Two Narnia Books on TIME’s 100 Best Fantasy Books List
While The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe often appears on lists of beloved and critically acclaimed fiction, TIME’s list of 100 best fantasy books also includes The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
TIME consulted with multiple fantasy authors to determine which books would make the list, and then ranked them using specific criteria.
TIME editors considered each finalist based on key factors, including originality, ambition, artistry, critical and popular reception, and influence on the fantasy genre and literature more broadly.
TIME staff
The list spans centuries of works and includes classics such as Le Morte D’Arthur by Thomas Mallory, as well as recent publications such as Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.
Thanks to Paul for the alert!
But of course Narnia would make that list!
Glad Voyage got some attention as well… I feel like it gets kind of overlooked sometimes.
Brilliant news and thoroughly deserved!
Oh wow!! I’m probably not the only one who reckons all seven of the Chronicles should be in there, but two in the top 100 ain’t bad! (And I’m thrilled to see that Watership Down — probably my next all-time-favourite after the entire Narnia series — made the list as well.)
Glad to see the recognition, even though the list is otherwise terrible. They split up LotR into its three volumes and excluded The Hobbit, and included The Rage of Dragons, which is way too new to be put on this kind of list. The main thing I appreciate is including Mistborn Book 1 as the only book from Brandon Sanderson.
THE PRINCESS BRIDE:
S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure! (The “Good Parts” Version Abridged by William Goldman).
Such an affectionate spoof on the fairytale. I‘ve always loved it. And the film as well. 😀 😉
I was kinda surprised by what made the list. Since they had 2 Earthsea, 2 His Dark Materials, 2 Narnia, and 2 Harry Potter I thought maybe they didn’t want more than 2 books per author, but like another commenter said, they let LOTR take 3 spots when you could argue it’s one book? I’m also surprised that there’s only one A Song of Ice and Fire book, given their popularity.
Kinda surprised but happy to see Ella Enchanted and Where the Mountain Meets the Moon on the list.
Sad that no Percy Jackson books are on there though
I really like Ella Enchanted too. It’s kind of a weird list though. Some of the books I remember being great, some I remember being OK and some are like, “they chose that?!”
For example, the only book by Robin McKinley is Spindle’s End and I distinctly remember her writing much better things than that. It’s almost like they had a list of fantasy authors they wanted to include on that and then just picked one or two of their books at random without regard to which were the best.
Ok, FINALLY caught up with theses emails, lol. Good to hear VOTDT get some love!
I’m surprised how many of these books I have never heard of. Glad that two Narnia books made the list.
Yeah, definitely glad Narnia got 2 spots on there, and definitely glad Voyage made it as well. Kind of surprised tho – I thought if they were going to include another Narnia story it would be the Magician’s nephew, or maybe the Silver Chair… but as someone else said I’m of the (admittedly very partial) opinion that all 7 belong on the list.
But aside from Narnia, I’m glad to see they’re making lists like these; I love this genre in general and found some new ones I want to read now (like I didn’t know the Princess Bride was a book – I’ve seen the movie many times, and it’s a classic, but movies are never as good as books). Not surprise there’s a lot of Harry Potter and LotR tho. 😀
Ooo, “Watership Down”! It made for a very intense read as a fourth grader, which I found enthralling! My brother’s sixth grade curriculum is how I ended up reading that, plus “The Lord of the Rings;” older brother talked about how good they were, and little sister didn’t want to miss out.
I’ve read 20 books on that list. Do I get a cookie? (Just kidding.)
On a side note, I agree that “Ella, Enchanted” doesn’t seem quite the caliber of some of the others, even though it is a reasonably fun read. Also, what on earth did they like about “Harry Potter and Half-Blood Prince” over the other Potter books? I don’t recall thinking that one in the series was particularly amazing. *shrug* It is indeed kind of a weird list as some other comments have said.
But, hooray for Narnia, anyway!
I would argue that “The Princess Bride” is actually better as a movie, actually. (I have read the book.) But, that may also be because I saw the movie first.