31 - 40 - the Top 100 fantasy books of all time

One of the great character templates in literature is the often dim-witted, often humorous sidekick who is allowed a moment of center stage wisdom. If done poorly, it can be nothing short of horrible. But when it is done well, there is seldom anything that can beat it. And in a series of more than 30 books that are all pigeon-holed into the fantasy/comedy genre, Terry Pratchett has made attempting this template into an art form.

A Hat Full of Sky (Amazon.co.uk)

Author: Terry Pratchett
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 352
Publication date: 2005-05-05
Publisher: Corgi Childrens

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Pratchett's third children's novel set in the Discworld, and the second to feature wannabe witch Tiffany Aching and the Wee Free Men, is so ridiculously well written and consistently funny it makes you wonder how he can keep writing such superlative novels without cheating a bit. It would be reassuring to think that the Carnegie Medal-winning author of The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents and The Wee Free Men had his own small army of professional helpers, not unlike like a US sitcom, inventing and deliberating about which are the best jokes and plot lines to use to ensure the best quality quotient. But it's all his own work and that makes each brilliant novel more remarkable because of it.

A Hat Full of Sky continues the adventures of eleven-year-old Tiffany as she endeavours to become a proper witch. She's 'done' magic before, quite spectacularly and to great effect, but now she must be apprenticed to an established practitioner of the craft, the amazing Miss Level, in order to learn exactly how she did it. Unfortunately for her, there's a crazed and malevolent ancient spirit buzzing about, called a Hiver, who is looking for a convenient host to consume. Hiver's are attracted to greatness, and Tiffany hides an enormous talent that seems ripe for domination.

Still grateful for Miss Aching's past help, a crack team of several Wee Free Men, nature's funkiest, drunkest and bluest fairy folk, take it upon themselves to help Tiffany out. Hiver's, however, are unbeatable and it's a definite "sooey-side mission" to save the big wee hag from harm.

It's great to see writing of such quality in a children's novel, and it's further evidence that this sector of the publishing world is having a bit of a golden decade. Long may it continue! (Age 10 and over)--John McLay
Amazon.co.uk Review

When a new series begins, often you will expect book two to be better than book one, and so on. It makes sense. The writer will get better as they go on. Sadly, life is not always so neat, and there will be writers, like Terry Pratchett, who go out of their way to break the mould. This is what happened when Pratchett wrote The Wee Free Men, the first in a quartet of books but simultaneously the 30th book in his lovingly created Discworld.

The Wee Free Men (Amazon.co.uk)

Author: Terry Pratchett
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 317
Publication date: 2004-04-29
Publisher: Corgi Childrens

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When you have an author as good as Terry Pratchett writing for children, you expect that the result will be a novel of great invention, assured comic timing and a generally all-round highly readable fantasy tour de force. Readers of The Wee Free Men will not be disappointed. After winning the prestigious Carnegie Medal award for his previous story of Discworld for younger readers, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, Pratchett has followed up with another irresistibly entertaining adventure.

Miss Perspicacia Tick, a witch of some renown, is worried about a ripple in the walls of the universe--probably another world making contact. Which is not good. This errant activity is centred on some chalk country--where traditionally good witches simply do not grow well. Fortunately, Miss Tiffany Aching of Home Farm on The Chalk, nine years old, misunderstood and yearning for excitement, wants to be a witch and has just proved herself to be of great potential by whacking a big Green Monster from the river with a huge frying pan while using her annoying younger brother as bait. Miss Tick is impressed. So, after travelling to the chalky downs at once and dispensing some stop gap advice to Tiffany about holding the fort until she gets back with more help, Miss Tick is off.

Any hesitation Tiffany may have had about the seriousness of the situation expires when the Queen of the fairies kidnaps her younger brother. With the help of a talking frog, loaned by Miss Tick, and an army of thieving, warmongering, nippy, boozy wee free men called the Nac Mac Feegle (who used to work for the Queen but rebelled), Tiffany sets off rescue her kin.

There's humour at every turn, and the situations that follow are both wonderfully dramatic and preposterously unreal. Pratchett really is the master of his genre and it's difficult to imagine a more entertaining read. (Age 10 and over) --John McLay
Amazon.co.uk Review

One of the things that I have found as I have read fantasy book after fantasy book, is that life is different in those books. Of course it is, ya daftie, I hear you cry, but bear with me. I obviously know that life is different, that’s why I read them: when you are a freelance writer, you look for any chance possible to jump out of the real world. But you have to remember that if a bit of the book is different, then it is all different from your reality.

Wintersmith (Amazon.co.uk)

Author: Terry Pratchett
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 352
Publication date: 2007-09-27
Publisher: Corgi Childrens

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One thing that is always tinged with a measure of trepidation is the treatment of children in a fantasy world. A measure of reality must always be held in one hand while you attempt to watch over them. For as much as you would love to see them always come through unharmed, happy, and well, it is just not how it would have played back in the middle ages and before.

Nightchild (Chronicles of the Raven 3) (Amazon.co.uk)

Author: James Barclay
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 496
Publication date: 2008-11-13
Publisher: Gollancz

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With Nightchild James Barclay brings his remarkable debut trilogy to a stunning and startling conclusion. The book picks up from the previous entry as the Raven are faced with a terrible moral dilemma: Lyanna, the daughter of Raven warrior Denser and mage Erienne, has been blessed (or cursed) with the power of The One. This power is threatening the very land of Balaia and the four magic colleagues who are desperate to control the power or stop it--even if that means killing a five year old girl. Erienne, fearful for the life of her daughter, goes into hiding and the Raven have little time to find her. When they do, they face a terrible choice that none of them want to make. Nightchild is a cracking finale to what has been a real treat for fans of action-based fantasy. Barclay's prose and characterisation has improved massively with each book and this last in the trilogy is the most satisfying yet. The characters are all like good friends and their relationships have never before been this complicated or tested so much to the limit. Barclay doesn't hold back as usual in the battle scenes which are as exciting and adrenline-pumping as always, but neither has he ever been one to take the easy route with characters and many readers will be surprised by the denouement which, while effectively tying up many loose ends, also opens up possible avenues for future books. The Raven stories have been some of the best new fantasy novels in many a year and will deservedly be cherished for future generations by many fans. They may lack the minute detail of Robert Jordan's epic Wheel of Time series or the sweeping historical feel of George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire, but James Barclay has shown lovers of action fantasy everywhere just exactly how it should be done. --Jonathan Weir
Amazon.co.uk Review

With his Raven series, James Barclay made himself a cult hero. With the Ascendants of Estorea, Barclay stepped away from the action adventure realm and settled into a very fantasy style book. More character focus and interestingly enough styled after the Roman Empire, Cry of the Newborn – the first in the series – makes for an interesting introduction to a new realm for Barclay to play in.

Cry of the Newborn: The Ascendants of Estorea Book 1 (Gollancz S.F.) (Amazon.co.uk)

Author: James Barclay
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 832
Publication date: 2006-09-14
Publisher: Gollancz

RRP: £7.99
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Quentin Coldwater’s life is changed forever by an apparently chance encounter: when he turns up for his entrance interview to Princeton he finds his interviewer dead – but a strange envelope bearing Quentin’s name leads him down a very different path to any he’d ever imagined.

The Magicians (Amazon.co.uk)

Author: Lev Grossman
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 496
Publication date: 2009-10-08
Publisher: Arrow Books Ltd

RRP: £6.99
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Exhilarating, captivating and set in Ancient Greece, Gemmell presents us with another first-class lead. Parmenion is a Spartan of mixed ancestry, scorned as a half-breed by other Spartans. Living a life fuelled by thoughts of vengeance his path crosses that of the Macedonian king Philip as he has to overcome ordeals both in the world he knows and against the hordes of evil in Hades.

Lion of Macedon (Amazon.co.uk)

Author: David Gemmell
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 512
Publication date: 1992-03-05
Publisher: Orbit

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Liga raises her two daughters in the safe haven of an alternative reality, a personal heaven granted by magic as a refuge from her earthly suffering. But the real world cannot be denied forever and when the barrier between the two worlds begins to break down, Liga’s fiery daughter, Urdda, steps across it…

Tender Morsels (Amazon.co.uk)

Author: Margo Lanagan
Binding: Hardcover
Number of pages: 496
Publication date: 2009-07-02
Publisher: David Fickling Books

RRP: £12.99
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The first love song in the world, as composed by a pig in the Garden of Eden... The Devil, alarmed when his hobby of writing romantic fiction begins to upstage his day job... A man finding love with someone who has an allergy to his very own happiness; another losing love altogether when his wife gives him back his heart in a Tupperware box...

Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical (Amazon.co.uk)

Author: Robert Shearman
Binding: Hardcover
Number of pages: 240
Publication date: 2009-12-31
Publisher: Big Finish Productions Ltd

RRP: £12.95
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Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb (also known as Megan Lindholm) is the first book in her acclaimed work, The Farseer Trilogy. Assassin's Apprentice was first published in 1995 and is followed by the books Royal Assassin and Assassin's Quest. The trilogy has been described as combining the magic of Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea with J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

Assassin's Apprentice (The Farseer Trilogy - Book 1) (Amazon.co.uk)

Author: Robin Hobb
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 480
Publication date: 1996-03-18
Publisher: Voyager

RRP: £8.99
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Book View Cafe is a cooperative site created by a group of writers - including internationally renowned authors Katharine Kerr, Ursula Le Guin and Vonda N. McIntyre - who want to take advantage of the internet's possibilities for reaching a wider audience and to distribute their work directly to their readers. The Book View Cafe is a place where you can find free, original fiction plus the authors' best and out-of-print work for a fee. Fantasy Book Review spoke to Book View Cafe member, science fiction author and memoirist Chris Dolley in February 2010.

Lewis Carroll, the elusive author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, has been the subject of enduring fascination for the past hundred years. The destruction of many major documents about his personal life by his descendants has only magnified the mystery. Jenny Woolf's biography, published to coincide with the release of the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland film, lays waste to the myths and suspicions that have obscured Carroll's reputation by placing him firmly in the context of his own time.