The Standard has posted a genre bending list of 30 of the Best Fantasy Novels of All Time. I like the list overall because of its genre bending nature. Are Watership Down & 100 Years of Solitude really fantasy? My inclination is towards “Yes”. Neil Gaiman (whose novels make the list a couple of times) holds a discussion of the list’s weaknesses. All the usual caveats about “best of” internet lists apply.
- The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
- The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien
- The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien
- Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
- The Once and Future King by T.H. White
- The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
- A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
- Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
- The Song of Achilles by Madeleine Miller
- A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
- Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
- The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
- Eragon by Christopher Paolini
- Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
- The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
- My Life in the Bush of Ghosts by Amos Tutuola
- Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
- A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
- Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
- His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
- Stardust by Neil Gaiman
- Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J. K. Rowling
- Babel by R.F. Kuang
- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
- Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
- Watership Down by Richard Adams
- Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell
- The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett