All-time Fantasy top 5

[Calibandar]

Final tally:

1) George RR Martin 159 pts.

2) JRR Tolkien 92 pts

3) Scott Bakker 48 pts

4) Steven Erikson 47 pts

5) Robin Hobb 30 pts

6) Guy Gavriel Kay 23 pts

7) Terry Pratchett 20 pts

8) Roger Zelazny 18 pts

These were very closely followed by Donaldson, Mieville, Gene Wolfe, Tad Williams, Vandermeer, Vance and Scott Lynch.

EDIT to add Gene Wolfe to the list of close followers.

[Larry.]

So almost without exception, these are epic fantasies? Figures that would be the case on boards such as this

[Calibandar]

Yep. I had expected someone like Feist to get a few more votes though, and Gemmell and Brooks weren't even mentioned. Jordan was in the bottom as well.

OTOH I would have expected Gene Wolfe, Jeff Ford, Graham Joyce and maybe Tim Powers to be rated higher since they are mentioned quite a lot here, but I guess they do not really make it to people's top 5 ratings even though they can be worthwhile reads. Perhaps this has to do with people rating highly those works that really had a ( emotional) punch on them, which IMO works of the above authors tend not to do all that much.

Bakker's high ranking surprises me ( I love the books and cannot wait for Aspect Emperor but I didn't think so many had read him already), plus the fact that Tolkien comes in such a strong second. On the Tolkienonline board though, Martin came in a strong second after JRRT, so I guess there is a lot of overlap ( figures).

On the neutral sff boards ( like sffworld and some smaller ones) Martin generally dominates as well, but the difference with say Tolkien, Hobb or Erikson is a bit smaller.

[Marcelo Rebelo Firqoralas]

Well, Wolfe is mentioned by nine posters and if I you are counting points as I think you are (5p for first place, 1p for fifth place, 1p of place on unnumbered list) I get the score to 14p plus two ties for fifth place, lets say 15p total. It should be noted though, that he features on several unnumbered lists, and if they instead were numbered, he would get more points.

I must say that I am a bit surprised that I was the only one who mentioned John Crowley. Little, Big is IMHO a work that is almost unmatched in the genre when it comes to pure quality of writing and it is an obvious fantasy classic.

[Sir Thursday]

Perhaps it would be fairer to give each one on an unnumbered list 3 points instead of one so that everyone has the same voting power be it numbered or unnumbered. Would that make a difference?

Sir Thursday

[davos]

This is hard. Right now I would put it like this:

1. GRRM (ASoIaF, Fevre Dream and a body of short fiction that is truely extraordinary)

2. Neil Gaiman (The Sandman alone puts him here. Not to mention American Gods and some of his other works)

3. Tim Powers (Last Call, Anibus gates amoung others)

4. China Mieville (the Scar)

5. Tolkien (LotR)

with a honorable mentioning for R. Scott Bakker, Tad Williams, Erikson, Mervyn Peake, Jack Vance and Graham Joyce.

[Larry.]

Cali,

What I was implying above was that at a site such as this that is devoted to an epic series, there are naturally going to be more readers that prefer this style of fantasy. SFFWorld I would imagine is still heavily toward the epic, based on its general readership. But ask such a question at a place like the Nightshade discussion forum or of some of the more prominent/outspoken bloggers in the field, and the results likely will be quite different. And then you'll get those like me who'll be contrary and chose talented authors whose inclusion in the field is debatable, not to mention that they don't always write in a Germanic language

But as an indicator of which authors are most popular here, it was indeed interesting to see how Bakker fared.

[Multaniette]

There are more readers of epic fantasy, period. Outside of certain internet communities, hardly anyone knows Graham Joyce's, Ford's or Harrison's name.

[Sir Thursday]

Harrison got a mention in New Scientist a while back...they were backing Light to win some prize (Nebula I think, not sure though). You are right about Ford and Joyce though - I hadn't neard of either of them until I got on the internet (and I still haven't read them )

Hopefully that was the right Harrison...

By the way, I started a similar thread on Malazanempire.com; thought it would be interesting to compare.

Sir Thursday

[Marcelo Rebelo Firqoralas]

There are more readers of epic fantasy, period. Outside of certain internet communities, hardly anyone knows Graham Joyce's, Ford's or Harrison's name.

I suspect that these three writers also have an audience among people who mostly read mainstream literature. None of them are bestseller I think, but they are still respectable midlist authors.

[Brys]

1. Mervyn Peake

2. George RR Martin

3. China Mieville

4. Roger Zelazny

5. Scott Lynch

As usual, it's always changing (especially evident as on the same thread in the Malazan forums I had Erikson instead of Martin - the two are pretty much equal in my mind).

[Red Sun]

1. Michael Ende (Der Unendliche Geschichte, the best written German Fantasy book.)

2. George R. R. Martin

3. Terry Pratchett

4. Tolkien

I can't make a decision for the fifth place, there are just too many authors I find egally interesting.

[Kanin]

1. George R.R. Martin

2. David Eddings

3. Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman

4. Raymond Feist

5. J.V. Jones

[TheHalfman]

My guess would be you have all read his books and just don't consider him a top guy, but from what I saw by glancing John Marco wasn't mentioned once. I think he is a great writer.

A few guys on lists here I haven't had the time to read beings as I do not just soley read fantasy. I'll be sure to check them out though.

[Ser Paladin]

1. Tolkien

2. Moorcock

3. Bakker

4. Gaiman

5. Martin

Honorable Mentions: Harry Turtledove, AA Attanasio, Robin Hobb, Feist (sentimentally).

And The Lies of Locke Lamora was the second best single book I've read in the last five years (behind The Thousandfold Thought). Another strong showing from Red Sails, and Lynch will muscle his way into the top five.

[RaceBannon42]

My guess would be you have all read his books and just don't consider him a top guy, but from what I saw by glancing John Marco wasn't mentioned once. I think he is a great writer.

A few guys on lists here I haven't had the time to read beings as I do not just soley read fantasy. I'll be sure to check them out though.

Really? I've never read Marco, and you are the first person who I've seen mention him and not use the phrase "total crap".

[Elrostar]

1. Tolkien

2. GRRM

3. Lloyd Alexander (Prydain Chronicles)

4. Zelazny (Amber Chronicles)

5. Phillip Pullman (His Dark Materials)

Just because books are children's books doesn't mean they shouldn't get mainstream recognition.

Although I was seriously tempted to put in the Gaiman just for the Sandman graphic novels for the same sort of reasoning. But I've been playing Amber RPGs for too long to not list Zelazny, I suppose

Really? I've never read Marco, and you are the first person who I've seen mention him and not use the phrase "total crap".

I'm not sure about total crap, but he's definitely not what I'd consider high quality. Or even terribly medium quality.

[werewolfv2]

Really? I've never read Marco, and you are the first person who I've seen mention him and not use the phrase "total crap".

really?

the Tyrants and Kings trilogy was pretty damn good

[add-on]

1. Kay

2. Tolkien

3. Martin

4. Zelazny

5. Pratchett

really?

the Tyrants and Kings trilogy was pretty damn good

Yeah, I enjoyed that trilogy too. It's the trilogy after that (which may or may not still be in progress, i really don't know) that I would refer to as total crap.

[Bellis]

Another way of doing this would be to list, say, the most mentioned 20 authors on this thread, or the top 20 generally or critically acclaimed authors. Then get everyone to rank those 20, but leaving off those we have not read. I suspect that the reason some authors (like Ford or Moorcock) are not mentioned more often is because not everyone has read them. For instance, I didn't list Steven Erikson not because I hate him but because i haven't read him.

Then rank based on proportion of boarders who have read a given author who have listed them in the top 5. Hopefully, there will be enough votes for each name so that it won't be skewed by low numbers.

Otherwise, it is possible that the list we have here is not measuring best in writing, only those who are currently most commercially popular. Might not change anything, but might be interesting if it does.

bellis.