Top Ten Favorite Fantasy Stories

Today's Top Ten Tuesday was listed as Freebie so I decided to go with my favorite fantasy stories. This was much harder than it sounds because GoodReads says I've read 147 of them and I know that's a low count because I was reading way before I used GoodReads to keep track of my books.

Here's my Top Ten:

1. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. I must have read these books a thousand times (this was before we found out JKR was a loud and proud bigot) and even though the author has lost her popularity with her flapping mouth, I stand by the series. Harry Potter is one of the best 'chosen one' characters that was ever written.

2. The Daevabad trilogy by S.A Chakraborty. This is a fairly new addition to my favorites list, but I loved the story from book one. The setting and characters are vibrant, the plot thick with magic and intrigue. There's a touch of romance but not so much that I would consider it romantasy. 

3. Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. This debut novel is probably one of the most emotional books I've ever read. It was beautiful, romantic, and tragic. Move over Romeo and Juliet, it's all about Achilles and Patroclus now.

4. The Shape of Water by Guillermo del Toro. There's an argument to be made that this is sci-fi instead of fantasy, I don't really know which one Guillermo del Toro was aiming for. I'm like 90% sure the movie came out before the book, but I could be 100% wrong. (I loved the movie too) I loved that we were given two main characters that couldn't speak but fell in love with each other anyway. And who doesn't love The Creature from the Black Lagoon?

5. Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien. So everyone has heard of this one, even if they haven't read it. I saw the movies before I read the book, and I loved both. J.R.R. Tolkien set the standard for High Fantasy, inventing a world that was brilliantly in depth and sent his characters on an epic quest through it.

6. Shades of Magic trilogy by V.E. Schwab. This is a tale of 4 Londons, magicians and pirates, and an evil curse. This was my first VE Schwab story and she quickly became my one of my favorite fantasy writers.

7. The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly. For lovers of Grimm fairytales, John Connolly proved he was more than just a mystery writer (not that there's anything wrong with that) when he wrote this superb novel about a grieving little boy who's lost his way.

8. Wicked by Gregory Maguire. This one appears on a lot of my lists, I know, and here it is again. But I found the story of the Wicked Witch captivating despite knowing where her life story ends.

9. The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K Jemisin. This series was so good I binge read it. I would classify it as High Fantasy, taking place in a world where seismic activity terrifies civilization. It's about a woman seeking revenge for the death of her child as the world begins to end.

10. Novels of Redwall by Brian Jacques. I know it's a wierd one to add, considering the target audience was children. And while I read these childhood-teenagehood, I can still pick them up and enjoy them.

Here's where I had some trouble, keeping my list to just ten... I decided to add two Honorable Mentions:

11. The Inheritance trilogy by Christopher Paolini. Okay, so a lot of the critics say this book is derivative and honestly, I can't decide if it is. But I was dabbling in writing at the time I read it, and when I found out CP dreamt this up as a teenager, it was inspiration to pursue a career in writing...Well, that didn't pan out, but my love of the book stuck.

12. Forging Silver into Stars trilogy by Brigid Kemmerer. I don't know if this really should count because it hasn't ended yet...The ending might be trash. It's a sequel series to The Cursebreakers trilogy and takes place in the same world and although I'm only two books in I think it's more entertaining. A Curse so Dark and Lonely was arguably the best book of the first trilogy; I think both the first and second book of this one hold merit. Like The Cursebreakers, it's a young adult romantasy, featuring a couple fighting to be together as life tries to keep them apart.

And those are my picks for this week.

Do you ever read fantasy? What was your favorite in the genre?