Focus on Fantasy

So true Bob!

I would like to add R. Scott Bakker to the list!

This is certainly a list of people to beat! I can only hope that someday I might be among the ranks of these greats! You listed my 4 idols… George R.R. Martin, J.R.R. Tolkien, Steven Erickson, Robert E. Howard!

I’m a little disappointed not to see Anne McCaffrey in the list. Tolkien is easily at the top, but some of the others are a matter of taste rather than the impact they had on the genre.

Thank you for this list. So far, of all the lists I’ve seen, yours is the most versatile and covers the broadest spectrum. Far too many Top Fantasy Lists these days focus solely on the anti-hero type novel (too much like watching the evening news for my taste). Great balance here.

I have to say this is in fact a very good list. It is analyzing the actual ability of these authors in terms of actual writing ability, narrative structure and character exposition. The only author I would object to being on this list is perhaps Robert Jordan, certainly he was prolific but there is no true merit in his writing, and eventually the series degenerated as he began to try to include too much and lost focus. (I am sure many will disagree with that assertion though).
It’s a welcome relied to find a list that analyses the literary merit of authors rather than just pandering to popular taste.

Steven Erikson is right up there at 3rd place but others may still have to included in the near future.

ok so their are some great well known authors their, but i also believe kresley cole (while being a rather explicit writer and not suggested for children) is also a great fantasy writer. Shes got some great ideas in her books and blends all kinds of myths and tales into her books.
You have also left out Alison Croggan. The pellinor series is gradually becoming more polpular but is also a great read! She has so much information on the charachters and about pellinor and the entire world she has created, all of it jam packed into the back of the book. Kind of like a history on it all.

you have some of my very favorite authors on this list as well as some that i haven’t read before. there are authors that i would add however, and if you haven’t had the chance to read their work i highly suggest it. the dragonlance series has a bunch of great books from numerous authors. elizabeth hayden wrote a great series called the symphony of the ages. margeret weiss and tracy hickman wrote for the dragonlance series, but also wrote another series call the deathgate cycle. you can’t forget david eddings or michael moorcock either, both very talented.

LOL! These authors couls clean up a toilet of such writers like Sapkowski and Kres. Funny…

I agree with Althazar. Where is R.A. Salvator?? The 20+ books of the Legend of Drizzt/Sellswords is some of the best fantasy adventure I’ve ever read (this includes Tolkien and Martin). While he doesn’t have quite the political intrigue in his books that Martin does, it is still there and very good. Where he excels is in both character creation and development, where I believe he is unparalleled. Some of the best heroes and villains ever created. You simply don’t get better than Drizzt, Jarlaxle, Artemis Entreri, etc.

I think a lot of people only read the Icewind Dale Trilogy (his first works, but still very good) and the Dark Elf Trilogy (throw together as a quick back story, the worst of the lot by far) and don’t get to the rest. But Bob’s writing just keeps getting better and better. In my opinion he deserves to be on this list. Hell, The Hunters Blade Trilogy alone should get him into the top 10. The rest of his works should move him even higher.

Where is R.A. Salvatore on all these lists, hes a fantastic author, and everyone seems to neglect him on theirs lists.

Glad to see Martin is number 1, it would be a good list except for the fact that it makes no sense to have JK Rowling not in the top 5

Thanks for your feedback Zak! Eddings and Brooks would indeed deserve a spot on the list, I will add them in the near future. I will look into your other recommendations.

oh David Eddings has a bunch of great books. Multiple great series. I can never decide which is my favorite.

Thanks for the feedback, I’ll think about it.
Vance wrote a lot of science-fiction but his fantasy serie Lionesse and The Dying Earth were indeed quite influenctial.

I have had a belly full of people going on about Tolkien,time to move on we are in a new centuary.For God sake no one got laid in the Ring books!

I understand creating a list is always hard, esp. when limited to a slot of only 10. But I do have to ask, why does Robert Jordan rate higher then Gene Wolfe, Jack Vance (granted these two could also be considered SF), Lucious Shepard, Robert E. Howard, Michael Swanwick or even new-comers like Scott Lynch? I understand the man was a very prolific writer but ‘influential’?

I thoroughly enjoyed the Dark Tower series,except for the last two, mostly because it was very repetitive, but to honor him as one of the 10 ALL TIME BEST FANTASY WRITERS seems a tad far fetched.

Now, if this is just a list of authors you like for whatever reason then so be it, but us readers, must object and voice our opinions as to legends that have shaped and molded this genre.

I would not agree with having this list include, J.K. Rowling nor T.H. White. Even though the Harry Potter series has opened the door to numerous teens and young adults, I don’t see this series as ‘genre altering’. T.H. White’s Once and future King and his Merlyn books were great reads, very well developed stories, but I wouldn’t put them on a top ten list.

I thoroughly agree with G.R.R. Martin and J.R.R. Tolkien being on this list. In fact I would put them on ANY top list. Martin has had his hands in numerous novels, series, and collaborations, that to think he would just ‘go away’ is flabbergasting. In my opinion Martin is a juggernaut of fantasy and litaery power, and that comes from a man that didn’t even like ‘A Feast of Crows’.

I share your enthusiasm for George RR Martin, but this list of “Top Fantasy Writers” is a travesty. You should qualify this list at the top by saying “My Favorite Fantasy Authors” or some-such because this is NOT a list of fantasy’s best (nor most influential) authors by any stretch of the imagination. Favorites are certainly a matter of individual taste, but one should have the ability to see influence and staying power on a list such as this.

#2 – STEVEN ERICKSON! Mr. Erickson is a fine writer, but NUMBER TWO on an all-time list? That is rather like saying that Johan Santana (a fine pitcher, no doubt about it) is one of the top two in the history of baseball. Please.

JRR Tolkien belongs at the top no matter what way you put this list together. He is a FAR, FAR more talented writer of prose than you give him credit for. His style is DIFFERENT from the prose of more modern writers, but in many ways much, much better. He was meticulous, and could make his words work in whatever way he liked. Very, very few writers have been able to escape Tolkien’s shadow.

And where are the other true fantasy masters of this century? Great and influential writers are not always found on the NY Times bestseller’s list. I’m sorry, but neither Raymond Feist nor Terry Goodkind belong on this list. Goodkind, in fact, belongs far far away. Erickson, no, certainly not yet. And let’s wait until we see how George RR Martin completes his one major series before we proclaim him god, eh? I sincerely doubt that Tolkien would be so influential had he written only The Fellowship of the Ring.

Where is Ursula LeGuin? Robert Holdstock? Patricia McKillip? Mervin Peake? I think even Mr. Martin himself would tell you that many of these individuals should be on this list. These are not only fantastic writers, but writers who have influenced scores of other writers, both fantasy and otherwise.

When it comes down to it, where is JK Rowling & Philip Pullman? Madeleine L’Engle & TH White? I realize you can’t fit EVERYONE, but a little bit of perspective is necessary with a list like this.