: a vast, deadly dungeon where every fight is broadcast to the galaxy.
Why it made the list72 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2025 - 6
The Lord of the Rings89.9Must-Read ScoreThe Lord of the Rings
In the quiet Shire, the hobbit Frodo Baggins inherits a plain gold ring from his uncle Bilbo, and learns it's the One Ring, forged by the Dark Lord Sauron to rule all the others.
Why it made the listTIME All-TIME 100 NovelsPBS Great American ReadBBC's The Big Read - 7
House of Earth and Blood87.6Must-Read ScoreHouse of Earth and Blood
Bryce Quinlan, half human and half Fae, works by day at an antiquities shop and parties by night in Crescent City, a modern metropolis of angels, shifters, witches and mortals.
Why it made the listGoodreads Choice (romantasy) winner (2024, for House of Flame and Shadow)Goodreads Choice (fantasy) winner (2022, for House of Sky and Breath)#1 New York Times bestseller (1 week at #1)33 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2020 - 8
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe87.6Must-Read ScoreThe Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Sent to a professor's country house to escape the bombing of London, four siblings, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, discover a wardrobe that leads to Narnia, a magical land frozen in endless winter by the White Witch.
Why it made the listTIME All-TIME 100 NovelsPBS Great American ReadBBC's The Big Read - 9
Six of Crows87.4Must-Read ScoreSix of Crows
In the gritty port city of Ketterdam, criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker is offered a fortune for an impossible job: break into the Ice Court, a military fortress no one has ever escaped, and extract a scientist who could upend the world's balance of power.
Why it made the list209 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2015 - 10
Quicksilver87.1Must-Read ScoreQuicksilver
Saeris Fane is a thief and secret-keeper in a desert city ruled by an undying queen, where water is precious and powers like hers are dangerous.
Why it made the list#1 New York Times bestseller (1 week at #1)56 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2024Goodreads Choice (romantasy) finalist (2024) - 11
Hyperion87.0Must-Read ScoreHyperion
On the eve of an interstellar war, seven pilgrims set out for the planet Hyperion, home to the Time Tombs, mysterious structures that move backward through time, and the Shrike, a terrifying creature of blades worshipped by a strange church.
Why it made the listHugo Award winner (1990)Hugo Award finalist (1998, for The Rise of Endymion)Hugo Award finalist (1991, for The Fall of Hyperion) - 12
The Way of Kings87.0Must-Read ScoreThe Way of Kings
Roshar is a world of stone and storms, where tempests so powerful sweep the land that animals hide in shells and grass retracts into the ground.
Why it made the listGoodreads Choice (fantasy) finalist (2025, for Wind and Truth) - 13
The Eye of the World86.4Must-Read ScoreThe Eye of the World
On the night of a spring festival, monsters out of legend attack the quiet village of Emond's Field.
Why it made the list17 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2021Hugo Award finalist (2014, for the Wheel of Time series)PBS Great American Read - 14
Gideon the Ninth86.3Must-Read ScoreGideon the Ninth
The Emperor needs necromancers, the Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman, and Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines and no more patience for undead nonsense.
Why it made the listHugo Award finalist (2020)Nebula Award finalist (2019) - 15
A Court of Thorns and Roses86.3Must-Read ScoreA Court of Thorns and Roses
Nineteen-year-old Feyre keeps her impoverished family alive by hunting in the forest near the wall that divides the human lands from the faerie realm of Prythian.
Why it made the listGoodreads Choice (fantasy) winner (2021, for A Court of Silver Flames)One of the ten best-selling books of 2024 (Publishers Weekly)96 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2024 - 16
The Tainted Cup86.2Must-Read ScoreThe Tainted Cup
In an empire walled off from monstrous sea leviathans, a high officer is found dead with a tree erupting from his body.
Why it made the listHugo Award winner (2025)Edgar Award finalist (2025)Goodreads Choice (fantasy) finalist (2024) - 17
Outlander85.9Must-Read ScoreOutlander
In 1945, Claire Randall, a former British army nurse, is on a second honeymoon in the Scottish Highlands when she touches an ancient standing stone and is thrown back two centuries, to 1743.
Why it made the list#1 New York Times bestseller (3 weeks at #1)34 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2009Goodreads Choice (historical fiction) finalist (2022, for Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone)PBS Great American Read - 18
The Dispossessed85.9Must-Read ScoreThe Dispossessed
Shevek is a brilliant physicist from Anarres, a barren moon settled two centuries earlier by revolutionaries who built a society with no government, no property and no money.
Why it made the listHugo Award winner (1975)Nebula Award winner (1974) - 19
Piranesi85.3Must-Read ScorePiranesi
Piranesi lives in the House, an endless series of halls filled with thousands of marble statues, where tides surge through the lower floors and clouds drift through the upper ones.
Why it made the listWomen's Prize for Fiction winner (2021)Hugo Award finalist (2021)Nebula Award finalist (2020) - 20
Circe85.1Must-Read ScoreCirce
In the house of Helios, god of the sun, a strange daughter is born: not powerful like her father nor alluring like her mother.
Why it made the list107 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2018Women's Prize for Fiction finalist (2019) - 21
The Name of the Wind84.9Must-Read ScoreThe Name of the Wind
Kvothe, a legendary wizard now hiding as an innkeeper, tells his own story at last: a childhood with a troupe of traveling players, years as a near-feral orphan in a crime-ridden city, a brazen bid to get into a legendary school of magic, and the events that made him a fugitive.
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All Systems Red84.5Must-Read ScoreAll Systems Red
In a future run by corporations, survey teams on distant planets come with a Company-supplied security android.
Why it made the listHugo Award winner (2021, for Network Effect)Nebula Award winner (2020, for Network Effect)Goodreads Choice (science fiction) finalist (2023, for System Collapse)Goodreads Choice (science fiction) finalist (2021, for Fugitive Telemetry) - 23
Night Watch84.2Must-Read ScoreNight Watch
Sir Sam Vimes, commander of the City Watch, is chasing a psychopath across the rooftops of Ankh-Morpork when a magical accident sends both of them thirty years into the past.
Why it made the listGuardian 100 Best Books of the 21st CenturyBBC's The Big Read - 24
One Hundred Years of Solitude83.8Must-Read ScoreOne Hundred Years of Solitude
Seven generations of the Buendía family live, love and fight in Macondo, the town they founded in the Colombian jungle.
Why it made the listOne of the best-selling books ever (about 50 million copies)Bokklubben World Library (100 greatest books)PBS Great American ReadBBC's The Big Read - 25
Ficciones83.8Must-Read ScoreFicciones
Jorge Luis Borges's collection of short stories reads like a set of puzzles and thought experiments.
Why it made the listBokklubben World Library (100 greatest books)Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century
