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What are the top five best fantasy series since 1990?


Francis Buck

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  1. The Long Price Quartet by Daniel Abraham - my favorite work of fiction ever.

The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell - I read these many years ago, and I still haven't read any better battles.

Thunderer/Gears of the City by Felix Gilman - what an amazing world he created.

The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher - they may not be great literature, but they're great entertainment.

The Last Werewolf trilogy by Glen Duncan - I'm a sucker for werewolf fiction and this is far and away the best I've ever read.

If two books is too short for a "series" then Joe Abercrombie's books can be slotted in that final spot.

Umm...what makes #2 fantasy? That ignorant superstitious characters think magic happens but it really never does? Just seems like historical fiction to me but it has been a while since I read it.

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Umm...what makes #2 fantasy? That ignorant superstitious characters think magic happens but it really never does? Just seems like historical fiction to me but it has been a while since I read it.

That's not entirely true. There are a few scenes in which 'magic' happens, but you can't explain them with physics or coincidence.

While I wouldn't call it fantasy exactly, I wouldn't call it historical fiction as well.

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  • 2 weeks later...

That's not entirely true. There are a few scenes in which 'magic' happens, but you can't explain them with physics or coincidence.

While I wouldn't call it fantasy exactly, I wouldn't call it historical fiction as well.

I guess you can say it is fantasy because of Arthur, no one really knows if he existed and all his stories involve fantasy. Also are there other books with battles like Warlord Chronicles?
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I guess you can say it is fantasy because of Arthur, no one really knows if he existed and all his stories involve fantasy. Also are there other books with battles like Warlord Chronicles?

You should try Cornwells Saxon/Warrior series. It's about Alfred the Great.

Since it's the same author, the writing is at the same level and yes, it features battles like those in the Warlord Chronicles.

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You should try Cornwells Saxon/Warrior series. It's about Alfred the Great.

Since it's the same author, the writing is at the same level and yes, it features battles like those in the Warlord Chronicles.

Do you know of any other books like Warlord where it is historical fiction but with a small dose of fantasy (magic, Ultimate evil and such) not that Warlord was like this it is just because you know when you think of Arthur there is all that fantasy around him you know.
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The Merlin series (of which I have read only the first book, The Crystal Cave) by Mary Stewart is similarly mainly historical with a little dose of "magic", although most achievements of Merlin are explained by natural causes (e.g. Uther is simply disguised as the King of Cornwall, Stonehenge is reconstructed by skillful engineering etc.), Merlin has something like second sight and other supernatural abilities. Of course it is not a new series (70s or older).


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The Merlin series (of which I have read only the first book, The Crystal Cave) by Mary Stewart is similarly mainly historical with a little dose of "magic", although most achievements of Merlin are explained by natural causes (e.g. Uther is simply disguised as the King of Cornwall, Stonehenge is reconstructed by skillful engineering etc.), Merlin has something like second sight and other supernatural abilities. Of course it is not a new series (70s or older).

Thanks, I was looking for something new and not Arthurian, but I guess these types of book are really hard to exist out there.

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Clear number 1 for me:



Martin - ASoIaF



Series which I liked more than the others:



David Anthony Durham - Acacia (War of the Mein)


Daniel Abraham - Dagger and Coin (and Long Price Quartet although I prefer the Setting in DaC)


Bakker - Prince of Nothing (have not read Aspect-Emperor so far)


Miles Cameron - Traitor Son Cycle


Col Buchanan - Heart of the World


Patrick Rothfuss - KKC



Promising as well:



David Hair - Moontide Quartet


Mark T. Barnes - Echoes of Empire (have only read book 1 so far)


Elspeth Cooper - Wild Hunt Quartet


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So far, in no order:

Discworld by Sir Pterry Pratchett. Peaked after 90, so I'm counting it

The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. This one I will rank because it's number 1

The Wind on Fire- William Nicholson. YA but so what?

ASOIAF- by GRRM, because why else would I be on his fan forum?

The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson- I like tangential prose and when blended wonderfully with repeating themes and metaphor and it counts as spec fic

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First post!




1. ASOIAF - GRRM


2. Lightbringer - Brent Weeks


3. The Stormlight Archives - Brandon Sanderson


4. The Gentlemen Bastards - Scott Lynch


5. The Kingkiller Chronicles



Obviously all the above are unfinished and I am still to read other forum favourties such as Bakker, Abraham, Abercrombie, Lawrence et all so my list could change in the next year (aside from ASOIAF ofcourse!)




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Yeah, just because this is a ASOIAF forum doesn't mean it is everyone's favorite

The thing with ASOIAF is that it opens your horizon and you start reading more good books and less bullshit (which reminds me, after 4 years I still have not really updated my librarythingstuff, silly me). Than you realize that ASOIAF is very good - and that there is so much more stuff out there which blows your brains away. And suddenly you start reading more stuff...like Murakami or Clavell.

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Although I have read a lot of fantasy series, there are many others that I would wish to read before I'd give a TOP 5 or TOP 10. However, I know that my current TOP 2 are:



The Second Apocalypse - by R. Scott Bakker and



a Song of Ice and Fire - by our favourite George RR Martin.



These two are the fantasy series that I'll read over and over again because of their beauty and depth and horror and... well, you know how after Nutella any other form of chocolate doesn't taste nearly as well as it used to? Yeah, that's how I feel about these two series, they are the fantasy Nutella for me.



If we're talking about much lighter reading that just gives all the feels(especially in the last book), I would say Harry Potter. I can only say two words about the series: Severus Snape. Case closed for me.


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