# Top 100 Fantasy Authors (How Many Have You Read?)



## lauren$77 (Sep 5, 2013)

A list of the top 100 fantasy authors compiled by the users of reddit.com. It let's you count how many you've read. I'm ashamed I've only read 17 of them. How many have you read?

100 of the Best Fantasy Authors from the Past Century - How Many of these Fantasy Authors Have You Read?


----------



## Brian G Turner (Sep 5, 2013)

I got 33 - but I try and be a little discerning. 

Also - Enid Blyton??


----------



## Mouse (Sep 5, 2013)

I scored 22. I counted Scott Lynch and Roger Zelazny, even though I didn't enjoy the books enough to finish them.


----------



## Jo Zebedee (Sep 5, 2013)

24. And, Brian... The Faraway Tree? Fab fantasy for the very young.


----------



## thaddeus6th (Sep 5, 2013)

Counting those whose work I've started and abandoned, 23.


----------



## svalbard (Sep 5, 2013)

I hit 37. Good list and has put a few authors into my mind to revisit. No Michael Moorcock on the list?


----------



## Juliana (Sep 6, 2013)

Only 18... But several are on my to read list, just haven't worked my way round to them yet!!!


----------



## martin321 (Sep 6, 2013)

38. Although for a few of the authors I've only read their science fiction rather than their fantasy novels. Do I get some sort of prize? Cake, maybe?


----------



## Boneman (Sep 6, 2013)

I've obviously been around a lot longer - I got 53... Who are number 36 and 73? I saw 99's name on his badge, but no idea who those two were.


----------



## nixie (Sep 6, 2013)

59... There a few authors I would have expected to be there but aren't and some  surprising entries, no disrespect but how can authors who are just starting out with one or two works under their belt make the list ahead of some the more established authors.


----------



## nixie (Sep 6, 2013)

36 is Alan Garner, never read any of his. 73 is Richard K Morgan.


----------



## Rodders (Sep 6, 2013)

Only 15 for me, but i'm not much is a fantasy reader. I wonder how i'd do on a Sci Fi list?


----------



## Gordian Knot (Sep 7, 2013)

It is a very strange list. Both for who is on it as well as who is not.

Stephen King and Anne Rice? They are fantasy authors?????? If so why isn't Lovecraft included.

Paolini deserves to be on this list? Seriously????

Where is Michael Moorcock. Where is Andre Norton!!!!! Where is Kathryn Kurtz. Where is C.J. Cherryh. Diane Duane?

And those are just the few I can think of off the top of my head. I'm sure with some thought I could come up with others.....


----------



## Mirannan (Sep 7, 2013)

Gordian Knot said:


> It is a very strange list. Both for who is on it as well as who is not.
> 
> Stephen King and Anne Rice? They are fantasy authors?????? If so why isn't Lovecraft included.
> 
> ...



Stephen King belongs because of his Gunslinger series, IMHO.

As for the others - well, omissions always happen in lists like this. There are, of course, far more than 100 fantasy authors.


----------



## Dr Zoidberg (Sep 7, 2013)

Gordian Knot said:


> Stephen King? They are fantasy authors??????



The Eyes of the Dragon would fit that classification nicely, but it's certainly not his major genre.

Still I'm glad he's in there, as he was one of my 18 that I've read something by.


----------



## Stephen Palmer (Sep 7, 2013)

I got 40. There were a lot of names there I didn't recognise at all...


----------



## Grimward (Sep 7, 2013)

Same here, although I only had 19 (my hat's off to Nixie, Stephen and the others with so many!).  Would note that the list is described as 100 of the best, not simply "the best", so maybe if we can't overlook the oversights (and I note a few as well!), we can forgive the compilers?


----------



## Pyan (Sep 7, 2013)

59, same as nixie (though I do wonder how much overlap there might be!...)

And I agree, it's a very, um..._idiosyncratic_ list. Paolini's in, but Moorcock's not?


----------



## chrispenycate (Sep 7, 2013)

I only manage 45, but I'm more SF than fantasy. However, there were several fantasy authors I have well up my list who are missing, and several classed there I've read very little of after trying one (plus some they've probably classed as SF, which I don't).


----------



## Foxbat (Sep 7, 2013)

A mere 24. 

On the bright side, I've just realised that Raymond E. Feist is the spitting image of one of my work colleagues - either that or Feist's books ain't selling that well and he's moonlighting.


----------



## The Ace (Sep 7, 2013)

I got 82, I wonder if I'm allowed to name the ones I think are only fit for toilet-paper ?

It's nice to put faces to the names, though - even if only to know who to punch.


----------



## HoopyFrood (Sep 7, 2013)

An even quarter of the list. Though there are a handful or two of authors whose books sit on my shelves but haven't been read yet.


----------



## alchemist (Sep 7, 2013)

22. Tom Holt is the only one who wrote a book I stopped reading before the end.


----------



## Mouse (Sep 7, 2013)

Tom Holt lives in my town! ^


----------



## alchemist (Sep 7, 2013)

I'm sure he's a lovely man


----------



## Hex (Sep 7, 2013)

60. I thought I was doing really well, and then I saw The Ace's score.

A number of them write books for kids -- e.g. Garth Nix, Jonathan Stroud, and some of them wrote a while ago (Lloyd Alexander, for example -- one of the best writers of fantasy ever, wrote books for children and was published in the 1960s.  The same is true of Alan Garner, who is also wonderful).


----------



## Phyrebrat (Sep 8, 2013)

6. Oh dear.

Make a horror one and I'll do much better, promise

pH


----------



## jastius (Sep 9, 2013)

i missed fifteen of those guys somehow... (disgruntled by what the world is coming to when the reading list is so backed up...)  ... (actually i blame my sudden surge in manga reading for research purposes)


----------



## Bick (Oct 14, 2013)

I get 25, but it's a bit of a cheat, regards fantasy, because I ticked a bunch if authors that I have read, but not actually their fantasy work.


----------



## biodroid (Oct 14, 2013)

I got 16


----------



## Tower75 (Oct 14, 2013)

Wow, I need to step up. I got... 2. Behold my 2, and tremble in its awe!


----------



## Jo Zebedee (Oct 14, 2013)

Tower75 said:


> Wow, I need to step up. I got... 2. Behold my 2, and tremble in its awe!




Woot! What two? We must know. (And welcome to the Chrons.)


----------



## Tower75 (Oct 14, 2013)

springs said:


> Woot! What two? We must know. (And welcome to the Chrons.)


 
It's Joe Abercrombie, and Elizabeth Moon, I think. Oh, and Enid Blyton, now that I think of it. Ha. 3!  

Thanks for the welcome. I’m not sure why I only have 2posts, though. I’ve been posting in my Introduction thread.


----------



## Jo Zebedee (Oct 14, 2013)

Tower75 said:


> It's Joe Abercrombie, and Elizabeth Moon, I think. Oh, and Enid Blyton, now that I think of it. Ha. 3!
> 
> Thanks for the welcome. I’m not sure why I only have 2posts, though. I’ve been posting in my Introduction thread.




An excellent three. 

Not all posts count to your count. Intros and playrooms don't. I should spend more time there.


----------



## Abernovo (Oct 14, 2013)

I got 36. Not bad for someone who hasn't read much Fantasy. I suspect some of them I might have read their science fiction works, but it's been a while, so I can't remember.

A few names I want to read, as well. Bujold, Hobb, Moon, Abercrombie.


----------



## BookerBrin (Oct 14, 2013)

I have only read 15 of those authors. I obviously have some serious catch-up reading to do!


----------



## Lady of Winterfell (Oct 14, 2013)

I wound up with *31*. Lists like this always interest me...they remind me how much more reading I have left to do.  Although I am fairly proud of my 31.


----------



## ratsy (Oct 15, 2013)

I have read 35 of them.  I am actually surprised at how many I actually don't know.


----------



## J-Sun (Oct 16, 2013)

Just to set the low bar some low scoring fantasy fans need to get over  (since I'm not especially a fantasy fan), I got nineteen, though I came to a dozen of them from the direction of SF and, in some cases, haven't read any of their fantasy at all. I've also read stories by three more (also from the direction of SF). And I've got unread books by two more and an unread story by another. Counting all that would take me to a quarter of the list. (I may have read another one or few but only wanted to count the ones I was sure of.)



Rodders said:


> Only 15 for me, but i'm not much is a fantasy reader. I wonder how i'd do on a Sci Fi list?



Rodders, you inspired me to post a thread on that topic.


----------



## Nesacat (Oct 17, 2013)

58 but it's a very odd list. No Moorcock or Lovecraft but there's Enid Blyton.


----------



## BAYLOR (May 1, 2015)

35 from that list


----------



## kythe (May 1, 2015)

Only 11.  It would be 12 if you count that I once started Terry Brooks' Shannarra series.  I couldn't get through it though because it felt like a cheap Tolkein ripoff.


----------



## Brian G Turner (May 1, 2015)

Up to 39 now...


----------



## Stephen Palmer (May 1, 2015)

30. A lot of the authors I'd never heard of!


----------



## Vince W (May 1, 2015)

35. But to be honest, some those authors I haven't read their fantasy books, only their science fiction.


----------



## marmalade (May 1, 2015)

21, and of course my 'to read' list has now been padded considerably.


----------



## Nechtan (May 1, 2015)

39. A few I would never read again.


----------

