# What is the best fantasy book series of all time?

> Fantasy literature has produced some of the most immersive worlds ever imagined — but which series towers above the rest? From Tolkien's foundational Middle-earth to Brandon Sanderson's cosmere, vote for the fantasy book series that captured your imagination most completely.

*By YPB Team · Published May 30, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-fantasy-book-series-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **The Dresden Files** — score 1000/1000
   Jim Butcher's bestselling urban fantasy series following Harry Dresden, Chicago's only professional wizard-for-hire, across 17+ novels.
2. **The Malazan Book of the Fallen** — score 880/1000
   Steven Erikson's dense 10-book epic regarded as the most ambitious and complex fantasy series ever written, with thousands of characters.
3. **A Song of Ice and Fire** — score 789/1000
   George R.R. Martin's gritty ongoing epic about power, betrayal, and survival across the Seven Kingdoms, inspiration for Game of Thrones.
4. **The Wheel of Time** — score 710/1000
   Robert Jordan's (completed by Brandon Sanderson) monumental 14-book epic spanning a war between the forces of Light and the Dark One.
5. **The First Law** — score 609/1000
   Joe Abercrombie's darkly subversive grimdark trilogy (and sequels) that deconstructs classic fantasy archetypes with brutal realism.
6. **Mistborn** — score 609/1000
   Brandon Sanderson's six-book series beginning with a heist story set in an ash-covered world where ash falls from the sky and mist rules the night.
7. **The Dark Tower** — score 609/1000
   Stephen King's eight-book magnum opus following gunslinger Roland Deschain across a post-apocalyptic fantasy universe to reach the Dark Tower.
8. **The Kingkiller Chronicle** — score 473/1000
   Patrick Rothfuss's ongoing trilogy following the legendary wizard and musician Kvothe as he narrates the story of his own mythologized life.
9. **The Stormlight Archive** — score 284/1000
   Brandon Sanderson's ongoing epic-fantasy series set on the storm-ravaged world of Roshar, known for its intricate magic system and world-building.
10. **The Chronicles of Narnia** — score 284/1000
   C.S. Lewis's classic 1950–1956 seven-book children's fantasy series set in the magical land of Narnia, entered through a wardrobe.
11. **His Dark Materials** — score 284/1000
   Philip Pullman's 1995–2000 trilogy following young Lyra Belacqua across parallel universes in a world where human souls take animal form.
12. **The Witcher** — score 284/1000
   Andrzej Sapkowski's Polish fantasy saga about monster hunter Geralt of Rivia, which inspired one of gaming's most acclaimed RPG franchises.
13. **The Lord of the Rings** — score 1/1000
   J.R.R. Tolkien's foundational 1954–1955 epic trilogy that created the template for modern high fantasy and spawned an entire genre.
14. **Harry Potter** — score 1/1000
   J.K. Rowling's seven-book 1997–2007 series about a young wizard's years at Hogwarts School that became the best-selling book series in history.
15. **Discworld** — score 1/1000
   Terry Pratchett's beloved 41-book satirical fantasy series set on a flat world carried by four elephants on the back of a giant turtle.
16. **Eragon** — score 1/1000
   Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle, begun when he was 15, following a farm boy who discovers a dragon egg and becomes a legendary Dragon Rider.

Tags: fantasy, books, classic, legends, all-time