Out of curiosity because I'd have to say Harry Potter or Eragon or Ella Enchanted or something like that.
2007-11-05 06:07:06 · 14 answers · asked by goatgirl13 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Books & Authors
The Assassins of Tamurin or the Sevenwaters Trilogy
2007-11-05 06:09:43 · answer #1 · answered by suzy 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Harry Potter, Eragon... all are popular, but none of them comes even close to the epics.
Among the modern fantasies, the Prince of Nothing trilogy, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and the Song of Ice and Fire are big contenders. Also Name of the Wind and The Lies of Locke Lamora are newbies but going strong on pure entertainment value. There are countless good fantasy books, written by giants like Moorcock to new masters like China Meville to people who are great but just write weird like Jonathan Carroll. And of course, popularity-wise we can't forget the Wheel of Time.
Still, taking all those into account, The Lord of the Rings is the best fantasy novel ever written, in my opinion. Not only great in scope, it signifies the life's work of a master and the world-building could not be more complete. Tolkien built up the whole languages from scratch. Add to that the fact that it's a brilliant story.
Very close to LotR will come... in my opinion, A Story of the Malazan book of the Fallen series, especially the novel "Deadhouse Gates", followed by "Game of Thrones" in ASOIAF, "The Last Unicorn" by Peter S. Beagle, "The Land of Laughs" by Jonathan Carroll and "Perdido Street Station" by China Meville (each of these represent different writing styles, if not flat-out subgenres in Fantasy and cannot be in good conscience compared to each other).
So I can't compare between all the fantasies that I've read. But based on the quality, the literary influence, and on how much I enjoyed it... Lord of the Rings takes the cake.
PS: Hal Duncan fans, notice that I didn't include "Vellum"... yes, it's also a big contender. There isn't anything like Vellum. There won't probably be anything like Vellum again. Vellum is The Worm Ouroboros of our age- you marvel at how good it is but when recommending to someone else...
2007-11-05 15:17:19 · answer #2 · answered by Deep B 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A graphic novel called The Dream Hunters, by Neil Gaiman, illustrations by Yoshitaka Amano. It is a complicated tale of a lady who transforms herself into a fox to help a wandering monk she is in love with, and is all about the sacrifices people make for loved ones. The illustrations are mystical and elaborate, and the prose is simple but ornate.
2007-11-05 14:11:25 · answer #3 · answered by Z 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Harry Potter and Dumbledore.
2007-11-05 14:11:32 · answer #4 · answered by ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I love the books you mentioned and at first when I saw the question I thought there were too many to decide, but then i decided its definitely The His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman.
2007-11-05 17:34:11 · answer #5 · answered by margs914 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Lord of the Rings - J. R. Tolkien
Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever (first three books) -Steven Donaldson
Wheel of Time (first three books) - Robert Jordan
2007-11-05 14:11:05 · answer #6 · answered by Stephen L 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The five books of the Belgariad by David Eddings
2007-11-05 14:10:24 · answer #7 · answered by Kenneth E 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
harry potter... and there are some books in Italy really good called Le cronache del mondo emerso
2007-11-05 14:13:00 · answer #8 · answered by kkkkkkk 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Magus by John Fowles, blew my mind
2007-11-05 14:09:56 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" series.
2007-11-05 15:19:17 · answer #10 · answered by truefirstedition 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋