To recap: Fantasy Magazine wants to promote fantasy, for obvious reasons. So we’re wondering — what are the gateway books, the fantasy works that compel even the most-resistant reader into enjoyment? You’ve helped generate the list we’ll be choosing from, and now we need help narrowing it down. To vote, list your three top picks (order doesn’t matter) in a comment. The top twenty books will be involved in a fierce battle to the death…er, will move on to the next round of voting. Remember, though, that you’re not voting for your favorite book, but the one you think most likely to hook someone who doesn’t usually read fantasy.
So here’s your list of choices:
Joe Abercrombie
The First Law Series
Douglas Adams
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Richard Adams
Maia
Watership Down
Lloyd Alexander
The Prydain Chronicles
Piers Anthony
On A Pale Horse
Clive Barker
Abarat
J.M. Barrie
Peter Pan
Peter S. Beagle
The Last Unicorn
Ann Bishop
Daughter Of The Blood
Black Jewels Trilogy
Ray Bradbury
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Marion Zimmer Bradley
The Mists Of Avalon
Peter V. Brett
The Painted Man
Patricia Briggs
Moon Calls
Emma Bull
War For The Oaks
Jim Butcher
The Dresden books
Octavia Butler
Kindred
Wild Seed
Alan Campbell
Scar Night
Orson Scott Card
Ender’s Game
Jacqueline Carey
Kushiel’s Dart
Santa Olivia
Isabelle Carmody
The Farseekers
Sarwat Chadda
The Devil’s Kiss
Susannah Clarke
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
Marion Cockrell
Shadow Castle
John Crowley
Little, Big
A.J. Dalton
Necromancer’s Gambit
Mark Z. Danielewski
House of Leaves
Stephen R. Donaldson
The Thomas Covenant Chronicles: Lord Foul’s Bane
Diane Duane
So You Want To Be A Wizard
David Duncan
Magic Casement
Glen Duncan
I, Lucifer
Lord Dunsany
The Charwoman’s Shadow
The King of Elfland’s Daughter
David Anthony Durham
Acacia
David Eddings
The Belgariad
Michael Ende
The Neverending Story
Beth Fantaskey
Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side
Raymond E. Feist
Magician: Apprentice
Magician: Master
Mark Ferrari
The Book of Joby
Neil Gaiman
American Gods
Neverwhere
Stardust
Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Good Omens
William Goldman
The Princess Bride
Terry Goodkind
Wizard’s First Rule
Elizabeth Hand
Saffron and Brimston
M. John Harrison
Viriconium
A.J. Hartley
Act of Will
Mark Helprin
A Winter’s Tale
Frank Herbert
Dune
Jim C. Hines
Gobllin Quest
Robin Hobb
Ship Of Magic
David Holland
Murcheston: A Wolf’s Tale
Robert E. Howard
The Best of Robert E. Howard Volume 1: Crimson Shadows
The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian
Conan The Conquerer
Tanya Huff
The Blood Books
Diana Wynne Jones
Charmed Life
Fire And Hemlock
Howl’s Moving Castle
Rosemary Jones
City of the Dead
Robert Jordan
The Dragon Reborn
The Eye Of The World
Katherine Kerr
Daggerspell
Darkspell
Dawnspell
Caitlin R. Kiernan
The Red Tree
Stephen King
The Dark Tower
Stephen King and Peter Straub
The Talisman
Mercedes Lackey
Magic’s Pawn
Magic’s Price
Magic’s Promise
Louis L’Amour
The Haunted Mesa
Madeleine L’Engle
A Wrinkle in Time
Ursula K. LeGuin
The Earthsea Cycle
Fritz Leiber
The Swords of Lankhmar
C.S. Lewis
The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe
Till We Have Faces
Gregory Maguire
Wicked
George R.R. Martin
A Game Of Thrones
Inside Straight (editor)
Anne McCaffrey
Dragonflight
Dragonsong
Patricia McKillip
In the Forests of Serre
Robin McKinley
The Blue Sword
The Hero and the Crown
China Mieville
Perdido Street Station
Walter Miller
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Walter Moers
The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Blue Bear
Rumo And the Secrets In The Dark
Christopher Moore
A Dirty Job
Practical Demonkeeping
John Moore
The Unhandsome Prince
Robert Newman
Merlin’s Mistake
Larissa Niec
Shorn
Garth Nix
Sabriel
Wild Magic
James A. Owen
Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica: Here There Be Dragons
Christopher Paolini
Eragon
Mervyn Peake
Titus Groan
Tamora Pierce
Alanna
Elizabeth Marie Pope
The Perilous Gard
Terry Pratchett
The Color Of Magic
Mort
Reaper Man
Small Gods
Philip Pullman
The Golden Compass
Melanie Rawn
The Dragon Prince
Patrick Rothfuss
The Name Of The Wind
J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter And The Halfblood Prince
Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone
Matt Ruff
Fool On The Hill
R.A Salvatore
Halfling’s Gem
Homeland
Brandon Sanderson
Final Empire
Mistborn
Sharon Shinn
Mystic And Rider
Maria V. Snyder
Poison Study
Bram Stoker
Dracula
J.R.R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings
Mark Twain
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
Catherynne M. Valente
The Orphan’s Tales
Jeff VanderMeer
City of Saints and Madmen
Shriek: An Afterword
Carrie Vaughn
Kitty & the Midnight Hour
Evangeline Walton
The Mabinogion Tetrology
Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman
The Death Gate Cycle
Dragons Of Autumn Twilight
T.H. White
The Once And Future King
Tad Williams
The Otherland series
Gene Wolfe
The Book of the New Sun
Patricia Wrede
Dealing With Dragons
Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
Sorcery And Cecelia
Good Omens
The Golden Compass
The Belgariad
Not my favorites (except Good Omens), but there’s no doubt that they’ve led a lot of people through the gates.
1 Lord of the Rings
2 The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe
3 Kushiel’s Dart
A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle
The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis
-these two were my personal gateway books, and I would imagine that kids today would also veer toward fantasy after reading::
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – JK Rowling
Rosemary Jones – City of the Dead
JRR Tolkien – Lord of the Rings
The Golden Compass, A Dirty Job, and Peter Pan.
Orson Scott Card – Ender’s Game
Rosemary Jones – City of the Dead
Mercedes Lackey – Magic’s Pawn
Rosemary Jones-City of the Dead
Pratchett & Gaiman – Good Omens
Richard Adams – Watership Down
Diana Wynne Jones – Howl’s Moving Castle
Terry Brooks – Elfstones of Shanarra
Orson Scott Card – Enchantment
Elaine Cunningham – Elfshadow
Rosemary Jones – City of the Dead
Jack Vance – Tales of the Dying Earth
Steven Erikson – Memories of Ice
Gene Wolfe: Book of the New Sun
Ray Bradbury: Something Wicked This Way Comes
Rosemary Jones: City of the Dead
There are a LOT of quality books on this list, but just in terms of hooking someone into fantasy, my top three choices are these:
Rosemary Jones: City of the Dead
George R.R. Martin: A Game of Thrones
Jacqueline Carey: Kushiel’s Dart
These are the three I would pick out of that list to recommend to someone who had never read anything in the genre.
Runner-up: Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind, which I think is just a little too epic for a first-time reader and relies a fair amount on a keen understanding of the genre and its conventions. Excellent, excellent book, btw.
Cheers
The list have very good books, but I stay with:
Rosemary Jones: City of the Dead
J.R.R. Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings
Weis and Hickman: Dragons of Autumn Twilight
hrm.. hard to pick 3..
Neil Gaiman: American Gods
R.A. Salvatore: Homeland
Rosemary Jones: City of the Dead
Shadow Castle by Marion Cockrell
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Lloyd Alexander
The Prydain Chronicles
Jim Butcher
The Dresden Files
George R.R. Martin
A Game Of Thrones
Depends on the age. But my three are:
For younger,
Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
ragons of Autumn Twilight (It’s what got me anyway in middle school, and convinced me fantasy does have more to offer other than Tolkien. For most people in this information age I don’t think Tolkien would do it.)
For pretty much any age, though they’d have to be a little more mature to understand the jokes:
Terry Pratchett: any. I haven’t really read the ones on the list so it’s hard to choose. Whichever one has Vimes in it.
and for those in late teens and beyond: Neil Gaiman: American Gods
Hah, : Dragons of Autumn Twilight. Though the book did make me go
That is not what I meant to write.
Jack Vance _Lyonesse_, but it isn’t on your list.
John Crowley John Crowley John Crowley! _Little Big_, but,
I’d recommend _Engine Summer_ as that was the first Crowley I read (though already a fantasy fan at the time), oh that beautiful cover!, how could I not take it from the bookstore shelf?
and
even though I haven’t finished reading it yet,
definately,
Patrick Rothfuss _Name of the Wind_
a third one from your list?
hmmm? Robert Jordan’s WoT? Ha! Were I to recommended _Eye of the World_ to my friends I’m sure I’d make a few converts, but by about book 6, those friends may become my enemies! hahahaha
ok, pardon my sexism,
to lure women to the genre: Marion Zimmer Bradley _The Mists of Avalon_
and for men: Jim Butcher _Storm Front_