# The 18 Best Fantasy Novels of the 1980s

> Genre-defining epics, comic classics, and cult gems from a golden decade of imagination, some that shaped whole shelves and others that quietly earned devoted followings. Which one wins?

*By YPB Team · Published July 10, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-18-best-fantasy-novels-of-the-1980s*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **The Mists of Avalon** — score 1000/1000
   Marion Zimmer Bradley's 1983 retelling of the Arthurian legend from the women's perspective.
2. **The Black Company** — score 784/1000
   Glen Cook's 1984 gritty military fantasy narrated by a mercenary company's annalist.
3. **Weaveworld** — score 719/1000
   Clive Barker's 1987 dark fantasy about a world woven into a magical carpet.
4. **Guards! Guards!** — score 719/1000
   Terry Pratchett's 1989 Discworld comedy introducing the Ankh-Morpork City Watch.
5. **Dragons of Autumn Twilight** — score 582/1000
   Weis and Hickman's 1984 novel that kicked off the Dragonlance Chronicles.
6. **Redwall** — score 582/1000
   Brian Jacques' 1986 adventure set in an abbey of anthropomorphic animals under siege.
7. **The Wounded Land** — score 513/1000
   Stephen R. Donaldson's 1980 opener to the Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.
8. **The Dragonbone Chair** — score 513/1000
   Tad Williams' 1988 doorstopper that opens the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy.
9. **Mythago Wood** — score 434/1000
   Robert Holdstock's 1984 World Fantasy Award winner set in a wood where myths take living form.
10. **The Hero and the Crown** — score 434/1000
   Robin McKinley's 1984 Newbery Medal winner about the dragon-slaying heroine Aerin.
11. **Pawn of Prophecy** — score 342/1000
   David Eddings' 1982 opener to The Belgariad, following farm boy Garion toward his destiny.
12. **The Colour of Magic** — score 342/1000
   Terry Pratchett's 1983 first Discworld novel, a comic fantasy on a disc borne by a giant turtle.
13. **On a Pale Horse** — score 342/1000
   Piers Anthony's 1983 fantasy in which a man takes over the office of Death itself.
14. **The Anubis Gates** — score 342/1000
   Tim Powers' 1983 time-travel fantasy through a sorcery-riddled 19th-century London.
15. **Magician** — score 233/1000
   Raymond E. Feist's 1982 epic that launched the sprawling Riftwar Saga.
16. **Howl's Moving Castle** — score 233/1000
   Diana Wynne Jones' 1986 tale of a hatter cursed into old age and a wandering wizard's castle.
17. **Legend** — score 233/1000
   David Gemmell's 1984 heroic-fantasy debut about the aging warrior Druss defending a fortress.
18. **The Eyes of the Dragon** — score 233/1000
   Stephen King's 1987 fairy-tale fantasy of a framed prince and an evil magician.

Tags: fantasy, books, 80s