Nice! I just finished the farseer trilogy. I’m loving it so much

I agree with the too much of a hurry. Everyone needs snap chats, KZfaq shorts and tiktok videos now, and they need to constantly scroll through them and half the time csnt even finish a 30 second clip. Attention spans are not what they used to be. Slow does not equal bad. I just made it to ship of magic and have been enjoying the books very much.

You have a great list. I’ll predict Remembrance of Earth’s Past as a sci fi to get in your top 10. Here’s my top 10 at the moment. 1. Rama 2. Robot 3. Otherland 4. Dark Tower 5. Mistborn Era 1 6. Green Bone Saga 7. Realm of the Elderlings (still climbing as I read them) 8. Books of Babel 9. Lord of the Rings 10. Remembrance of Earth’s Past

You're spot on when it comes to Hobb. She is simply brilliant! A well deserved #1. The only glaring omission is Guy Gavriel Kay and I know you plan on reading him soon so I'll hush.

Realm of the Elderlings is my fav as well. Her prose and character work are second to none in my opinion. As you said, a fast moving plot doesn't make something good. I love Dark Tower and the Warlord Chronicles as well! Very unique list!

And I LOVE the Bosch series as well!

Slow moving plots are a drag for me, specially in fantasy. The only author, in my humble opinion that can write 700 pages for a story that can be told in 300 and pull it off is Robin Hobb, her writing style and command of the language are second to none.

What I love about a Harry Bosch novel is it's realism and grittiness. They are the best crime books in my opinion.

Never been much of a crime fiction reader, but you're really talking me into giving Connelly a try. I suspect the audiobooks would be good for my long runs.

Yesssss Preach abt fast vs slow plots!!!🙌🙌 I've read quite a few of those (Sanderson, Abercrombie, King, LOTR and RotE [3.5 books left]). I would add Long Price Quartet to my favs list too.

I love your choices! Thanks!😊🎉🎉🎉

Excellent video! Thank you for expressing in your usual elegant way what I feel about Robin Hobb and Fitz (and about the criticism). This is also my number #1 character and series, and will probably stay that way forever 🙂

Fantastic video Josh! Although your ASOIAF ranking wounds me deeply (yes, I understand your reasoning, but I’m not rational when it comes to these books!) your RotE ranking totally redeemed you!!!!

I love this quote "the world is in too much of a damn hurry" thank you for this list!

Two of my favourite series made your list, but several that I dislike also did. 😊 I agree with your comments on The Dark Tower and adore the ending as well. Thoroughly enjoyed your list and how well you articulated why they made the list.

James lee burke - Dave robichaux series Jim Butcher - Harry Dresden series

Great list!!! You’ve really make me keen to get to Dark Tower…

Great list Josh! I recently read the first 2 books in The Dark Tower and just purchased books 3 and 4! I read more standalones than series but 3 of my favourites are the Hyperion Cantos, Sun Eater, and Remembrance of Earth’s Past!

Since you’re such a big fan of GRRM and Robin Hobb, you might enjoy Tad Williams. His books can be a bit of a slow burn, but his writing is beautiful and has been a major inspiration for Hobb, Martin, and a number of other authors.

Great list! Shannara would be in my top 10. Thank you recognizing that only the first book is a LoTR clone. Both Jordan and Brooks basically copied LoTR in the first book of their main series, and then did their own thing after that. People understand that with WoT, but Shannara can’t shake the reputation of just being a carbon copy of LoTR, even though that is only true for the first book in the series.

Thanks for this. Now I have some additional series to look into, especially Robin Hobbs. I am currently going through the Mage Errant series by John Bierce which is very magic and Potter-esque where four students get themselves into levels of danger their age and training should not allow. Overall, I think it is a great series and am looking forward to finishing off the last 2 (of 7). Highly recommend

I cheered when you told us your #1 choice! I'm always recommending Fredrik Backman's Beartown series to people. Not fantasy. 3 books. Searingly good emotional characters and story.

Great vid. Most of these are on my to-read list, but with my reading tempo, it'll take me years to finish them.

I don't mind slow moving plots, and I enjoy most of the Realm of the Elderlings and am currently reading through The Fitz and the Fool. However, the Rain Wild Chronicles is just straight horrible.

I'm gonna have to split mine up cuz it'll be way harder Sci-Fi 1. The Culture / Iain M Banks - My favourite series overall. 2. Hyperion Cantos / Dan Simmons 3. Book of The New Sun / Gene Wolfe 4. Dune Saga / Frank Herbert 5. Red Rising / Pierce Brown Historical-Fiction Warlord Chronicles / Bernard Cornwell Fantasy 1. A Song of Ice & Fire 2. Malazan Book of the Fallen 3. Second Apocalypse 4. First Law 5. The Dresden Files For the rest order doesn't matter 😅 Long Price Quartet Farseer Sarantine Mosaic Gentleman B@st@rd The Witcher Saga I could see my Top 10 Fantasy series changing A LOT yet again soon 😂

Wonderful list! I loved hearing your thoughts on all of these and look forward to continuing Realm of the Elderlings. Philip told me that he thinks it will become my favorite series of all time, and he hasn’t even finished it. I’m curious if Malazan Book of the Fallen will make this list in a future update. As far as endings are concerned, it doesn’t get better for me than that series!

So good!! Love seeing Warlord on here so high, and I think I’m going to do one of these videos myself soon and will probably have some overlaps with that one and First Law and the Cosmere. Im in book 3 of ASoIaF now so that one might end up making the list soon too!

Really enjoyed this Josh! Dark Tower and ASOIAF are two of my all time favorites too. You picked some great series. Not sure I agree about Cornwell being better at battles than Martin, but I respect your opinion. Cornwell does write some great battles in Warlord.

Great video!! I want to go thru all these books starting with your number 10...i have read some 1st law and dark tower but I'll read them again

I absolutely love the dark tower series I definitely would reread this series ❤

Super video, well articulated favourites.

I love top ten videos. Thank you for making this!

RotE is my favourite series too. ☺️

Wonderful Video! Loved hearing your favourites!

I’m curious how you would rate these two newer series: Jade Trilogy and the Red Rising. These two are incredible!

The Dark Tower for me😎👍🏻

What a fantastic list!! Love that Realm of the Elderlings is #1 for you! Your favorite list looks very similar to mine, minus the Cosmere.

Out of them all I've recently discovered Brandon Sanderson as an author and I must say he's super special to me right now. Huge respect for putting him in your top ten. :)

I have only recently found your videos and love the way you discuss your choices. As with your historical novels list you have included several series I often reread here - Tolkien, Robin Hobb, Asimov. I have a special love for Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover and for Jack Whyte's Camulod Chronicles. I also have another much older series which may not be to your taste but I love it so much I will include it. This is the Claudia novels by Rose Franken, sadly out of print now but second hand copies are around. It's the story of a marriage of two young carefree people who mature through loss, war and everything life throws at them. Franken was a skilled writer. She has the wonderful ability to make you laugh out loud and a little later to cry your heart out and her characters come to feel like friends. I first read this series over 40 years ago, it's still.on my favourites shelf. Off to check out some of your other lists. And PS check out Ben Aaronovitch....Rivers of London series!

Harry Bosch sounds interesting.. reminds me of the Jesse Stone novels in a way.. always hear about The Wheel of Time but I have not read one, may have to give it a try...Dark Tower is amazing of course as a SK fan!! Also Lord of the Rings is fantastic!! Have you read the Dresden Files? I've read like the first 7 and I really enjoyed them!!

Love Hardy Boys (and Nancy Drew among other teen mysteries). I still have my books. I just built 6 more bookcases and I'm hoping I'll have room for them at the top after I've rearranged my main collection. They are in a closet right now.

Fantastic video, thank you

Lots of overlap in our list (Cosmere, Dark Tower, First Law). Even if you don't have any interest in manga/comics I would highly recommend giving Berserk a chance based on some of the things you like. It's not only my favorite fantasy series, but my favorite series. Books included.

Awesome video bro! For me, I don’t know if it’s fair for me to say a favorite series of mine because I haven’t read enough full series. But my favorite trilogy is ‘The Warlord Chronicles’ , by Bernard Cornwell. Im also a big Dark Tower fan. Books 2-5 are some of my favorite books of all time, with Wizard and Glass being just about my favorite SK book.

fantastic video Josh, and while I had a guess what most of your 10 would be - the narration, background music B-roll and general video quality has really scaled up, best of luck!

Great list, Josh! I love your channel, keep up the great work. I just finished The Crippled God (last Malazan book) and absolutely loved it. Hope your Malazan journey continues to go well. I’m back to Murakami now (Dance, Dance, Dance).

I wish more people with these types of lists talked about Brian Lumley and his Necroscope series more. I have absolutely no issues with this list, and understand it's not everyone's cup of tea, but this list just reminded me how criminally underrated Lumley's take on vampires is and the concept of a necroscope. His Titus Crow series is pretty damn good as well.

Take a look at the two long series by Dorothy Dunnett. Also Galsworthy's 'Forsyte Saga' and 'The Baroque Cycle'.

Great list Josh, RotE is also my favourite in the fantasy genre, I could read about Fitz all day every day and not get bored with Hobbs writing of him. I hope you are going to join in the read of Hobbs other epic.. Soldiers Son series this year...I have high hopes it will land better with me now that the Realm is finished (probably..as nobody knows what she is writing at the moment?) and my resentment was real when that series was published and it wasn't part of the Realm, childish I know! Other favourite series are of course First Law, ASOIAF, LotR and in genres other than epic fantasy I too love the Harry Bosch books and Lee Child's Reacher books are perfect to dip into when I want to reset. John Connolly's Charlie Parker books are excellent, but I have a whole list of favourites in many different genres...far too hard to rank as it would depend on my mood and my memory isn't that great 🙄

Have you tried Naomi Novik's three part series? His Majesty's Dragon, The Throne of Jade, and Black Powder War. It takes place during the Napoleonic wars. They were enjoyable. How about Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld series. And just for a good story teller's series John D McDonald's Travis McGee series. If you just want something to read.

Only read mistborn and lotr on here But plan to read, realm of elderlings, more Brandon Sanderson and wheel of time, Malazan omg so many lol

Great video ... thanks. I completely agree ... everyone just slow down, please. I just recently completed The wheel of Time ... loved it. The so called slog reminded me of Beethoven's 9th, 3rd mvt ... good, but not that memorable or as brilliant as the other three movements. The slog books are like the 3rd movement of WoT .... Thanks for the great content!

I always put Tolkien at zero on my top ten as a position of honor and to avoid debating who may be better than Tolkien.

I knew my girl would be the number one ☝️. Personally I haven't read a lot of series to make my own list, but definitely I will follow yours. Great video!!

I think Tad Williams, Memory, Sorrow...series could make it. For SciFi The Commonwealth Series by Peter Hamilton. I would love to see a classic fantasy top ten list.

Based on everything I've seen you talk about here on your channel and Chatting With Nutts and on discords, I think the series I'd most like to recommend you is David Mitchell's interconnected universe. I've probably recommended him to you before and forgotten about it, but just in case I haven't.... It doesn't have an official name, but goes by Mitchellverse (fans call it this) or The Über-novel (Mitchell calls it this because he can't quite bring himself to call it the Mitchellverse). They are all stand-alones, ostensibly at least, but form this greater fantasy/scifi world that I cannot adequately describe - in a KZfaq comment at least. There's this quote from a interview I look up every time I recommend Mitchell to someone. The danger was, and is, clear: what if someone hadn’t read Cloud Atlas? Narrative coherence of Book B cannot be contingent upon having read Book A. That’s the rule. As it happens, I have no wish to devote my creative years to writing instalments of a single mammoth work the size of Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time, thousands and thousands of pages where you have to read them all. I’d feel trapped. All that being said, I think you should start with Ghostwritten and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, because that'll give you all the background you need to get to Utopia Avenue (yes, I know they're all stand-alones, but there are still recommended reading orders), his novel about a Rock band from London in the early 70s. And this is one of the reasons I'm so confident you'd love his books so much. To ever so slightly paraphrase Neil Gaiman "Mitchell dances about architecture wonderfully.". And to prove that he dances about architecture wonderfully, a line from Ghostwritten describing Billie Holiday's voice. "A dark, Octoberish oboe of a voice." PS. You know he's a great writer because he's been short listed for the Booker twice.

This list is beautiful. It feels so personal and honest. Thanks for making this! Also has me pumped to start Ship of Magic.

I love Harry Bosch. He's my literary crush. Everyone counts or nobody counts.

Great list, btw.

I think you should try Justin Cronin's The Passage trilogy, if you haven't already. It feels like a book series that Stephen King would have wrote in the 2000s, if he continued to write mostly horror. I'm a big fan of Issac Asimov, and I loved the Foundation series; Foundation and Earth was my favourite, the characters are great. However, his Robot novels are the best. The Robots of Dawn is one of my favourite science fiction books.

Nice video. My tops would be - wheel of time - realm of the elderlings - memory sorrow and thorn - Harry Potter - foundation - Riftwar (Feist)

Great selection and reviews!

I'm always thrilled when a reader discovers and loves ❤Hobb ❤. For it to supplant the long loved, and genre defining LoTR on your list, genuinely brings me joy. The pacing issues so often mentioned merely add to my immersion, and the skilled (pun intended) subtlety of world building is (to my mind) unmatched. You have convinced me to pick up more Abercrombie though. I read the first trilogy last year, on Liene's recommendation, and while I thought the characters were *outstanding* didn't fall as deeply in love with the story. I'm thinking I just might throw the standalones into the mix through the year now. I have the Warlord Chronicles on the go as book two is likely to make it into my May, it depends on my library. As for a recommendation, I feel like you'll likely have already read anything I might suggest, so I'm going on a wild tangent, and suggesting the tv show Battlestar Galactica (the 2004 reboot - but you MUST start with the 2003 mini-series). Show runner Ron Moore melded his love of sci-fi, the classic show, and the mood in the US post 9/11 to create a show that reflects humanity with all its flaws, as we struggle to be worthy of surviving. It's amazing.

You've got to include the man who influenced GRRM - Tad Williams's Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy. One of the best coming of age, chosen one fantasy stories ever.

And if you like Robin Hobb and Robert Jordan I think you should try Tad Williams if you have not yet (hell George r r Martin liked him enough to steal/borrow 90% of a song of ice and fire from williams)

I loved the dark tower. I remember waiting for each one to come out. I might be a bit shallow but the ending totally ruined it for me and disappointed me.

The Bosh series sounds like it works similarly to Discworld. I think that's interesting. I would have a hard time making a video like this. I think my choices would change every few months. But if I had to make a list I would include Realm of the Elderlings (#1 always), Outlander, maybe Chronicles of Narnia because I read it 20 times as a kid, The Cosmere, the Dark Tower, and The Expanse. I'm obsessed with the Expanse right now. I love Wheel of Time, Song of Ice and Fire, and First Law but I don't know if they're top 10 for me.

For me LOTR is always going to be my favorite. The Dark Tower and ASOIAF are serious contenders as well.

Great list!! I have to ask to confirm about your Dark Tower comments, so I will spoiler by adding lines and ellipses ... ... Full Dark Tower spoilers Is the narrative choice you don't love King writing himself into the story? Btw I get not loving it even though I do personally, I think he made it work so well. But I'm glad you still appreciate the boldness despite not loving it. And when you say "the ending" do you specifically mean just that the journey starts again, but slightly different? That whole idea? I love it too, so so much :)

Have you read The Dandelion Dynasty by Ken Liu? I'd be interested where it would fall on your list of favorites (if it would even make the top 10)

I would recommend Tad Williams and Janny Wurts based on you love of Robin Hobb.

I've wanted to read Bernard Cornwell forever and never seem to get around to it. I rarely hear him mentioned. I will have to try those Arthur books.

Thank you for the video Josh!! ... Regarding a slow plot and our "hurried world", the show Andor just popped into my mind. It's slow moving with more character development and world building than other Star Wars shows, longer story arcs and the writing and acting is pretty good, IMO. It has some small fails in my opinion, but even though it has a lot less "flashing" characters and action, it shows the building of the Imperial regime and the origin of the rebellion from a more "ground perspective" sort to say. It brings fresh air to the other releases in the Star Wars universe. Have you watched the show? And if so, what do you think?

Oh and for a recommendation -- my only one is Malazan but you're already reading it. I predict it will enter your top 10 (top 5??) by the time you finish it 😀😀😀

Harry Bosch fan here.🙂

I wonder why Dune didn't make it into this list?

The Horus fucking Heresy!!

I get annoyed with fast-paced stories. They are sometimes worthwhile but it does feel like you can't really develop for than a surface level reading experience 8f you do that. Fantasy and scifi tend to be a more consumeristic fandom where you gotta read as many books as possible as fast as humanely possible. People give horrible ratings for incredible books because they are slow. IMO, literature isn't meant to be a just entertainment, its meant to make us slow down, to ponder, to really be immersed in tye authors mind and intentions. The internet and social media age has greatly reduced our ability to slow down and pay attention. Its unfortunate, however, I do see a slow resurgence of deeper material as people are growing tired of the surface level stuff. I'm hoping it keeps up.

So you're saying there's a chance that Malazan will get on there someday 😁

Have you read the Silmarillion?

game of throne on 8 is disrespectful

can't take a stephen king fan seriously. was enjoying the list until you got to the dark tower, but am closing the video now.