Fuzzy Orange Doomsayer
I consider myself well-read in fantasy, but I've only read four of these in their entirety. The count goes up a bit if you include series I've read part of, though.
Frankly, a lot of the ones I left half-finished are series I would not recommend for any reason other than analysis, and then only if you intend to look at what they did wrong as well as what they did right. (To discuss the one listed series I finished, I'd call His Dark Materials Pullman's greatest failure, even if it is a memorable failure.)
Edit: Changed "rather than" to "as well as." Again speaking of Pullman, it's unfair on my part to not also commend him for what he did well, and to use another example, Corwin's half of Book Of Amber was great even if I couldn't make it through Merlin's half.
edited 17th Feb '12 7:31:51 PM by feotakahari
That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful
frozen in time
I was gonna say, does it count of you've read some of it but not all? That's the difference between me being Third Guild and Moron.
no one will notice that I changed this
Zzzzzzzzzz
Hmm, yes, that question is fairly important.
But anyway, I pretty much approve of his choices, in part because there are quite a few on there that I've read, and also consider important in defining the genre, but that are largely forgotten, or at least, I've rarely or never met anyone else who's read them (They may have read other books by the same author, but not that particular work):
- Fletcher Pratt & L. Sprague de Camp, Harold Shea series
- John Myers Myers, Silverlock
- Poul Anderson, Three Hearts And Three Lions
- Patricia A. Mc Killip, The Riddle Master Of Hed
- John Morressy, Kedrigern
I have the same problem with this list that i do with a lot of other lists of fantasy, which is that there simply isn't a long enough list of quality fantasy works to fill this out. So you end up with the situation like you have here, where you have some books which are absolutely top-tier on the same list as books that i wouldn't recommend to anyone with better than a grade-school reading level. And that does a disservice to the writers on the list who are really pushing the bounds of literature.
I can think of several authors and works that should have been on the list, and I'm not sure why they weren't. How, for instance, could he leave off E.R. Eddison?
PS: The Conan stories predate The Hobbit.
edited 18th Feb '12 6:00:06 PM by Maven
frozen in time
No Gormenghast is a big oversight as far as I'm concerned.
no one will notice that I changed this
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
and He might just didn't have read these books, consider how humongous this list is and that it's based on preferences (or sense of how important for the genre the books in question are) of one man, who has a normal life.
KVLFON
I wonder, on one hand he seems well-read, on the other I didn't know of these before I got hooked on 'Tropes.
"Atheism is the religion whose followers are easiest to troll"
frozen in time
Well see, it might've been more fair to do it as a survey or vote of some kind. Get some of the non-normals in it too.
no one will notice that I changed this
Makes a whole lot of sense for his personal canon.
Apparition in the Woods
Also, he did explicitly exclude at least one potential entry for not fitting into a single genre; who's to say that the same does not, perhaps, apply to Gormenghast?
I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.
I am vexed!
I wouldn't put it past him to have read all or most of these. If you read the Witcher books (insofar as language limitations allow), you might find that they're very diverse in genre. They're all fantasy, mind, but that's not really a genre in terms of core narrative. Within fantasy, Sapkowski writes mystery, drama, action, horror and a host of other genres depending on the needs of the time and place.
He's a diverse author, which implies diverse reading — and goodness knows that for all the criticism levelled at fantasy literature, it can be extremely diverse.
edited 30th Mar '12 11:33:52 AM by MadassAlex
Swordsman Troper — Reclaiming The Blade — Watch
KVLFON
He wrote his own Book On Tropes, the original list is from there.
"Atheism is the religion whose followers are easiest to troll"
Question: Is there anything linking this list to Andrzej himself? I can't find any sort of articles saying he made it...
You can't even write racist abuse in excrement on somebody's car without the politically correct brigade jumping down your throat!
KVLFON
I own the aforementioned book with the previous version of the list, does it count? 
What's the name of the book?
You can't even write racist abuse in excrement on somebody's car without the politically correct brigade jumping down your throat!
I am vexed!
Unless you can read Polish, it might be a fruitless search. As far as I know, only two of Andrzej's Witcher books have had English translations thus far and everything else written by him is in various mainland European languages.
So I suppose German, Czech, Russian (maybe?), Italian, or what-have-you as a second language would also be applicable.
Swordsman Troper — Reclaiming The Blade — Watch
"What's the name of the book?"
Rękopis Znaleziony w Smoczej Jaskini which would translate as Manuscript Found in the Dragon's Cave
There is nothing by Robin Hobb. Therefore this list is wrong.
Andrzej Sapkowski, creator of The Witcher book series, has published a list of what he considers a Canon of Fantasy Literature - novels every fantasy fan should read because they are either that good or that important to the genre (in other words, his recommendation list). Initially the list had 85 positions, but was upgraded in 2010 to 100 positions. I decided to show it to you guys, to see what you think about it.
The list in (I think) order of publication, bold positions are his Top Ten. All series are listed as whole unless stated otherwise.
Positions removed from the list with the update:
And because Even Nerds Have Standards, Sapkowski provides the caste system: Having read at least 90 positions gives you the rank of Master (Magister Magnus), 65 - Magister Fantasticus, between 65 and 55 - Illuminatus, at least 55 - Expertus, at least 50 - Well-Read Fan, between 49 and 30 - Second Guild Fan, less than 30 but more than 15 - Third Guild Fan, no more than 15 - Laic (Stultus), less than 10 - Moron (Ignoramus). Last three should better stay quiet on all discussions about fantasy for their own good, but when somebody has to go buy beer, it's Thrid Guild Fan's duty.
edited 17th Feb '12 10:39:48 AM by PrimoVictoria