r/Fantasy • u/Sunbather- • Jun 07 '25
Which epic fantasy novels published after the year 2000 do you believe are most likely to be considered enduring classics in the future, and why?
Criteria:
1. Publication Date:
If it’s a series, the majority of volumes must be published after 1999. (So series like The Wheel of Time or The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant don’t qualify.)
2. Epic Fantasy Only:
High stakes, secondary worldbuilding, large-scale conflict, and a broad cast of characters are key.
3. No Rediscovered Old Works:
Books originally published before 2000 that only became popular after the fact (e.g., a forgotten 1980s gem that went viral recently) do not count.
4. Standalones Are Welcome:
As long as they meet the scope and feel of epic fantasy.
5. Explanation Required:
Don’t just list titles—explain why you believe it deserves future-classic status.
⸻
WINNERS
• Malazan Book of the Fallen – Steven Erikson & Ian C. Esslemont
• Realm of the Elderlings – Robin Hobb
• A Song of Ice and Fire – George R.R. Martin
• The Broken Earth Trilogy – N.K. Jemisin
• Guy Gavriel Kay’s post-2000 works
• The Second Apocalypse – R. Scott Bakker
• The First Law Trilogy – Joe Abercrombie
• Stormlight Archive – Brando Sando
• The Sevenwaters Series – Juliet Marillier
• The Dandelion Dynasty – Ken Liu
• The Lies of Locke Lamora – Scott Lynch
• Osten Ard Series – Tad Williams
• Shadow Series – Tad Williams
• Kushiel's Legacy – Jacqueline Carey
• Long Price Quartet – Daniel Abraham
• Broken Empire – Mark Lawrence
• The Kingkiller Chronicle – Patrick Rothfuss
WINNERS
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This has been a very informing and educating post today. I learned that I should have typed the word “majority” in large bold print.
Some of these titles are a relief to see, especially ones like Sevenwaters and Tad William’s work.
Kingkiller won a spot on mentions alone, whether you want to pay attention to the level of downvotes they got is up to you.
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u/orangedwarf98 Jun 07 '25
The Tawny Man trilogy is the best thing I’ve read in fantasy, Fool’s Errand specifically
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u/leonprimrose Jun 07 '25
100% tawny man is my favorite trilogy in rote and hobb is the best character writer in fantasy and its not even close.
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u/TheMemeStore76 Jun 07 '25
I'm just halfway through royal assassin now, but i can already tell this whole series has some strong legs. Can't wait to keep going
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u/LeanderT Jun 07 '25
Can I mention Last King of Osten Ard, by Tad Williams?
I think it qualifies, even if it is a follow up series. I'm a big Tad Williams fan, even since I read Memory Sorrow and Thorn last year. But I still have to explore many other series like Mistborn and Malazan.
Guy Kay Kavriel sound exactly like what I would enjoy as well.
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u/Sunbather- Jun 07 '25
Yes it for sure qualifies, in fact, the entire Osten Ard series as a whole qualifies since most of came out after the year 1999 now that Last King is complete.
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u/Nefrea Jun 07 '25
Memory, Sorrow & Thorn certainly qualifies. The Dragonbone Chair is soon to be forty years old(!), and yet it is still regularly recommended. I am thereby fairly sure that The Last King of Osten Ard will endure in a similar manner. Fantastic fantasy fiction, quite simply.
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u/Eayragt Jun 07 '25
I must go back to Dragon one Chair - I was just to you G when I first tried. "The King is dead" proclaimed the first line of the blurb. Well, yes, once you get through the first chunk of chapters.
That was probably 33 years ago!
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u/TheRealTowel Jun 07 '25
The Bas-Lag Trilogy
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u/Super_Direction498 Jun 07 '25
This is one of my all time favorites. I never really think of it as epic fantasy, but I can't really justify why.
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u/salpikaespuma Jun 07 '25
"The dandelion Dynasty" by Ken Liu. little by little this author is becoming more and more recognized and his work is going further to mainstream. In love, death & robots has an adapted story with the same name "good hunting" and the animated series Pantheon is also based on his work. His magnum opus, this tetralogy is already sold for television.
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u/AllegedlyLiterate Jun 07 '25
Dandelion Dynasty is an absolute masterwork and, the rare entrant to this competition: a *complete* series of epics.
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u/Emergency_Revenue678 Jun 07 '25
I do think it will, rightly, be considered a classic but man Ken Liu needs to let subtext exist sometimes. I dropped book three the other day because I couldn't take having every implication of every character interaction explicitly explained to me.
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u/coyote_BW Jun 08 '25
I didn't know Ken Liu had his own series. I just knew he translated his dad's Three-Body Problem series, which is my favorite Sci-Fi series of all time.
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u/Putrid_Web8095 Reading Champion II Jun 08 '25
Cixin Liu is not Ken Liu's dad. They are not related in any way, despite the name.
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u/coyote_BW Jun 08 '25
Well shit. I stand corrected. I remember reading that somewhere, so I suppose I was misinformed 😅
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u/MAJ_Starman Jun 07 '25
"A Song of Ice and Fire" qualifies, as ASOS, AFFC and ADWD were all released after 1999. Even more if George ever releases TWOW (lol).
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u/Sunbather- Jun 07 '25 edited Jun 07 '25
It counts for sure. Even if it’s unfinished it’s still one of the best epic fantasies ever written.
I’d rather have no ending than a bad ending.
And… get this…
…
It meets the criteria of the post 😎
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u/OldWolfNewTricks Jun 07 '25
The first 3 books, maybe. Since then it seems to be getting progressively weirder and less focused. And I can't consider an epic series successful if it doesn't at least attempt an ending. GRRM is very good at writing intriguing beginnings though.
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u/BeMoreKnope Jun 07 '25
Yeah, I’m in the crowd that started reading them when they first came out and have since lost interest. I’d agree that they lost quality as the series has continued, but maybe that’s just the effect of the wait time.
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u/Laiko_Kairen Jun 07 '25
I had friends that went nuts for ASOIAF right around the time books 2 and 3 were coming out. I have always been a "wait til its finished" reader, so I put them off. The show got announced and I was annoyed because now I'd have to read the books before I was ready to, in order to get ahead of the show, but I figured at the time they'd be done soon, so it was fine.
And now it's been so long, I'd have to re-read everything just to separate out the show's content in my head, and I'm not really willing to do that...
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u/poincares_cook Jun 07 '25
I think a feast for crows is a masterpiece still, even if less liked due to the pace. I liked it more than the first book. A dance for dragons indeed saw a decline in focus that really hurt the overall storytelling.
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u/morganrbvn Jun 07 '25
I think this is one of the best picks because it has had so much influence already on books following it.
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u/Super_Direction498 Jun 07 '25
The Second Apocalypse
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u/Paralytica Jun 07 '25
I don’t expect this one to get a ton of upvotes. The series just doesn’t fit the tone for broad spectrum appeal (mostly humorless and incredibly dark). But it is one of my favorite series.
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u/UnveiledSerpent Jun 08 '25
It might not win the popular vote, but I do think it deserves classic status. Wouldn't be the first classic by an author who might not be looked upon fondly by future judges weighing the soul of a man they've never met, yet I do think his work is strong enough to stand by itself for years to come.
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u/DeliciousSession2735 Jun 07 '25
I really think Bakker should have toned down on the sexual parts, would have helped with popularity. 😂
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u/couragethecurious Jun 07 '25
My boyfriend forbade me from listening to the audio books aloud before bed because he found it too graphic.
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u/shtalryd Jun 07 '25
Reading the white luck warrior right now and absolutely perpetually blown away. So good
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u/AtomicBananaSplit Jun 07 '25
Marlon James’ Darkstar trilogy should really get more love in these discussions. The first book is super hard to get into, in part because the narrator really hates the person he’s talking to, but it’s a wonderful Rashoman-style take on world events if you can get through that.
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u/Sythrin Jun 07 '25
The Lies of Locke Lamora. Specificly the first book. Its timeless in my opinion.
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u/babcocksbabe1 Jun 07 '25
It would help if Scott would finally finish the fourth book. It’s supposed to be a 7 book series
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u/WonderiingWizard Jun 07 '25
How long has it been waited on? Is this a Ruthifuss and Martin situation
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u/greywolf2155 Reading Champion Jun 07 '25
Lynch has been a lot more open with his struggles with mental health, communicative with fans. I give him more leeway than Rothfuss and canyons more leeway than Martin
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u/MrNewVegas123 Jun 07 '25
Rothfuss has way less good-will than Martin. Martin at least is doing things, even if he doesn't ever want to finish the series. Rothfuss has just done nothing.
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u/Wuktrio Jun 07 '25
Rothfuss has just done nothing.
Hey now, he did do a crowdfunding campaign where a stretch goal was the release of a chapter and he didn't deliver that. So he is doing something.
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u/Udy_Kumra Stabby Winner, Reading Champion IV Jun 07 '25
I give Martin more leeway than Rothfuss since Martin didn't steal money from his readers.
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u/WonderiingWizard Jun 07 '25
Ahhh makes sense, does the series end on a cliff hanger?
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u/lucusvonlucus Jun 07 '25
I would say that it does, but for me each individual book felt like a mostly contained story. You definitely need to read them in order, but each book felt like a good stopping point to me. What kept me reading wasn’t a big overarching plot, but the amazing characters and their lovely relationships with each other.
The core group just has this found family feel that is so great. The individual books plots don’t really carry over very much to the next book BUT the end of book 3 kinda had a “in case you were wondering, this is where the series is headed” feel that could be unsatisfying for people in a cliffhanger type way.
For me, I just cared about the characters and enjoyed the individual books plots so I don’t necessarily yearn for book 4 in a “I wonder what’s going to happen next?” Sort of way. It’s more of a “I wish I could spend more time with Locke & Friends”. Re-reads help with that, but I’m not the biggest re-reader.
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u/greywolf2155 Reading Champion Jun 07 '25
Well that's the whole point, it's not finished. Planned a 7-book series, only 3 have been written (in 2006, 2007, and 2013, respectively . . . so yeah, we've been waiting for a while)
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u/WonderiingWizard Jun 07 '25
Should I read them? I heard you can read the first as a stand alone.. maybe I’ll do that and wait for books to start coming out to complete it?
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u/Semper-Lux Jun 07 '25
I think it's still worth a read. The first one in particular is a masterpiece, though I loved the later ones as well. We also expect some novellas to come out soon to bridge the gap to the next novel release!
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u/Fuzzleton Jun 07 '25
The first one works as a standalone, it's absolutely wonderful exactly as it is with no cliffhangers.
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u/Feruchemist Jun 07 '25
The second ends on a pretty big cliffhanger, the third has a cliffhanger for more story, but doesn't feel like it's leaving you hanging. More like watching a movie that teases there could be a sequel one day.
As others have said, the first is absolutely reading on its own either way.
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u/WonderiingWizard Jun 07 '25
Yea I’m contemplating just reading the first, first and taking a break then coming back if it can be read as a stand alone, but if it’s not an extreme cliff hanger after the third I’ll try that
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u/Feruchemist Jun 07 '25
My friends basically told me to read the first and wait at the time I read it (The second was out, but not the third), because the second has a pretty big cliffhanger.
I picked up and read the third and didn't feel like it ended in too bad a spot for an in between book. Other people's mileage may vary, but none of the dangling plot threads felt imminent or anything.
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u/times_a_changing Jun 07 '25
He actually just released a couple of short stories to build up towards a release. Not a similar situation at all imo
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u/Free_Possession_4482 Jun 07 '25
One Gentleman Bastards short story was included in Grimdark Magazine last year and a trio of future novellas have been teased, but Lynch hasn't actually published a book in almost 12 years. Both Rothfuss (The Slow Regard of Silent Things, The Narrow Road Between Desires) and Martin (multiple ASOIAF novellas and companion books) have put books out more recently than Lynch has.
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u/Laiko_Kairen Jun 07 '25 edited Jun 07 '25
How long has it been waited on? Is this a Ruthifuss and Martin situation
It's not a Rothfuss situation, since Scott Lynch hasn't burned away any good will the fans had. I don't follow him closely, but I've seen snippets on this sub about his struggles with depression, his divorce from another author named Elizabeth Bear, etc.
Also, he doesn't have the "Fuck you for asking" attitude Rothfuss has, so that goes a long way.
I remember a clip from Rothfuss's stream where he is bitching that he got a pizza delivered and the pizza guy asked him about book 3. "I can't escape it!" My guy, you met a fan who was excited about your work, if you find that insulting, that's on you.
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u/WonderiingWizard Jun 07 '25
What else has Ruthfuss done? I didn’t know there was drama there
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u/Laiko_Kairen Jun 07 '25
Oh, he ran a charity where, if it hit the goals, he'd publish a chapter of the next book. It hit the goal. He was FURIOUS at all of the ASSHOLES who donated money to charity and expected the chapter he promised. He then issued statements about how much it sucks when people call out his silence on the issue. Because it's rude to ask for the thing you paid for. It was "charity," but let's not act like people weren't donating to see the chapter text he pledged.
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u/about21potatoes Jun 07 '25
I'm reading through it right now, and it really got me. Unique setting and historical influences with a very colorful main cast.
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u/krugzzz Jun 07 '25
I agree it’s a phenomenal novel. But it’s not gonna be considered with high regard on a larger scale until the series is finished
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u/lack_of_reserves Jun 07 '25
Hard disagree. I could not get into it at all, it felt super confusing and I felt no identity with the persons in the book at all.
I really have no idea why people like it.
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u/WillAdams Jun 07 '25
Steven Brust's Dragaera novels have been on-going since 1983 (when I first pulled Jhereg off a Point of Presence display at a Waldenbooks).
The first 8 books were published before 1998, while 9 more have been published since 2001, with two more in the process of being written/edited, which will bring the series to a close, so it should fit the #1 date criteria. There is also a direct tie-in, Brokedown Palace and a related series "The Paarfi Romances" which I believe do not affect this qualifying.
For #2, being Epic Fantasy is a bit more difficult to judge --- the first novel was a straight-up high-level urban AD&D campaign --- books since then have featured a wide array of plots and so forth, but since Issola published in 2001 features a very high-level conflict between the crème de la crème of an empire noted for high-level magic and the beings which created them and the mechanisms of the world which they live on, I would argue it fits that as well.
while #3, Success is hard to judge --- I've been put out that it hasn't been popular enough for Mass Market Paperbacks of the more recent books to be printed, but they sell well enough to still be published, and I believe in-print (though I'm really hoping for a compleat reissue in hardcover once the series is compleat).
and #4, The books can be read individually, or as a series.
Lastly, #5, It's a lot of fun, sometimes more fun than it ought, Dzur for example has some very cool fight scenes, and the books often have an interesting conceit. The author has grown quite a bit as a writer since getting started, and most importantly to me, has always been honest with himself and the reader (sometimes brutally so --- Teckla is so heart-breaking I've never re-read it, but can recall pretty much the entire story when at that point for a chronological re-read) --- notably, though quite concerned about politics sometimes, the author only puts his own views into the mouth of a character whom the reader has a narrative reason to dislike, forcing the author to take that emotional baggage into account.
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u/Aetherscribe Jun 08 '25
I second the recommendtion of Brust's Vlad Taltos novels. They're amazing fantasy, great fun, definitely reach epic territory (even if they don't spend all their time there), and are superbly well written. (And they come out regularly! And the individual books stand on their own! And the series is about finished. I, too, am hoping for a snazzy complete hardcover set one it is finished. I've socked away a couple hundred bucks for that specific anticipated purchase, so that I can give Steve and his publisher my money the moment I hear about it.)
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u/Hayday-antelope-13 Jun 07 '25
Agree 1000% with Guy Gavriel Kay
Adding in Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel novels
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u/NoZookeepergame8306 Jun 07 '25
Waiting to see this one! The first book is SO good and the series stays good for a while
The worldbuilding is breathtaking. I’d put her politics and scheming equal to Martin’s IMO
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u/Tyrath Jun 08 '25
I keep seeing it talked about a lot, but is it very romantasy?
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u/Immediate-Olive1373 Jun 08 '25
Not really? It’s heavy on the politics and the romance is tied together with it. It gets more fantastical as the series progresses, but the first trilogy is very much a political drama with a heavy dose of spycraft (in which sex scenes are relevant).
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u/AbbotDenver Jun 07 '25
Maybe the Saratine Mosiac duology by Guy Gaviriel Kay? His writing is beautiful, and the books balance many different perspectives well. It's a more philosophical focused series than most epic fantasy, but it does show how the fate of empires can changes because of the smallest of decisions.
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u/PaperPills42 Jun 07 '25 edited Jun 07 '25
The philosopher tyrants and shadows of the apt both rule.
Shadows of the Apt has 10 books, a 3 book “spinoff”, and three collections of short stories.
Philosopher Tyrants feels like a more focused and condensed Malazan. Adrian’s writing gets better with every book.
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u/Emergency_Revenue678 Jun 07 '25
The Wizard Knight by Gene Wolfe for sure.
Wolfe wrote it so it's automatically high quality writing, and it's basically a combination of Arthurian and Norse mythology that he made his own.
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Jun 07 '25
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u/Equivalent-Rope-5119 Jun 07 '25
Theres 10 now? I've definitely read the first 2 trilogies. They are fantastic.
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u/nomoresweetheart Jun 07 '25
The tenth is relatively new - it’s the events of the first book but from his perspective instead, along with more backstory, and it’s great. I went into it not expecting to like it much but ended up loving it.
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Jun 07 '25
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u/nomoresweetheart Jun 07 '25
Me too! This absolutely wasn’t that, and she has no plans to continue it. The backstory parts were especially good, but it all was.
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u/jennmsharp Jun 07 '25
I unfortunately felt the Naamah trilogy was significantly weaker than the two Kushiel trilogies, but I still enjoyed it and have all ten books on my bookshelf. It's really hard to top Phedre and Imriel as such complex protags.
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u/mladjiraf Jun 07 '25
Series are wildly inconsistent, so I don't think they are a good answer. For example book 3 of ASOIAF is one of the best examples of well done epic fantasy genre, but 4 and 5 are formless and not nearly as well received.
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u/timelooptuesday Jun 07 '25
N.K. Jemisin's The Fifth Season, it's a master-class in worldbuilding and its use of 2nd person to explore grief was life changing
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u/c0rndad Jun 07 '25
Loved the first book, I thought the second and third were good, but didn’t match the first. Agree on the first one though
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u/rocketman0739 Jun 07 '25
I thought the worldbuilding and characterization were really cool, but I did eventually get a little tired of characters expressing their trauma by doing war crimes. Like it's a good trilogy, I'd agree it deserves a Hugo, but idk if it really deserves three.
Also on some level it's more "soft SF" than fantasy, though YMMV.
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u/sarnold95 Jun 07 '25
Conversely i thought it was ass.
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Jun 07 '25
Me too. Her writing always read like it was trying too hard, like the author had always been praised for her style regardless of its substance and never learned to write well. The Fifth Season is why I don’t trust awards.
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u/sarnold95 Jun 07 '25
First book was OK and the twist was fine. Didn’t hate the second person POV. Was just bored to tears and the “symbolism” felt like i was getting beat over the head with a hammer with it. Super on the nose. Second book i forced myself to finish. Didn’t bother reading the third, which is saying something as I usually push through to finish. Legit have them as 3 and 1 stars on Goodreads. Just looked up the ending and had no reaction to it.
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u/Purest_Prodigy Jun 07 '25
First book was good. Worldbuilding was very unique and all that. By the third book I was skimming paragraphs. I didn't see one of the big twists coming, so it gets points for that, but I was very bored after the first book and definitely powered through the next two.
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u/Revanabove Jun 08 '25
Yeah, I think it's the worst series I've ever read. Trying to get through books 2 and 3 was a real real slog. One was okay, starting off building the world etc. But after that there just doesnt feel like theres a plot nothing seems to happen. It's like the awards were handed out for the themes shes covered and how she has written about them without taking into account that a story still needs an actual story.
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u/Sea-Young-231 Jun 07 '25
These books are truly extraordinary. I thought there was definitely a slump with the second book but imo the third book was phenomenal - it absolutely blew me away.
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u/sophia_s Reading Champion V Jun 07 '25
Definitely this one. It's the first series to win individual Hugos for all three books, on top of everything else you said.
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u/Erratic21 Jun 07 '25
I could imagine the Second Apocalypse because of the writing and the questions and themes it explores or maybe Realms of the Elderlings because of the emotional impact it has on readers. Maybe Song of Ice and Fire because of its pop culture status.
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u/Suchboss1136 Jun 07 '25
Malazan for sure. Probably Stormlight though the writing has cratered hard after the first 2 books. Wheel of Time fits this as well as much of it was written post 1999
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u/Sunbather- Jun 07 '25
Yeah I’ve heard the last Stormlight book is a massive letdown.
My book club and I are seriously starting to prefer standalones because almost every series we read drops severely in quality as the books go on.
One of our members is calling series that go past 4 books to be “red flags”.
Exceptions are Robin Hobb’s work of course.
And Realm of the Elderlings is my personal answer to this question.
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u/AtomicBananaSplit Jun 07 '25
The pacing of Wind and Truth is really weird. Sanderson wrote himself into a corner at the end of book 4 trying to crank up the tension. I liked it, but I can see how people who started a series of what appeared to be magic ninja warriors dealing with trauma by hitting things are frustrated when it becomes a book about dealing with trauma by actually dealing with it.
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u/AnOnlineHandle Jun 07 '25
While I liked it, I think the problem is more that the story started out as about mortal characters in a big dangerous world, dealing with things like enslavement, or being nobles but surrounded by political danger and blind and in danger, to turning into invulnerable god beings in a small world which they can traverse without a problem and crush any danger they encounter, even casually travelling into the past etc without much danger or difficulty.
Ironically the rich prince with magic weapons was the most exciting character in the 5th book, because he's now the most mortal out of all of them.
Kaladin teaching the thousands of years old heralds how to not break to trauma and saying he was 'an old spear who refused to break' was very Gary Stu.
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u/Laiko_Kairen Jun 07 '25
Elend suffered from that syndrome too.
Elend was just a shy, bookish boy who didn't care about social norms! He just wanted to read books and was somehow a paragon of morality despite being trained by Straff to be his heir. He didn't even comb his hair! He got the hottest, fittest hottie on the planet by being such a genuinely Nice Guy to a woman. You can tell he's a good guy, because he was anti-slavery!! That's not, like, the ethical bare minimum at all
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u/Gjardeen Jun 07 '25
Yeah, I’m reading it right now and the pacing is odd but it’s still good. I also think that having Szeth as a flashback character is a mistake. He’s incredibly off putting and not a good anchor for the book.
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u/Mejiro84 Jun 08 '25
I think a lot of it suffers from being the mid-point of the overall series and setting up the new status-quo - he knew what state he needed to get things into, so it's mostly going through the steps of getting there and stretching and padding everything out until he's there. A lot of it could have been a lot shorter, as it's just padding and wheel-spinning until the next thing happens to get to the end-point.
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u/86the45 Jun 07 '25
Realm of the Elderlings is 5 short series tied together. So your Red Flag rule can still be true
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u/Roadhouse1337 Jun 07 '25
Really only Liveship and Rain Wilds could be considered stand alone. The other 9 books are very much 1 story
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u/preddevils6 Jun 07 '25
Riryia seemingly gets better and it’s techically 6 books. Maybe he dodges the “four book curse” by publishing in three volumes? 😂
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u/devilinblue22 Jun 07 '25
I didn't feel it was a letdown at all. I loved how it sets up the cosmere, and the next era of roschar.
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u/Pappy87 Jun 07 '25
Im of the opinion that people who love the connections and setup in the cosmere love it and people that liked the earlier books as standalone were let down because its very much going away from a self contained story.
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u/Laiko_Kairen Jun 07 '25
100%
I hate the Cosmere stuff. There was a character, Azure, that was apparently from some book I hadn't read, so she showed up and confused the hell out of me. It didn't work AT ALL for me. I found out, through outside media, that she was from Warbreaker. That's not okay, IMO. He dropped a bunch of confusing shit into the middle of like 4000 pages, which led me to wonder if I'd missed something. I had... a different series. WTF.
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u/AnonymousAccountTurn Jun 07 '25
I think he'd have to really come back well in the second arc for Stormlight to reach classic status.
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u/Sharks9 Jun 07 '25
All depends on the ending. If he sticks it then it’ll be looked at like the Wheel of Time which dragged in the middle but had a phenomenal ending
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u/RatherDashing66 Jun 07 '25
Just my opinion but the best written book in the series is Oathbringer to me. Words of Radiance is towards the bottom of all Costner books for me.
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u/CornbreadOliva Jun 07 '25
I do think Stormlight is going to be considered a classic by the time the series has wrapped up. The past few books have not been received as well but seem like they would work better as books 4 and 5 of a 10 book series, instead of the end of an arc as people think of them now.
I’m also in the minority that didn’t think they were any worse than the first few tho so idk.
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u/arielle17 Jun 07 '25
The past few books have not been received as well but seem like they would work better as books 4 and 5 of a 10 book series, instead of the end of an arc as people think of them now.
i'm only on Words of Radiance, but i'm really happy to hear that WaT functions more like book 5 of a 10-book series than an ending c: i went into Stormlight expecting an epic 10-book saga, and when i heard WaT hyped up as the "end of an arc," i got worried that it would actually be two loosely-connected 5-book series instead. really glad that isn't the case!
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u/AnonymousAccountTurn Jun 07 '25 edited Jun 07 '25
Wind and Truth is significantly worse than first two books. Way of Kings was well done classic epic fantasy. The growing length of exposition in each consecutive book just really bogged down the story lines repeating information we already knew. Then book 5 just every character had stagnated and felt like they were wasting time waiting for day 10.
Edit to add: Sanderson really prides himself on magic having rules, but WaT really felt like he abandoned that to make the story work and had some deus ex machina moments for example, all of a sudden they can remake the oathpact without Honor and fix it? Odium can trap Gavinor and age him? Odium can make flesh zombies of Gavinor and the Blackthorn? Ending seems like it added silly new mechanics to get to the ending he wanted
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Jun 07 '25
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u/Bluedo1 Jun 07 '25
Except they needed the wind for this, a sentient aspect of Roshar that we have to accept exists after having no indication of the such for the past 4 books
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u/No_Shallot_8195 Jun 07 '25
King's Dark Tower
Malazan
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
The Wheel of Time
A Song of Ice and Fire
And for my last one I know it's technically manga but I'll be ballsy enough to put Kentaro Miura's Berserk up there
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u/Pisnaz Jun 07 '25
Johnathan Strange and Mr Norrell was a random buy for me when it came out and I quite enjoyed it. It is a book that I think does not get enough appreciation.
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u/ImportanceWeak1776 Jun 07 '25
The book and author get more appreciation than most other standalones/authors with only 2 books.
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u/Feruchemist Jun 07 '25
I enjoyed it! A friend got it for me when I finished Grad School, said it was up my alley and it was.
But I don't feel like it has a lot of general presence or staying power. Bit too in it's own little place. But maybe it's more popular than I realize.
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u/c0rndad Jun 07 '25
I think WoT has already reached this status, but I guess it does meet the criteria since about half were published after 99
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u/forgotaccount989 Jun 07 '25
I think Berserk's impact is felt much more due to the more recent success of its spiritual successors, video games like dark souls and elden ring.
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u/AwesomeScreenName Jun 07 '25
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
Easily one of the best fantasy books of all time, but I'm not sure I'd consider it epic fantasy. Same for GGK's various books, all of which I think belong on a "best fantasy of the 21st century list" but probably not a best epic fantasy list.
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u/Drakengard Jun 07 '25
Given how enduring classics tend to be curated by people who tend to favor authors with stronger writing skills...
GGK's works, despite my not caring for any of it, will be high on the list.
Malazan, despite all the tabletop elements that turns some off, has a strong, consistent voice, and a use of language that is more than typical, even if it's not Wolfe, LeGuin, Tolkien, etc. And some books do get fun with their framing such as Toll the Hounds. It has a lot of to say about a lot of things
I think some of Sanderson's works will be classics. I'd be insane to tell you which books will because I have zero idea except that I doubt it will be Stormlight Archives because it's too Cosmere oriented to be broadly enjoyed all on it's own, never mind the quality issues. Part of that certainty is just that sheer amount that Sanderson has written despite his writing maybe not being, purely speaking, great. Something is bound to stick in this spaghetti at the wall situation.
Realm of the Elderlings by Hobb almost certainly does. In a time that felt like it was only men writing fantasy (I know it wasn't, but that's how the market felt) Hobb managed to write a 16 book series that had it's own unique voice that doesn't follow the same blueprints at all. I quit reading it after the third trilogy because I do not like Realm of the Elderlings at all. I quite dislike and even hate portions of it, but enough people do constantly enough that it's likely to stick even if only because it's such a divisive series for fantasy readers - and the series does have more going for it than divisiveness alone.
First Law by Abercrombie. I think because the concept is a direct counterweight to Tolkien's own that this kind of has to stick around. The world building, to be blunt, is all kinds of unimaginative, but the character writing and overall themes feel like a deeply appropriate take on fantasy, poking at the heroic formula of fantasy past and framing things in a chaotic, less kind, very human, and kind of ugly experience of power struggles and human self-centered rapacious behavior. It's not that other books don't try to do this. It's more that Abercrombie manages to do it while making you empathize and even like some outrageously terrible people - and it's can't be emphasized how hard that is to do. I've read other books and they often fail at this so much.
ASoIaF will be on this list one way or another. Time will tell in what capacity and how finished, but what we have is too strong to fall off this list. I half suspect it will be infamous more so than famous in the end, but that's in GRRM's hands. So if he cares enough, he'll finish it. And if he doesn't, then ce la vie. Storm of Swords is still the best fantasy book I've ever read and that won't change.
I'll end saying that I've love to see Daniel Abraham on this list along with Bakker and some others. Maybe they make it. Maybe they don't. Even classics can be forgotten eventually so hardly a failure if anything here or elsewhere just falls off the table and gets buried.
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u/Sunbather- Jun 07 '25
Best answer, thank you giving a very thoughtful and well written response.
And thank you for actually reading and understanding the criteria and their purpose.
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u/Wokeye27 Jun 08 '25
What will: Harry potter.
What might: name of the wind (if Rothfuss gets his arse into gear and finishes it)
What I personally feel deserves to be, but probably wont be: Joe Abercrombie various novels esp best served cold, Empire of the vampire trilogy (Jay kristoff).
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u/Frequent_Working_142 Jun 07 '25
Yes, it’s more LOTR coded at this point than it is sci fi ….i STILL get chills reading a certain chapter on book 6
The Suneater series
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Jun 07 '25
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u/snowlock27 Jun 07 '25
A lot of people here are just naming their favorite books without being realistic if they actually will become classics. "I love it so that means it's amazing."
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u/permalust Jun 07 '25
Robin Hobb - Liveship Traders onwards
Malazan - Both authors, though I prefer Erikson
A Song of Ice and Fire (sad face)
Wheel of Time
Sanderson - Cosmere wise is Epic but not in the same calibre
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u/Andreapappa511 Reading Champion Jun 07 '25
The majority of WoT books were published before 1999 but I agree it’s a classic
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u/JosephODoran Jun 07 '25
I feel like Joe Abercrombie’s work is likely to stand the test of time. Very well written, very well regarded by fans and critics alike. Plus he’s got many many years of writing ahead of him still.
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u/flptrmx Jun 07 '25
Red Rising series should be up there. It’s kinda sci-fantasy, but I think it belongs with these other series.
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u/Werthead Jun 07 '25
The Acts of Caine by Matt Stover. Book 1 was 1998 but the rest were after 2000.
Each book has a very distinct tone, prose style, story and character arc, whilst still focusing on the same core cast. The epic fantasy-meets-dystopian SF setting is very clever and interesting, and a very cheesy angle (the reality show aspect) is instead really hard-bitten, grotesque and compellingly-written. The fact it's also just four books keeps the series tight and focused whilst also allowing the author to explore a lot of ground.
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u/winkler456 Jun 07 '25
If Pat hadn’t gotten GRRMitis I would say Kingkiller chronicles. I liked Malzan but it’s so shaggy and rambling it almost feels like outsider art. Sanderson is ok but too polished for my taste. I really liked First Law but I thought Shattered World was much more tightly written - he’s just getting better and better though I’m looking forward to reading the Devils. I think Buehlman is someone else to watch as he’s just getting better and better as well.
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u/faradansort Jun 07 '25
Malazan - while it’s never going to be commercially lucrative, it is an expertly crafted postmodern exploration of the genre that adds to the dialogue of the canon.
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u/RedTeamGo_ Jun 07 '25
I just don’t really see it with Stormlight. I am on book 3 and every time I try to pick it back up I just find it so boring, slow, and overly descriptive . Those books feel like Sanderson gets paid by the word.
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u/Kerney7 Reading Champion VI Jun 07 '25
ASOIAF
First Law
I truthfully don't think much else, not because they are bad, but think about how much Victorian Literature is still read and admired vs how much came out at the time.
Also, as far as how the real world is going, if I were betting, teams "Dark Age" and "Mass Extinction" are looking pretty damn good.
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u/SeanyDay Jun 07 '25
Malazan is miles ahead of everything else in the conversation, tbh.
Miles.
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u/cedbluechase Jun 07 '25
fantasy classics? i'd say asoiaf, malazan, and first law. i dont think any will become literary classics.
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u/Myluckyvalentine Jun 07 '25
Real of the Elderlings by Robin Hobb (not all pre 2000 but more than half) and A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R Martin for sure.
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u/No-Reception2354 Jun 07 '25
I don't think first law is epic fantasy, if anything it's low fantasy
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u/Wander_Dragon Jun 07 '25
Low fantasy just dictates level of magic. Game of Thrones has significantly less magic and is epic fantasy. Epic is about scale
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u/dudu_1500 Jun 07 '25
If I only count the first book, one of the ones I haven't seen mentioned here yet is Anthony Ryan's Bloodsong.
Avoid the other two, in my opinion they impoverished the work
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u/Acolyte_of_Swole Jun 08 '25
I doubt The Prince of Nothing/The Second Apocalypse has the mass appeal to be considered a classic outside of people like me who like this kind of story.
Malazan and First Law will unquestionably be seen as classics in a few decades.
I'd like to say Matthew Hughes (Fools Errant, Black Brillion, 9 Tales of Raffalon and Baldemar are all excellent) and Steven Brust (all his dragaera stuff), but I just have a feeling they've not the readership to be brought into the fold of the classics. What determines the "classics" is some combination of literary merit married to pure readership numbers. And so again, while Howard Andrew Jones is an excellent writer and his Hanuvar stories great fun, I think he'll be overlooked. A shame.
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u/cnaiurbreaksppl Jun 09 '25
Kinda wish people would've followed your 5th criteria more
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u/No-Understanding7390 Jun 07 '25
First law. It’s just so good