Past the Dragon

September 26, 2024

And inspired by that adventure, I now, with the help of a few other writers and readers, intend to chronologically name the ancestral heroes of our beautiful genre and to show their impact, heredity, and power.

The purpose of this endeavor is to help myself and others grow in our appreciation of the history of this genre, to provide new recommendations for reading lists, and to inspire future Fantasy writers. You can reference my caveats1 and methodology2 if you like.

A note on this being a work-in-progress: Unfortunately, this task is monumental and has already taken two months of effort so, while I have selected my 100 titles, I have not written rationales for every one of them, thus this being a work in progress.3 I will continue working on this and invite you to join: If you’re passionate about one of these titles, please, lend your voice to explaining why it’s awesome and important. No one can explain something better than someone who cares! Refer here4 for how to help. My hope is that between my efforts and yours, this list will be complete and ready for a re-posting within a few months.

And before we begin, a special thanks to Jacob Tubbs of Learning Joy, Ronald Turnbull of About Mountains, Shawn Kilburn, and Joseph Harris of Novel in the Middle for incredibly extensive help in narrowing and explaining this list.

Progenitor Fantasy (2100 BC - 1100 AD)

The seeds of Fantasy are found in early man’s fascination with the supernatural and the epic. Progenitor Fantasy works may not strictly be Fantasy, but they are the foundations of Fantasy.

1. The Epic of Gilgamesh by Unknown (~1300 BC)

The Epic Gilgamesh has inspired so much of storytelling throughout time, and much of Quest and Epic Fantasy have this epic to thank for inspiration and foundation. Gilgamesh is also the earliest picture of Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), and this archetype is the most common in much of Fantasy.

2. The Iliad by Homer (750 BC)

The Iliad belongs on this list for its detailing of the ancient Greek gods; its superhuman heroes; and its description of idealized experiences of warfare, valor, and friendship.

3. The Odyssey by Homer (750 BC)

The Odyssey likewise helps define a Fantasy experience of questing, particularly an episodic one in which the hero is derailed again and again but must return home.

4. The Aeneid by Virgil (29 BC)

. . .

5. The Thousand and One Nights by Unknown (600 AD)

From RosTy:

The One Thousand and One Nights is a collection of stories from Middle-eastern culture. It is a frame story, meaning that there is actually a story outside of the stories. After he learns that his wife has been unfaithful, the king plans to kill every woman he marries. The Vizier’s daughter, Scheherazade, volunteers to marry the king. Each night, she stalls for time by telling him a story; by the thousand and first night, he has changed his mind. Despite the title, there are not 1001 stories. In the 1700s, Antoine Galland used the earliest substantial Syrian manuscript (1400s) to translate the tales into French, but he also altered the text to make his adaptation more engaging to his audience. These were wildly popular and spawned many English translations of varying quality; later translations used different sources, and the first unabridged English translation was completed by Husain Haddawy in 1990, proving that the tales have remained popular for centuries.
One more note: Galland’s translation includes stories about famous characters like Sinbad, Aladdin, and Ali Baba; these stories were actually not in the original manuscript. While in Paris, Galland heard the stories from a Christian Maronite friend named Hanna Diab; he included them in his collection, and they’ve remained with the public imagination since.

6. Beowulf by Unknown (800 AD)

Beowulf follows a solo hero who must defeat terrible creatures. The blueprint for so many Fantasy stories is present here. Beowulf is the first work here written in English (albeit Old English) and begins the legacy that the British Isles and Germany have built around Fantasy.

Preconstruction Fantasy (1100 - 1760 AD)

While these works are not strictly members of the Fantasy genre (which as we think of it did not exist until the first half of the 20th century), these works have had an unfathomable impact on the genre in terms of subject matter, style, story elements, characters, and more.

7. Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (1308)

. . .

8. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Unknown (1375)

A long poem in an early version of English, set in the court of King Arthur, this recounts the sinister head-chopping contest set up by the Green Knight, and Sir Gawain’s long winter journey through the wilderness of Wirral (now a commuter suburb of the city of Liverpool).
Dubbed the “Rolls Royce of Romances,” it chunders along at a fair old lick, displaying fine English engineering and with a luxuriously comfortable interior (except that last bit doesn’t apply to the poem). Only rediscovered in 1839, this is a very different take on the Arthur world to the Morte d’Arthur, with much less of the French courtly romance element imported by Sir Thomas Malory. While the Gawain poet (name unknown) informs his poem within the Christian tradition, and even contextualises with the Latin epic of Virgil’s Aeneid, here is also a strong pagan element and a alliterative verse form inherited from Beowulf.
Given a modern translation alongside, it’s quite possible to make sense of the original Middle English, at least for selected extracts such as Gawain’s final journey to the Green Chapel. There’s an excellent translation by poet Simon Armitage, and an earlier and more scholarly one by J. R. R. Tolkein.

9. Le Morte D’Arthur by Thomas Malory (1485)

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Le Morte D’Arthur are the two most popular Arthurian tales and are largely responsible for the popularity of Arthurian legend. Tolkien actually translated Sir Gawain himself. Le Morte’s impact can be seen in numerous movies, TV shows, retellings, and novels. The Once and Future King by T. H. White may be the most popular retelling.

10. The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser (1590)

. . .

11. A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare (1595)

From Jacob Tubbs:

Elves used to always be big and serious. Now they are often small and silly. This is due to the historical/cultural shift of the Reformation; it changed how we understand elves, fairies, and fey. It was during the Reformation Era that elves were shrunk down to tiny little people of mischief, and the fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream is not only a perfect example of it, it was one of the leading causes of elf shrinkage (that and “Nymphidia” by Drayton). The play's enduring popularity (as all things Shakespeare) is a big part of why elves stayed small and mischievous for so long.

12. The Tempest by William Shakespeare (1610)

With his widely popular plays in the country that birthed the Western Fantasy genre, Shakespeare helped to popularize elements on the genre and plant seeds that would turn into common story elements and expectations for fantastical storytelling though many of these efforts would only come to fruition two centuries later.

The Gothic Era (1760-1830 AD)

This era created a genre that emphasized the eerie, the spooky, the creepily Medieval, and the maybe magical. Some novels featured actual ghosts or curses, and some revealed the natural reasons behind the facade (like in an episode of Scooby Doo). And from this period, I believe three works had particularly lasting impact.

13. The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole (1764)

The Castle of Otranto was the first Gothic novel and spawned the genre. It contained supernatural elements, awakening a hunger for fantastical stories that would be refined and satisfied more in the next century.

From RosTy:

Otranto spawned both fantasy and horror, and the connection between the two can be seen throughout the next two centuries (before they more distinctly split into their own separate categories in the early 1900s).

14. “Hansel and Gretel,” “The Pied Piper of Hamelin,” “Rumplestiltskin,” “The King of the Golden Mountain,” “The Frog Prince,” “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves,” “Rapunzel,” “Cinderella,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” and Others by The Brothers Grimm (1812)

The Brothers Grimm were the real Fantasy powerhouse of this time period with their collecting and publishing of old fairytales. These stories introduced elements and ideas of Fantasy stories that we continue to observe, not to mention the horde of adaptations and retellings of the stories listed above.

15. “The Vampyre” by John William Polidori

“The Vampyre” is supposedly the first true vampire story, and it set a precedent for what would become one of the largest and most popular Fantasy sub-genres.

The Era of Faerie (1840-1900)

Often the most important fantastical books from this era featured visits to or from Faerie, a parallel world in which live the Fae and from which comes magic, whether chaotic or beautiful. This period is the birthplace of modern Fantasy, and authors here like MacDonald, Carroll, Stoker, and Morris not only entertained readers but inspired the Fantasy authors of the next 100 years. Many of the most important Fantasy authors of the first half of the 20th century grew up reading these books. Plus, the authors of this time period created sub-genres that still exist today such as Portal Fantasy, Lost World Fantasy, Children’s Fantasy, Animal Fantasy, and Comedic Fantasy. This era was characterized by the pre-Raphaelites who emphasized Medievalism and Romances—ideas that many authors combined with Faerie to create the now-common blend of knights, magic, and beasts that we associate with Fantasy today. Without the Era of Faerie, Fantasy would be nothing like what it is today.

16. “The Emperor's New Clothes,” “The Little Mermaid,” “The Ice Queen,” “Thumbelina,” and others by Hans Christian Andersen (1835)

Hans Christian Andersen continued the legacy of the Brothers Grimm in telling fairytales, but he actually wrote his own and gave many of them a Victorian twist. His stories continue to be referenced, re-envision, and adapted today.

17. “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe (1839)

Poe continued the impact of the Gothic and excelled in the genre in verse and short story. It seems like an interest in Fantasy begins with an interest in the Gothic or the eerie, and Poe seeded that growing interest for Americans. Authors like H. P. Lovecraft and other horror writers in America’s pulp fiction magazine have Poe to thank for blazing the trail.

18. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (1843)

At first, this story seems like a Christmas story, but its core is a moralistic, ghost story—the exact kind of thing that resonated with post-Gothic, Victorian audiences. And Charles Dickens was incredibly popular, so him utilizing the fantastical in one of his stories did much to prepare audiences for future fantastical storytelling.

19. Phantastes by George MacDonald (1858)

If Tolkien is the father of Modern Fantasy, George MacDonald is its grandfather. Phantastes is a portal Fantasy in which the narrator undertakes a dangers journey after he is sucked into Faerie. The novel is slow and atmospheric, and its influence is seen especially in C. S. Lewis and Tolkien. For example, Lewis mentions it directly in his autobiography, and it seems clear that Tolkien’s Ents and Huorns have much to thank Phantastes for.

From Sara B. Longenecker:

As a literary figure, GMD has influenced a wide range of authors: C. S. Lewis (through this first fantasy novel, Phantastes, and later, Sir Gibbie), J. R. R. Tolkien (although with some reservation), G. K. Chesterton (through the Princess and Curdie novels), Lewis Carroll (they had a close personal relationship which allowed GMD to mentor LC in the writing and publishing of his Through the Looking Glass story), W.H. Auden, Mark Twain, Madeleine L’Engle, Henry Longfellow, and many more. His dark romance fantasy, Lilith, was written at the end of his life and is widely regarded as the pinnacle of his prolific career.

20. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865)

From Jacob Tubbs:

Largely seen as one of if not the first book in the “children's literature” genre, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland had a transformative impact on children's Fantasy by introducing surreal, nonsensical storytelling that broke from traditional moralistic tales. Before Alice, stuff written explicitly for children was, frankly, often rather dull. Carroll's whimsical world, imaginative characters, and playful use of language redefined the genre.

21. The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald (1872)

Carroll and MacDonald were friends, and both influenced each other. Both of these stories were children’s stories, and here we see early seeds of what would later become Children’s Fantasy. The impact of these two books is monumental on later Fantasy and Carroll’s impact on culture at large is monumental. Essentially, both of these books revolutionized what children’s Fantastical literature could be.

From H. A. Titus:

C. S. Lewis often talked about how influential George MacDonald's books were on his life. He was known to re-read The Princess and the Goblin, as well as many other MacDonald books, throughout his lifetime. Lewis described MacDonald's book Phantastes as the book to have “baptized” his imagination, paving the way for him to move from agnosticism to Christianity. He also described MacDonald as his “spiritual master.”

22. King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard (1885)

From Joseph Harris:

This is considered by many to be the first novel of the Lost World genre (in which imaginary civilizations are discovered in modern times). Sir Arthur Conan Doyle of Sherlock Holmes fame also wrote novels of this kind.

23. The [Color] Fairy Book Series by Andrew Lang (1889)

From Jacob Tubbs:

Prior to the Lang Fairy Books, collections of fairy tales were extremely uncommon. Fairy tales were around, but not generally accessible via books, especially to children. The Langs were the first to make fairy tale collections that covered pretty much every fairy tale worth knowing, including many outside of Europe for later editions. The color fairy books were so popular that they more or less became the definitive version of most fairy tales, either because it was the version that was most well known or it was the only version that was easily available. When people talk about “the original” fairy tale, the “original version” usually comes from these books, even with all the editing the Langs did to make them appropriate for children.

24. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain (1889)

This book is left off many other lists, but A Connecticut Yankee is the earliest, best example I can find of Comedic Fantasy. In it, a factor worker is transported back to Medieval times where he outsmarts everyone and takes over King Arthur’s court. Twain was lampooning the pre-Raphaelites and their obsession with King Arthur, and he set the groundwork for authors like Terry Pratchett and William Goldman and T. H. White to write their own comedic fantasies.

25. The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling (1894)

. . .

26. The Well at the World's End by William Morris (1896)

Not only did he translate the Icelandic sagas into English, providing more material for Fantasy writers and readers, but this Pre-Raphaelite was the most notable early author to write a story set in another world with no reference to our reality at all. Beyond that, he formalized the quest Fantasy and made his characters use “a pseudo-medieval diction” (Mendlesohn & James). Morris had a tremendous impact on both Lewis and Tolkien who paid homage to his work in their own writing.

27. Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897)

Bram Stoker and Dracula made the Vampire sub-genre of Fantasy happen. His story formalizes many of the aspects of Vampire Fantasy and engendered popular demand for the eerie stories.

From Joseph Harris:

Dracula is one of the foremost examples of an epistolary novel, meaning it conveys the story almost entirely through in-world documents such as letters and newspaper articles rather than direct narration. It also solidified many modern conceptions about vampires, including their ability to transform into bats and their weakness to garlic, sunlight, and crucifixes.

Anti-Modern Fantasy (1900-1948)

During this time period, the Science Fiction genre tended to embrace modern technology, colonialism, and progressivism. In Science Fiction stories, heroes were conquering the universe. But in Fantasy stories, heroes were discovering new ones. Instead of reflecting the intellectual trends of Western society, Fantasy (as it often does) subverted them by looking for the inexplainable, the weird, and the awe-inspiring.

28. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum (1900)

From RosTy:

Aside from the phenomenal success of the book, early Broadway adaptation, and film, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz could also be argued as the first American children’s Fantasy. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that with all of its exploration of good and evil, Fantasy also culls themes and role models from what is valued in society. Although other American authors had produced Fantasy before Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was dependent on American ideals. Dorothy is a farm girl from Kansas who reflects the American midwestern traits of being honest, loyal, plain-speaking, kind-hearted, and practical.
The Wizard of Oz is also one of the earliest series to include a robot: Tik-Tok. And The Wizard of Oz was actually the film that proved to skeptics that live-action Fantasy could work on screen. Good thing it was a success!

29. Five Children and It by E. Nesbit (1902)

From Jacob Tubbs:

E. Nesbit completely changed the landscape for children's Fantasy. Before Nesbit children's Fantasy was primarily in secondary worlds (like Alice in Wonderland, The Wind in the Willows, etc). But the popularity of her books shifted the genre almost completely to our world with fantasy elements in it. This allowed for much more relatable characters and situations to her young audience. Nesbit was the starting point for later authors like Travers, Jones, and Rowling.

30. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham (1908)

From Paul Imgrund:

Kenneth Graham’s book of loosely-connected anthropomorphic stories paved the way for a slew of fantasy books/series with animals as main characters—Brian Jacques’ Redwall, Erin Hunter’s Warriors series, Robert O. Brien’s Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh, Richard Adams’ Watership Down—as well as works that not only give animals human traits, but parallel lives alongside humans, such as T.H. White’s The Sword in the Stone. Also, in Toad we find the (child-friendly) archetype of the lovable, morally-gray rapscallion. The vibes-over-plot-ness of TWitW also makes this a progenitor of the cozy fantasy subgenre.

31. Peter and Wendy by J. M. Barrie (1911)

. . .

32. Tarzan Series by Edgar Rice Burroughs (1912)

. . .

33. Barsoom Series by Edgar Rice Burroughs (1912)

From Brett Thomasson:

Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom series, imagining feats of derring-do on a Mars heavily influenced by Percival Lowell’s view of a canal-covered dying world, immediately influenced hundreds of stories of Earthmen attaining glory on strange and exotic worlds. Creators from Heinlein to Clarke to Herbert to Sagan to Lucas have acknowledged the tales of how John Carter, his heirs and and his friends overcame impossible odds and triumphed. They set to right what was wrong, defeated their enemies and won the hands of the most incomparable princesses and maidens imaginable. Burroughs’ evocative imagery, heroic heroes, villainous villains, strange creatures and lickety-durn-split pacing have drawn thousands upon thousands of imaginations to a version of the Red Planet that was not, but should have been.

34. A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay (1920)

. . .

35. Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne (1921)

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36. The Worm Ouroboros by E. R. Eddison (1922)

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37. The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany (1924)

. . .

38. Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees (1926)

. . .

39. “The Call of Cthulhu” by H. P. Lovecraft (1928)

From Michael Grigar:

One may be shocked (dare I say horrified) to find H.P. Lovecraft—a man whose surname has become synonymous with the genre of horror—included in a list of the most influential works of fantasy. But like so many of Lovecraft’s doomed protagonists found out the hard way, that which is once seen cannot be unseen, and if you delve deep enough into the lore you’ll soon find that today’s fantasy fiction has more than a few stands of Lovecraft’s atavistic DNA coursing through its veins.
While the novella The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath may be the closet Lovecraft ever came to writing (as the word “quest” in the title suggests) an out-and-out piece of Fantasy (further evidenced by the many Middle-Earth-style world maps its detailed setting of the Dreamlands has inspired) Lovecraft’s greatest—and for the purposes of this list, most influential—creation unquestionably remains that dragon-like god-monster Cthulhu, who has served for years as the mascot for the mythos.
Beating Tolkien to the punch by almost a decade, Lovecraft presented readers with an internally-coherent, Silmarillion-style cosmology (albeit one built through creative collaborations not too dissimilar from those found in the role playing games his works would later inspire) of Old Gods, ancient cults, magic grimoires, wicked witches, half-human hybrids, and dungeon-crawling monstrosities—eventually coming to influence one of fantasy’s most famous (non-literary) ambassadors to popular culture, Dungeons & Dragons.

40. Conan the Barbarian Series by Robert E. Howard (1932)

From Kevin’s Substack:

At their best, Robert E. Howard's stories show a prose style perfecting the language of adventure to give the plots the grandeur of legend infused with the grit of American pulp while portraying an outsider hero whose alienation from civilization readers could identify, and yet still admire how his will and cunning allowed him to carve his path in life.
When revived and reprinted as a paperback series in the 1960s, it set the tone for commercial fantasy for over 20 years before the rise of Sword of Shannara, The Belgariad, and other post-Tolkien series took over in publishing.

41. The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien (1937)

. . .

42. Gormenghast Series by Mervyn Peake (1946)

A study in the grotesque and Gothic, set mostly in the kitchens and sculleries of a huge and ramifying castle. No, not at all like Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi. It’s dark and convoluted where Clarke's infinite building is light and classical.
Peake is better known (insofar as known at all) as an illustrator and his drawings for Lewis Carroll's “Hunting of the Snark” are well worth seeking out. The illustrations are also integral to the three volumes of Gormenghast.

43. The Well of the Unicorn by Fletcher Pratt (1948)

. . .

44. The Dying Earth by Jack Vance (1950)

From Lisa Kuznak:

Without The Dying Earth, Dungeons and Dragons would look very different. (The "Vancian Magic" system comes right from Dying Earth.) Without Jack Vance, I doubt there would be Book of the New Sun as Vance was such an influence on Gene Wolfe.

The Hinge Decade (1950-1958)

This short time period is notable for three separate publications that revolutionized Fantasy. All the influence of previous Fantasy writers seemed to come together in this decade in these three authors who then created works that have impacted nearly ever notable Fantasy authors up to today. Lewis mainly impacted Children’s Fantasy, Religious Fantasy, Low Fantasy, and Young Adult Fantasy. Tolkien impacted just about everyone but especially Epic Fantasy, Heroic Fantasy, and High Fantasy. White impacted Comedic Fantasy, Literary Fantasy, and Comedic Fantasy.

45. The Chronicles of Narnia Series by C. S. Lewis (1950)

With his Medieval scholarship and his intense enjoyment of Morris, MacDonald, and all manner of fantastical authors of the previous 800 years, Lewis created the standard for Children’s Fantasy. Its literary merit and impact cannot be disputed. Its timing at a low point for Children’s Fantasy and subsequent impact on authors of both Children’s and Young Adult Fantasy (including those like Philip Pullman who reacted against it) cement it as the most impactful Children’s Fantasy series. Susanna Clarke, Neil Gaiman, Ursula K. Le Guin, J. K. Rowling, Jim Butcher, and many of the remaining authors on this list cite it as a serious influence on their own work.

46. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien (1954)

What can be said about the influence of The Lord of the Rings? There is hardly an author left on this list (if any) who wasn’t impacted by this epic work. Perhaps they have used Tolkienesque elements, perhaps they have subverted them, or perhaps they have reacted against them. But no Fantasy author (especially High Fantasy authors) can write without acknowledging the impact of Tolkien. And not only that, but the massive popularity of The Lord of the Rings in the 60’s opened publishers to considering other Fantasy authors. Without the content and massive popularity of Tolkien, many of the works on this list would never have been published.

And yet Tolkien’s most important contribution was not in any single element, many of which he borrowed from other authors. Morris invented the High Fantasy sub-genre, Tolkien’s elves come from folklore about Faerie, and Tolkien wasn’t the first to write an epic quest. Even the story of Bilbo in The Hobbit is heavily based on Beowulf. Tolkien revolutionized the Fantasy genre by combining all these elements in a world so thoroughly created that it defied disbelief during the reading. Middle-Earth is a real place while you’re reading it. The lore is deep and real. The story and characters are powerful because of their context. And the themes are powerful because they are built on a strong foundation.

47. The Once and Future King by T. H. White (1958)

The Once and Future King seems to have turned Comic Fantasy into a genre, and it has become the gold standard for all Arthurian Fantasies since. It is set apart by elements that we might today call “literary” with its overt exploration of modern themes, strong characters, and beautiful language. In it, White uses the background of the Arthurian legend to poke fun and ask serious social questions. This novel precipitated the machinations of Terry Pratchett and William Goldman, and with it, White proved that humor had a place in Fantasy and that King Arthur and Merlin were still figures significant to the genre.

From Joseph Harris:

Based on Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur, which is also on this list, The Once and Future King didn't so much invent King Arthur legends as modernize them. Lev Grossman said of this work, “White took hold of the ultimate English epic and recast it in modern literary language, sacrificing none of its grandeur or its strangeness . . . in the process . . .”

It is interesting that this novel was published just four years after The Lord of the Rings, given that Tolkien was aiming to invent a new mythology for England while White was refreshing one of the few mythologies England already had.

Age of the Heroic Epic (1954-1999)

After The Lord of the Rings cleared the way and showed the popularity of the Fantasy genre in the late 50’s and early 60’s, the number of Fantasy stories on the market exploded. The Lord of the Rings had made publishers willing to entertain Fantasy manuscripts in a time when many thought the genre receding. And because publishers like seeing success modeled, many of the stories accepted were reminiscent of Lewis, Tolkien, and White further cementing their impact on the genre.

The titles above in the Anti-Modern Fantasy era primarily take place in a story world that at least acknowledges our own real world, a.k.a. Low Fantasy. But the next forty years of Fantasy stories would see a much higher percentage of High Fantasy (stories that take place in a story world in which our world does not exist) and Heroic Fantasy stories (follows a hero or heroes who must save the day in a grand mission or goal) that would define the era.

48. "The Dreaming City" by Michael Moorcock (1961)

Shortly after the publication of The Lord of the Rings, Moorcock seems to have taken umbrage with stories of heroes who persistently do the right thing (a common complain with Tolkien). His dark, conflicted hero Elric of Melniboné set a standard for anti-heroes who must wrestle with difficult moral choices and who sometimes make the wrong decision.

49. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury (1962)

From Billy:

Ray Bradbury is typically thought of as a science fiction writer, which always troubled him, as he famously referred to even works like The Martian Chronicles as Fantasy.
Something Wicked This Way Comes represents his clearest, most popular attempt at a Fantasy novel, and it’s no surprise that it’s a tremendous success. Bradbury describes Green Town — an idyllic place that’s cozy and worthy of nostalgia — and then puts it in danger when the creepy figures of a traveling carnival come to town.
It makes the argument for Americana while contrasting it with the darkening perspective that any child must face when growing up.

50. Time Quintet Series by Madeleine L’Engle (1962)

. . .

51. Witch World Series by Andre Norton (1963)

. . .

52. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl (1964)

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53. The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander (1964)

. . .

54. Dune by Frank Herbert (1965)

. . .

55. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin (1968)

Enough can never be said about Le Guin’s influence through her children’s series, A Wizard of Earthsea. Joe Abercrombie, Neil Gaiman, members of the Erin Hunter pseudonym, China Mieville, and many others cite her as a prominent influence on their writing, and many conjecture that the setting for Rowling’s Harry Potter series was heavily inspired by Earthsea. Le Guin, like Lewis who influenced her heavily, refused to talk down to children and wrote Earthsea to grapple with deep, moral questions that few authors would dare to broach with children. Her seriousness, the complexity of her main character, her challenging themes, and her multifaceted world of Earthsea (dragons, ocean voyages, magical schools, etc.) cement her as one of the most important Fantasy authors of this era.

From Joseph Harris:

This is considered to be a prototype of the Magical School subgenre, which J.K. Rowling would later popularize with the Harry Potter series. It is also notable for its unusual worldbuilding (an archipelago world composed of small islands rather than large continents), and for being one of the first significant Western works of fantasy featuring a person of color as its protagonist.

56. The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle (1968)

. . .

57. Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey (1968)

From Jacob Tubbs:

Prior to McCaffrey's Pern books, dragons were pretty much big bad legendary monsters. After the Pern books, dragons were sometimes bad, and sometimes pretty good, friendly, and helpful. They even let people ride on them. If a Fantasy book has both dragons and people who ride dragons, then the relationship between dragon and rider is pretty much guaranteed to be a particular kind of relationship, directly modeled on McCaffrey's dragon riders.
Our conception of dragons in Fantasy comes from two places: the Lonely Mountain and Pern. Any variations are derivative of Tolkien and McCaffrey. While McCaffrey was certainly no Tolkien, her impact on the fantasy dragon is undeniable.

58. Deryni Series by Katherine Kurtz (1970)

. . .

59. Watership Down by Richard Adams (1972)

. . .

60. The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper (1973)

From Jon Sparks:

An outstanding fantasy that is firmly rooted in British folklore. Written for young people but never patronising and thoroughly satisfying to the adult reader.

61. The Princess Bride by William Goldman (1973)

From RosTy:

William Goldman modernized the comic fantasy and the fairytale, but he also repurposed the idea of pretending to find and republish an old manuscript, just like Horace Walpole did with The Castle of Otranto! The movie also arguably raised film Fantasy’s quality and reputation.

62. Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice (1976)

From Kevin’s Substack:

Interview with the Vampire was a game-changing novel in itself. The superhuman figures of the Anne Rice’s sequels from The Vampires Lestat onwards further developed the wish-fulfillment fantasy aspects hinted at in this novel, but Interview has more than that. It has absolute horror between its pages as we are introduced to the cabals of vampires who prey on 19th-century Europe and how they watch and assess who to kill and feast on in the grand theatres, with real sensuality in all the Southern Gothic meets Euro-horror atmosphere.
It violates taboos like the willful vampirization of children, and all told through the POV of someone grown distant to the sufferings of mortals. It made the queer subtext become the text for the readers of 1970s America. Vampire fiction and vampire movies can now be divided by one bloody line, pre-Interview and post-Interview.

63. The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien (1977)

From Joseph Harris:

The Silmarillion is almost considered to be an alternate history rather than a novel due to its focus on strict historical record over drama. It was Tolkien's original follow-up to The Hobbit, but his publisher rejected it as being too obscure, prompting Tolkien to pen The Lord of the Rings instead. The Silmarillion continued to be one of his greatest loves, and proceeded to grow and evolve until his death. It was collected, edited, and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien as well as Guy Gavriel Kay, who would go on to become a fantasy author in his own right.

64. Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson (1977)

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65. The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks (1977)

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66. The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe (1980)

The four volumes of Book of the New Sun show a level of complexity and complication that’s unusual or even exceptional in the fantasy world. A morally complex (and unreliable) protagonist/narrator—well, Severian is a professional torturer after all. A depth of symbolism that isn’t readily interpreted. A tendency to arcane and Baroque language. And a storyline that doesn't really go anywhere while visiting a whole lot of interesting places on the way. . . Arguably is Science Fiction on the basis that the world it’s set in turns out to be the very far future of our own one and its ‘magic’ is technological. And its closest analogue could be the freewheeling Science Fiction of Iain M. Banks. But if Fantasy means being fantastic and even phantasmagorical, then this is mainstream.

67. The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King (1982)

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68. The Elfin Ship by James Blaylock (1982)

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69. Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett (1983)

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70. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley (1983)

From Joseph Harris:

The Mists of Avalon retells a number of King Arthur legends from the perspectives of the women in the stories. It could be considered a precursor to the modern trend of female retellings embodied in works such as Circe by Madeline Miller and The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood.

71. The Black Company Series by Glenn Cook (1984)

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72. The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gabriel Kay (1984)

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73. Dragonlance Series by Maragaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (1984)

From Dane Benko:

These novels set the standard for Dungeons & Dragons-based “realm” franchises, where a certain universe and key heroic characters are known throughout a continuity but various stories could branch out from there. Krynn has a map and a shared history. The mainline Heroes of the Lance and their progeny are handled by the core writers Weis & Hickman, whereas other fantasy writers can build off of the “module” to create their own epics, such as the Dwarven Nations Trilogy by Dan Parkinson which contains no reference to the Heroes of the Lance at all but tells a multigenerational history of dwarven kingdom consolidation using the rules of the realm developed by Weis & Hickman.
Its connection with Dungeons & Dragons cannot be understated. The authors started it out both as a module for the tabletop roleplaying game and built the stories and the world around D&D's key mechanics. The Chronicles" trilogy contains a key adventuring party built out of a fairly standard Dungeons & Dragons group. Raistlin the Mage and Goldmoon the Cleric stand beside Tasslehoff the kinder (halfling) rogue and Flint the dwarven fighter and Fizban the paladin, and so forth.
Dragonlance not only modeled around Dungeons & Dragons but modeled how to play Dungeons & Dragons for many later players. Other realm franchises were more explicitly developed by Wizards of the Coast for Dungeons & Dragons player modules with backstory, particularly the Forgotten Realms books.

74. Redwall Series by Brian Jacques (1986)

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75. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynn Jones (1986)

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76. The Witcher Series by Andrezej Sapkowski (1986)

From Joseph Harris:

The Witcher series started off as a short story submitted to a writing contest, in which Andrzej Sapkowski won third place. It was a retelling of a Polish fairy tale, and the short stories and novels that followed often drew on Slavic folklore for their narratives and monsters. The novels are not designed as one single plotline, but are instead a collection of vignettes covering the life of protagonist Geralt of Rivia, with some recurring characters and locations. The stories are notable for their grimdark atmosphere which nevertheless contains a sense of moral right and the search for truth. Sapkowski's books have sold well, but it is the video game adaptations of his work developed by game studio CD Projekt that have catapulted him to historical acclaim.

77. The Pendragon Cycle by Stephen Lawhead (1987)

. . .

78. War for the Oaks by Emma Bull (1987)

War for the Oaks is likely the first Romantasy novel as well as an early Urban Fantasy novel. While few modern Romantasy authors cite her as an influence, her book pioneered aspects of the genre that would become popular later, and her influence on Urban Fantasy is much more felt.

79. Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn Series by Tad Williams (1988)

From Kevin’s Substack:

At first glance, it seems another trilogy of door-stopper epic Fantasy novels published trying to be another Tolkien, but Tad Williams incorporates other Fantasy authors such as Mervyn Peake and Michael Moorcock influences in ways that subvert reader expectations.
Noble kings get corrupted, legends of heroic feats are exposed as lies, mighty warriors are near crippled with guilt over their deeds, court intrigue complicates the struggle, and the heroine does not save her virginity for the hero.
George R. R. Martin would take these ideas and lean more into them to more actively deconstruct epic fantasy. Still, Memory, Sorrow and Thorn books are some of the first to call into question tropes and formulae that were ossifying the genre in hopes of rejuvenating it.

80. The Sandman by Neil Gaiman (1989)

From Billy:

This is the quintessential Vertigo comic. While Alan Moore started the British Invasion with books like Saga of the Swamp Thing and Watchmen, his most popular books were the ones which subverted or played with superhero tropes.
Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman marked a stark contrast as its pleasures have nothing to do with super heroics. Instead, the series shows comics readers what Fantasy can do. It blends myths, anthropomorphism, and metaphysics, all the while introducing readers to a playful literary style that influences comics to this day.
Its playful literariness inspired whole generations of comics authors, encouraging them to expand their reading palette and utilize more mature Fantasy themes in the comics they were creating.

81. The Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson (1990)

From Joseph Harris:

Considered by many fans to be the spiritual successor to The Lord of the Rings, The Wheel of Time series leans heavily into a good-versus-evil struggle as well as the immense and detailed worldbuilding that Tolkien was famous for. It contains dozens of unique cultures, hundreds of locations, and over 2,000 named characters. It also features a unique magic system where women can become powerful practitioners, but men who seek such power are driven mad - a critique, some readers believe, of the Vietnam War which Robert Jordan himself had served in. Released over a period of 23 years, the 15 books in this series were not completed at the time of Robert Jordan's death. Brandon Sanderson, then a largely obscure figure in the fantasy genre, was asked by Jordan's widow Harriet McDougal to finish writing the final installments.

82. The Sword of Truth Series by Terry Goodkind (1994)

These two Medievalist epic Fantasy series are more influential through quantity rather than quality. In Wheel of Time, although the last few books were finished by Brandon Sanderson after Robert Jordan died, Jordan is the original architect of one of the largest Fantasy series of all times. The literary merit of the series is low and there is little true originality (HUGE swaths of the first book feel borrowed directly from The Lord of the Rings), its impact is still felt in other mega-series for its size, its extensive world-building, and the sheer magnitude of its storyline and cast of characters. The Sword of Truth series has perhaps less literary merit, but it does have 27 books (including novellas). Not all influence leads to new developments or growth of the Fantasy genre. Sometimes an influential Fantasy work takes all the things that came before, mixes them together into some pastiche, and influences market demand.

83. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire (1995)

This story seeks to ask the question, “Why was the Wicked Witch of the West considered evil?” It inspired more deconstructive stories with sympathetic perspectives on supposed villains and explored another aspect of what an “anti-hero” is.

84. His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman (1995)

It was originally a reaction against “Narnia” which he saw as Christian propaganda but expanded into a towering multi-world vision (one of them being our own one). Strongly moral while also conspicuously anti religious. Visibly influenced by Paradise Lost and William Blake, neither of which/whom appear on your list though they might. Highly serious in that even the worst characters such as Mrs Coulter are morally ambiguous and the main heroine Lyra makes many errors of judgement and of morals. It’s full of original features such as characters having external souls in the form of animals, and warrior bears whose souls reside in their metal armour. The series is so knotty and original that it has I believe only very limited influence on (or from) the genre as a whole.

85. A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin (1996)

From maria:

Popularized the low fantasy genre with a focus on political intrigue above grand heroic quests. The series and its TV adaptation made fantasy attractive to mainstream audiences looking for something more grounded in reality with morally gray characters.

86. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine (1997)

This story is one of the best known fairy tale reimagining, a genre many authors still take part in today. It also provided children’s Fantasy in a decade when there was precious little to go around.

From Jacob Tubbs:

Ella Enchanted was quite impactful for the re-told fairytale genre. Following this book you get the Goose Girl books, Wildwood Dancing, the Lunar Chronicles, etc. It was very popular (enough to warrant a movie seven years after publication), and it was a true retelling of a fairytale. It also contributed to the later trend of having primarily female protagonists in retold fairy tales.

87. The Harry Potter Series by J. K. Rowling (1997)

Rowling’s seven-book series is a watershed moment for children and young adult Fantasy. Not only is it the best selling series of all time, outranking Narnia, Lord of the Rings, and everything else, but any YA Fantasy author who comes after is writing in her shadow. And not just because of literary influence but because publishing heft. Mendlesohn and James explain that in the short time prior to The Philosopher’s Stone, “there was very little fantasy for children on the market.” And not only did Harry Potter spark publishers to publish more children’s Fantasy, opening the door for authors like Colfer, Hunter, and Riordan, but it also brought many older Fantasy books back into print, which particularly helped cement the legacy of Diana Wynne Jones and Ursula K. Le Guin.

Not only all that, but elements of the Harry Potter series can also be seen in later YA series: the virtuous young person finds out he is someone special, characters sorted into groups based on strengths and weaknesses, and detailed inner dialogue and conflict are maybe the most prominent.

From Joseph Harris:

One of the most well-known titles on this list, Harry Potter is significant because it managed that rare achievement of breaking out of the fantasy fandom and into general consciousness. It was a crossover novel, mixing two genres (fantasy and boarding school) which had not been notably combined before. It garnered both praise and hatred in its time, causing a backlash among certain sects - particularly conservative Christians who believed it dealt with subject matter inappropriate for children. Despite this, it has met with immense success and continues to be the best-selling book series of all time.

The Fantasy Diaspora (2001-Present)

The Fantasy Diaspora has yet (by nature of being so young) to define itself, but my current theory, as laid out in my article on the eight eras of Fantasy literature, is that we will look back at the Diaspora as a time when the definition of Fantasy was stretched in every direction possible. But not only that; also our assumptions about Fantasy will be challenged. The 90s (and most of the previous four decades) took a Medievalist and Epic Quest approach to the genre. These were the big hits of the last half of the 20th century, and the genre’s readership and authorship were dominated by white males.

The Fantasy Diaspora changed that with the introduction or popularization of about as many genres as a person could imagine and an influx of female and non-white authors and readers. As you’ll see from my selection below, the term “Fantasy” became anything but simple.

88. The Dresden Files Series by Jim Butcher (2000)

Jim Butcher, in his series, explores and popularizes Urban Fantasy as he combines elements of detective fiction with Fantasy and the supernatural, which has certainly benefited from shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and benefited later shows like Supernatural.

89. Perdido Street Station by China Mieville (2000)

Mendlesohn and James regard China Mieville as the originator and main proponent of the New Weird, which they describe as “a Marxist subversion of classic fantasy tropes.” Practically speaking, the sub-genre shares elements with Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Urban Fantasy but often seeks to subvert the earlier genres. It’s almost a return to the era of pulp fiction and Weird Tales when Fantasy was often valued for its shock-value. Literary scholar Robin Anne Reid says New Weird stories “subvert cliches of the fantastic in order to put them to discomfiting, rather than consoling ends.” And few New Weird works are more important to the movement than Perdido Street Station.

90. American Gods by Neil Gaiman (2001) Or Coraline????

I think the full impact of American Gods is still forthcoming, but the book has already shown what a colossal power Literary Fantasy has to make commentary on culture and society in the 21st century. The novel treats large, complicated themes and is a postmodern foray into questions of national and human identity.

91. Artemis Fowl Series by Eoin Colfer (2001)

From Jacob Tubbs:

Harry Potter may have started the YA fantasy series, but Artemis Fowl spearheaded what it has since become. It was after Colfer you get Uglies by Westerfield, Inkheart by Funke, and Percy Jackson by Riordan. Artemis Fowl set the precedent for not just morally complex protagonists who change/progress throughout the series, but also a greater degree of worldbuilding for the YA genre.

92. Warriors Series by Erin Hunter (2003)

The two above YA Fantasy series borrowed from the legacy of Rowling and other mega-series to essentially create similar experiences for young readers. Artemis Fowl has 11 books in its series, and Warriors is still being written and has (by some counts) 117 books (it’s written by a few authors under the same name). Both series have incredible popularity and have expanded YA Fantasy in different directions.

93. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke (2004)

JS&MN was noteworthy for combining the Novel of Manners style of writing with Fantasy and for its dependence on Celtic and Gaelic depictions of the Fae and Fairie. Clarke is a smart writer who knows what Fantasy is capable of for exploring real world issues, and her strong characterization and the seriousness her novel holds for itself demands mainstream respect. Not only that, but the 782 page count showed publishers that large Fantasy books could still be sold. But most of all, it showcased how Fantasy’s limits had not been found and that the genre had room for the limitless creativity of its authors.

94. Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer (2005)

The Twilight Series has sold more than 160 million copies. This series is perhaps the largest selling book the explicit purpose of which is to combine fantastical and romantic elements. By doing this, it married two genres, welcomed female readers further into the Fantasy space, brought romance to Young Adult Fantasy, cemented the status of Paranormal Romance, and paved the way for Romantasy in the 2020’s.

95. Percy Jackson Series by Rick Riordan (2005)

Riordan capitalized on the success of Harry Potter to launch his YA Fantasy series that uses Greek mythology for its source material. His Percy Jackson series kept the YA Fantasy craze going and rebuilt youth interest in ancient Greek mythology, which has long been a force for spurring interest in Fantasy. The books also featured mental illness and disabilities as well as approached social issues difficult for some young readers. It had a tremendous impact on expectations for future YA Fantasy.

96. The First Law Series by Joe Abercrombie (2006)

Joe Abercrombie’s work is usually gritty and humorous with an emphasis on moral ambiguity. Building on the legacy of George R. R. Martin’s Grimdark Fantasy style, Abercrombie is perhaps the archetype for a successful, productive, Dark Fantasy author currently. His books employ a pessimistic, postmodern philosophy and provide readers with a break from simplified good vs. evil narratives and flat characters.

97. The Stormlight Archive Series by Brandon Sanderson (2010)

I’m not sure we knew how impactful Sanderson’s mega-series would be back in 2010, but the impact is clear today. Not only is Brandon Sanderson maybe the most financially successful Fantasy authors alive, but his style of hard magic systems, simple characters arcs, twisting plot structures, and colorful world building is being emulated by countless other authors. Besides that, he’s kept alive the tradition of the enormous epic Fantasy novel. The most recent book in the Stormlight Archive, Wind and Truth, was 1,344 pages, perhaps a result of his success in the audiobook market where longer books are prized over smaller books since they often cost the same—something Sanderson has acknowledged.

From Jacob Tubbs:

When Sanderson published Elantris he deliberately broke a lot of the old Fantasy tropes and rules, and he did it well enough to establish new precedents and expectations. The Stormlight Archive is the culmination of his style. Because of Stormlight, two major things that are now seen as a must in modern Fantasy are expansive worldbuilding and logical magic systems, which can be summarized in Sanderson's Three Laws of Magic.

More could be said about Sanderson's huge impact as an author (publishing industry, author/fan relations, etc.), but let's limit it to his books.

98. The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin (2015)

Jemisin does a remarkable job of highlighting character (no wonder—she’s also a psychologist!) and is also one of the most successful African American Fantasy authors of all time. This novel reviews social themes relevant to our world particularly to a minority member’s perspective. And The Fifth Season was chosen by both critics and readers as one of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century.

99. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (2015)

This book and its sequels did the lion’s share of codifying and popularizing the Romantasy genre in the early 2020’s thanks to its influence on the social media platform TikTok. The genre title is a portmanteau of Romance and Fantasy, and the genre itself is likewise a conjoining of the two. As of the time of writing this, Maas and other currently successful Romantasy authors are responsible for defining what the genre is as well as bringing in a larger level of female interest to Fantasy as a whole. While Romantasy may not have the long history and may or may not have staying power of Epic Fantasy or Horror Fantasy, it will undoubtedly remain an important sub-genre for a long time.

100. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (2020)

Piranesi builds on the legacy of the Portal Fantasy and particularly C. S. Lewis’s The Magician’s Nephew. Time will tell if I’m right, but I believe this Literary Fantasy will be with us for another hundred years and continue to inspire Fantasy authors who care less about giant, world-building feats of strength and more about the ability of Fantasy to dissect and understand interesting characters and powerful themes. The novel is, I think, revolutionary and may one day be recognized as the first step in an avalanche of Literary Fantasy to come.

You can read about why Piranesi is so amazing in further detail in my article regarding it’s theme and relationship to The Magician’s Nephew.

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Thank you for reading past the dragon.

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