My Reaction to the Time’s 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time List

October 17, 2020

Time.com staff and leading fantasy authors have put together a list of the 100 best fantasy books of all time. The ‘best’ is arguable, so I wanted to write a post sharing my thoughts on this list.

Click here to see the full list.

*Bear in mind this is my humble opinion, you can (dis)agree with me but please do so politely*

I’ve read 27/100, here’s a breakdown of the books I’ve read that have made the list and what I’ve rated them:

1. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewiss Carroll – 2 stars – didn’t like it much

2. Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum – 4 stars – love all Oz books

3. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis – 3 stars – no surprise here

4. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis – 4 stars – do not remember much, should reread these

5. The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R Tolkien – 5 stars – of course!

6. The Two Towers by J.R.R Tolkien – 5 stars – yep 😉

7. The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien – 5 stars – needs no further explanation

8. A Wrinkle in Time by Madelein L’Engle – 3 stars – I’ve only read the graphic novel

9. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin – 1 star – how can 200 pages seem so long?

10. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett – 4 stars – good but not my fave Gaiman, makes me wonder if this is on here because of the new and very popular TV series adaptation?

11. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon – 2 stars – I wouldn’t necessarily call this fantasy, for me this mostly falls in the historical fiction genre

12. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman – 3 stars – meh

13. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman – 4 stars – clap!!

14. The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman – 2 stars – double meh

15. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling – 5 stars – why are there more books from the same series on this list

16. American Gods by Neil Gaiman – 4 stars – Neil Gaiman is one of all time faves, will say no more

17. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling – 4 stars – we all knew this was going to make the cut, didn’t we?

18. The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson – 4 stars – great series, but I probably would’ve opted to add The Hero of Ages to this list

19. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss – 5 stars – YAAAS!!

20. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin – still can’t decide what to rate this one

21. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern – 2 stars – like I get it, but it wasn’t for me

22. The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro – 2 stars – love his books overall but didn’t care much for this one

23. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin – 5 stars – well deserved

24. The Wrath and the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh – 2 stars – this was so hyped circa 2015 and haven’t heard anyone talk about it since, a bit surprised to see it on such a list

25. The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin – 5 stars – it’s great but the spot could’ve been given to another author

26. Circe by Madeline Miller – 3 stars – beautifully written but doesn’t stand out in my mind

27. The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang – 1 star – nope, just nope

I know what you’re thinking, have I not read George R.R. Martin? I never made it past book two and truth be told I don’t think I ever will. I liked the show but I’ve been stuck on 30% of book 3 in the series for over 3 years. Coincidentally, that’s exactly the book that’s found its place on Time’s list.

And here’s a list of the 10 titles on my TBR:

There’s a notable absence of authors outside the UK and the USA on the list. I also find it curious that they’ve opted to include several works by the same author (N.K. Jemisin, Neil Gaiman, J.K. Rowling) yet there’s only one Sanderson, Rothfuss and NO Robin Hobb and Sarah J. Maas. Admittedly, I don’t care much for Hobb’s novels, but there’s so much hype around her novels that I thought them being on this list was a given. Apparently I was wrong.

Michael J. Sullivan, Sebastian de Castell, Steven Erikson, Andrzej Sapkowski and Joe Abercrombie also come to mind as authors I would’ve expected to see here.

I do like the mix of children’s, young adult and adult books.

I would’ve thought This is How You Lose the Time War, The Neverending Story would’ve made the cut. Personally, I would’ve loved to see Sabriel by Gath Nix on this list as that’s one of my all time favorites. Maybe I should create my own list (though it would probably also be mostly UK and US authors so this makes me realize I should widen my scope). The books I’m mentioning are relatively new, so maybe they’ll make the best fantasy of all time list down the line? Only time will tell.

Books I wouldn’t have put on this list are The Poppy War, Outlander, The Subtle Knife. As much as I didn’t care for the pace of The Wizard of Earthsea, I admit Le Guin has something special, just not necessarily for me.

I’ve read all of Neil Gaiman‘s books, seen many an interview and I’m pretty sure he’s the author that nominated the Narnia books 😀 I love all his works but if I were to pick one, it would’ve been The Ocean at The End of The Lane.

Tolkien, Jemisin, Gaiman, Rothfuss, Sanderson, Rowling have come as no surprise, I definitely would’ve expected them to be on here.

I almost wish they would’ve let readers vote on nominated books and narrow a list down that way rather than a panel of fantasy authors. It feels like they nominated their own books?

Overall, I feel like there are some hits but also misses and that’s absolutely okay. This is a specific list created by a group of authors and and we can agree with some titles and not others. Where I feel strongly about one title, others will not. The list seems to be leaning more towards YA or more popular titles at the moment, will they still be as impactful 100 years down the line? That remains to be seen. UK and US books seem to be prevalent but those have the biggest publicity budgets as well. Can’t wait for them to compile another list like this in a few years, it’ll be interesting to see how it changes.

What do you think of this list? Which titles have you read? What titles not on the list should’ve been added?