Fantasy is such an established genre, and one of the most popular on Goodreads, so older books have a distinct advantage over newer books. I considered the number of ratings, the spread of ratings, and the year of publication. In putting together this list, I used Goodreads and looked at a variety of metrics. How I Put Together a List of Top Fantasy Books And if those authors happen to be prolific, their books are going to be highly rated due to their exuberant fanbase. There’s also no denying that certain authors dominate the genre. Many excellent series populate the fantasy genre, and the longer the series, the more readers the first book is likely to have. The Tor Books monthly newsletter features articles by upcoming authors, essays from editors, links to interesting genre content from around the web, and more. A book with more ratings may garner more lower ratings simply because of the increased reader pool. The actual number of ratings might be too low. We can use ratings but as Rioter Tasha discovered when she looked at the highest rated books on Goodreads, reader-generated rankings and lists lead to other problems.

Some bestselling books may not be that good. How do we determine what makes a top fantasy book? Sales? Let’s be honest. Or maybe you’re just curious to see how mainstream your preferences are.īut in trying to answer this question, you’ll immediately run into problems. It makes sense to begin with what’s popular if you’re starting out in the genre. If you’re a new-or old-fantasy reader, you might be wondering what the top fantasy books are.

Tor fantasy books list