Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a good week since I last did one of these, mine has been relatively quiet, my parents were away so I spent the week looking after the animals. I did get to go to a book signing on Saturday though, it was Derek Landy’s Cambridge stop for the new Skulduggery Pleasant book. It wasn’t as much fun going to a signing on my own, but it was great meeting Derek again and I got a suitably awkward photo, as is mine and Hannah’s tradition when meeting Derek.
Anyway, since it’s Tuesday, I have another Top Ten Tuesday for you all, courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is a pretty easy one, we’re talking Books From Our Favourite Genre, so naturally I’ll be talking about my Top Ten Favourite Fantasy Books. Since most of my favourites come from a series, I’m just going to be talking about my favourite book in each series, but if a series is on here, take it as me recommending the entire series and not just that specific book, as they will not all be the first book in their respective series (in fact, most won’t be)! Also I am not going to be able to keep this limited to ten, there are too many brilliant fantasy books that I love for that!
- A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic #1)-VE Schwab
I love all of the books in this trilogy, but this first one will always be the most special to me, because it introduced me to the wonderful world that Schwab created and some of my favourite characters of all time, Lila, Rhy and Kell and of course it was the first VE Schwab book that I ever read. And it’s also just a brilliant book, so well written and has that wonderful immersive quality that I love in fantasy novels, you fall into it and just don’t want to come back out.
2. Six of Crows (Six of Crows #1)-Leigh Bardugo
This was the Leigh Bardugo novel that set the bar for all the others for me, it was the first one I read and it was just so brilliant. Such a well crafted heist, a brilliant cast of characters with such a fun, and incredibly banter filled friendship and a world that I really loved. I found a new favourite author from this book, so naturally it had to go on my list of all time favourite fantasy novels.
3. The Raven King-(The Raven Cycle #4)-Maggie Stiefvater
Again, I love this whole series, but the final book just had a little something extra for me. It’s the final book, so you get the answers you’ve been waiting for the entire series. The characters are what really make this book (and series) for me though, they have such a wonderful friendship and they grow so much over the course of the series, so it was great to see that all come to the fore in the final book.
4. The Song Rising-(The Bone Season #3)-Samantha Shannon
I liked the first two books of the series, but this instalment was definitely the most exciting for me. It’s shorter, so everything feels a lot more tightly plotted, Paige’s character development is brilliant, the world is expanded so much and it feels like a real turning point in the series: so far the action has all happened in the UK, but as of the next book, we’re finally going to get to see Scion citadels in Europe which I’m super excited for!
5. Heir of Fire-(Throne of Glass #3)-Sarah J Maas
My ratings have been kind of up and down for this series, but this one was definitely an up for me. I loved Celaena’s journey toward healing in this book and really coming into herself and we get the introduction of the witches, which I know a lot of people felt iffy about but I personally loved, Manon is the best! Much like the above book, Heir of Fire also felt like a real turning point in the Throne of Glass series.
6. The House of Hades-(Heroes of Olympus #4)-Rick Riordan
The House of Hades is not just my favourite Heroes of Olympus book, it is quite possibly my favourite Rick Riordan book as well. We get so much brilliant Percabeth content in this, with them in Tartarus, which was quite frankly what we deserved after the brutal ending of Mark of Athena, Hazel comes into her powers more, we have Leo and Calypso for the first time & of course there’s Nico coming to terms with his identity. There’s just so much great stuff packed into this book, it feels far shorter than it’s 500+ page count!
7. The Last Olympian-(Percy Jackson and the Olympians #5)-Rick Riordan
It’s honestly tough to choose a favourite Percy Jackson book, I read them all in a matter of weeks in 2010 and loved them all so much but I think if I had to choose I’d go with this one. It’s such a satisfying final book in the series, you get the culmination of the prophecy that’s been building for the past four books, the final battle with the Titans and of course, the official start of the Percabeth relationship which is built up throughout the books.
8. Chainbreaker-(Timekeeper #2)-Tara Sim
I love the entire Timekeeper trilogy, but I think the second book is my favourite. We get to go to Victorian India, which is super cool, Daphne and Colton have brilliant and emotional development arcs in this book, the world is developed so much from the first book, there were lots of brilliant twists and turns and an incredible, gut punching ending.
9. Last Stand of Dead Men (Skulduggery Pleasant #8)-Derek Landy
I had to have at least one Skulduggery Pleasant book on this list, and I decided on this one as it is definitely up there as one of my favourite books of the series. It’s so fast paced and action packed, we get to see all of the Dead Men (Skulduggery and his group of friends together) and it’s the start of the climax of the Darquesse storyline which has been building since the fifth book.
10. The Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter #4)-JK Rowling
Of course I had to have at least one Harry Potter book on this list and this one is my favourite. You have the Triwizard tournament, Voldemort’s return, everything gets a bit darker and more dangerous, again it feels like a turning point book, which apparently I really love!
11. Legendary-(Caraval #2)-Stephanie Garber
Caraval has become one of my favourite series in recent years and having now read all three books, I can definitely say that this one is my favourite, I loved Tella as the narrator, the pace was a lot more even than in the first book, there was a lot more worldbuilding with the Fates and everything being introduced and there were a lot of brilliant twists and turns as well.
12. Children of Blood and Bone-(Legacy of Orisha #1)-Tomi Adeyemi
Another of my favourite fantasy reads from last year, this book took a lot of recognisable tropes and made them feel fresh because of the diverse cast of characters (yay for an entirely POC world!) and fantastic world building. I can’t wait to see what is to come in the sequel when it finally comes out at the end of the year.
13. Rebel of The Sands (Rebel of The Sands #1)-Alwyn Hamilton
I loved the mix of Arab and the Wild West in this book, they worked together really well. It was also such a fast paced, exciting novel, I couldn’t get enough of it and I though Amani was a brilliant heroine.
14. To Kill A Kingdom-Alexandra Christo
The Little Mermaid has never been one of my favourite fairytales (or rather Disney movies!) but Alexandra Christo’s dark twist on it made it feel fresh and new, I loved the heroine Lira who was so vicious but also grapples with her humanity because she’s not supposed to feel anything for the people she kills and I thought the slow burn enemies to lovers romance was brilliant.
15. King of Fools-(The Shadow Game #2)-Amanda Foody
I thought the first Shadow Game book was good, but this one just took things to a whole new level. There’s so much happening, twists and turns round every corner, brilliant character development especially for Enne, so many awesome women, great new characters and an ending that punched me in the gut.
16. Enchantee-(Enchantee #1)-Gita Trelease
This was one of my first reads of the year and it was so good! I loved the whole concept of magic in the French Revolution anyway, but this book merged them so well. I loved the main character Camille, the fact that her bond with her sister was so central to this book and Trelease’s wonderfully visual writing that made me feel like I’d been dropped in the middle of the court of Versailles.
So that’s it for my supersized list this week! I know I went a bit overboard, but it was impossible to narrow down my favourite fantasy novels more than this (in fact I could have added several more!). Have you read any of these books? Did you like them? Let me know in the comments!
That’s all for this week, I’ll be back next week with a new Top Ten Tuesday, we’re going to be talking about our Unpopular Bookish Opinions. I’ll be honest I’m not sure how many of these I have, but we’ll see if I can come up with enough to make next week’s list! In the meantime, I’m going to have a Writing Corner post up this week and hopefully I might start my new Book/Movie comparison feature and that’s something I’ve been wanting to do for ages.
Oh I agree with so many of these! This reminds me that I need to continue in the bone season series!
(www.evelynreads.com)
Thanks! Ah you’ve got plenty of time to catch up, the next book isn’t coming out till next year π
Children of Blood and Bone does sound good! I really ought to read it sometime. π
My TTT.
It is! I hope you enjoy it if you do π
Great list! Six of Crows made my list this week, too, and I want to read To Kill a Kingdom.
Thanks! Six of Crows is such a brilliant book. Ooh I hope you love To Kill A Kingdom, such a brilliant retelling π
I loved the Shadow and Bone trilogy so I’m super excited to read Six of Crows! I only recently started reading the Throne of Glass series, and Heir of Fire is the one I’m up to next, so I’m looking forward to that, as I’ve heard it’s one of the best in the series.
M.T. – https://mtwilsonhasablog.wordpress.com/
I hope you enjoy it just as much! I would definitely agree with that, it’s the last one before the books started get a little too unwieldy in length (I love them but man each one after Heir could probably have had at least 100 pages trimmed with no issues!).
2 and 3 are favorites of mine as well! Great list!
Thanks! They’re both such good books π
SoC yes!!! I need to finish Shades of magic only read book 1 π
Such a good book! Ah I hope you enjoy the other two books π
Me too! Thank you!
π
I think Iβm going to have to read Six of Crows after that description!!
Yay, I’m so glad to hear that!
I’m really looking forward to Alexandra Christo’s next novel, since I was really impressed with her debut. How excited are you for the next books in the Shades of Magic series?
I am too, and it sounds so good as well, a book all about thieves? Yes please! Oh I am ridiculously excited, I can’t even, I’m just waiting ever so impatiently for any hint of a release date!
Ugh! Here I am STILL in need of reading “Six of Crows”!! Why I haven’t is a mystery to me. I’ve also heard really good things about ‘Sands,’ and Stephanie’s ‘Caraval’ series intrigues me as well. I own book one so I should give it a chance. π
I hope you enjoy all of them if/when you do read them!
The Goblet of Fire is definitely the best Harry Potter… Anyone who says otherwise is wrong!
I agree!
EnchantΓ©e was my favorite book I read last year. I’ve read six of the books above… but I literally say every week, I need to read one of V.E. Schwab’s books. Maybe this summer? I bought a few of them already. Just too many books I want to read!
Ah that’s great to hear, it’s been one of my favourite books so far this year too. I’ve been there, there are loads of authors I say on people’s TTT posts that I’ll eventually get to and I still haven’t. I hope that when you do, you enjoy them!
I enjoyed looking through your list even though fantasy is not my usual genre. Itβs a satisfying feeling to find your reading happy spot….but making a list of favs is really difficult!
https://readingladies.com/2019/06/03/top-ten-tuesday-favorite-books-in-my-favorite-genre-historical-fiction/
Oh yeah it’s so hard, this list could have been twice as long!
Right?!
Great choice for the topic! I agree with Legendary – it was just so spectacular! I could read it again and again!
Thanks! Yes, it was a really great book π
I am impressed that I have read 5 of these, since I am not a huge fantasy reader, but my daughter has a way of talking me into things, and she was totally right about these books. I agree that Garber upped her game in Legendary. I felt like the stakes were a lot higher, and the new world elements she introduced were really interested and added a lot to what we already knew and loved.
I’m glad you enjoyed them, it’s nice to discover books outside your normal genres sometimes. Yes, it was brilliant, such a great sequel!
Nice list. I enjoyed Harry Potter (sometimes hard to pick favorites within a series, but that one is great), and Rebel of the Sands.
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed them too π
Great list. I see lots of my favorites up there too.
Thanks! That’s great to hear π
Most of the books you listed are by authors I still have to read, and I’m a fantasy fan, too! XD
There are so many out there, it’s easy to find more you haven’t heard of!
So many great books on this list! I’m super excited at the prospect of picking up A Darker Shade of Magic now because I recently finished reading Vicious and am so ready to read more of her books! I also read EnchantΓ©e this year and right now I’m reading The Gilded Wolves which I’m finding is giving me similar vibes! Such a great atmosphere in both of those books.
Thanks! Ah I’m sure you’ll love it, it’s so good! Oh I haven’t read The Gilded Wolves yet, I’ve heard mixed things though, so I’m glad to hear from someone who enjoyed it.
Great list! And so long! So many great pics on this list, I’ve read all but three I think. I really want to read Enchantee, I’ve heard only good things. Love how Percy Jackson made your list twice. I can’t tell if I’ve already read this post or House of Hades has been on another one of your lists recently, but I forgot it was the book where basically everything happens. I can’t believe it was 500+ pages, I read it so quickly! Last Stand if Dead Men was my favourite Skulduggery too and I very much appreciated you carrying on our photography tradition π great super long list!
Thanks! Ha ha I just couldn’t narrow it down. It is so good, I’d lend it to you, but Nicola has my physical copy. Yeah well that was probably always going to happen and it’s different series, so technically not cheating! Yeah I had it on my list last week as well. I pretty much always look awkward in photos with authors, so it wasn’t hard!
I get next dibs π oh yes and both series were sooooo good. Ah that’s why. Oh me too, it’s part of our charm π
Oh definitely! They were. Ha ha yes it is π
Some excellent books on here! I really liked looking at your list.
Thank you π
Almost all of your favorite books are still on my TBR! lol I need to take some time off work to power read all these amazing books!
I hope you enjoy them when you do-I definitely know that feeling!
I’ve read 2/3 of these and the rest are on my tbr. Great list!
Thanks! I hope you enjoy the rest of them π
Wonderful list! I really want to try something by Samantha Shannon at some point!
Thank you! Ah you should, she’s such a good writer.
I also loved To Kill a Kingdom, Heir of Fire/TOG series, and of course, Six of Crows!
And that’s so interesting to hear that King of Fools is your favorite in the series! I hadn’t read it yet, but that makes me excited to pick it up! I think I might go request it at the library now…
Yay, that’s great to hear! Ah it’s so good, I hope you enjoy it. I can’t wait for the third book to come out next year!
My favorite HP book is the third, and then the sixth. I LOVE Darker Shade of Magic. I don’t know what Raven Cycle book is my favorite…I really love them all. LOL
-Lauren
http://www.shootingstarsmag.net
I do love the third book too, that’s my second favourite. The sixth I wasn’t so keen on, too much angsty romantic drama in that one. Ha ha I do love them all, The Raven King just edges it slightly for me.
I always struggle with my favourite Harry Potter book, but if I had to choose Iβd say GoF as well, I love the excitement of the tournament and the fact that it starts to get a bit darker at the end! I really must read A Darker Shade of Magic, Iβve had it on my shelf for ages, I hope to get to it this year! Great list π
I think the Triwizard tournament is what really makes it for me, it’s quite nice to get to see other magic schools and get a sense that there’s a wizarding community outside Hogwarts. I hope you enjoy it. Thank you!
I’m very tempted to give EnchantΓ©e a try at some point!
I hope you enjoy it!
So with you on Heir of Fire, loved that book! And love Goblet of Fire too. Great list!
Thanks!