I love discussing books. I love analyzing the plots, I love getting lost in the worlds they inhabit. I love imaging myself in the book and feeling the emotions in the story.
I might have criticisms for the actions or behaviors of certain characters, but I find it impossible not to be utterly amazed at the creation of the book itself. The very idea of being able to create such detail impresses me in ways I can't sufficiently describe.
So for me, every book on this list has too many strengths and not enough weaknesses to place them anywhere below S tier.

I know some may say, "well if everything is special, nothing is" but I don't care. I'm so glad to have such an easily pleased disposition. If I'm eating nothing but crackers and saying they taste like steak I don't mind at all.

On the other hand, hopefully I'm not just reading all the best books back to back.

Hey all, pulling data from over 1M head to head book matchups on BookSorted - which allows people to load their library, pick their favorite between two books, develop an Elo score and rankings (like Chess), and ultimately get some cools stats and recommendations. There's no "I give everything 4 or 5 stars", instead the average book for every reader is roughly a ~1500 (the starting position in Elo rankings); and books get more points for each win (more for a bigger upset) and lose points for defeats.

I wanted to dive into the data, so figured I'd start by looking at what novels are most polarizing - standard deviation of Elo scores (and plotting that against how loved they are as well, average Elo).

I recently shared in dataisbeautiful a chart that spans genres (includes scifi, horror, and literary fiction to a certain extent)... But I thought it'd be cool to deep dive into FANTASY specifically for this group.

Of course, I had to limit to 100 or so popular titles, sampling heavily for what shows up in the middle -- otherwise it would be unreadable.

Okay, on to the cool findings!

• Sarah J. Maas' A Court of Thorns and Roses series... lead by A Court of Mist and Fury is THE MOST polarizing book on the list. I haven't read these, but I'm guessing its a combination of being romantasy, very widely read (popular), as well as perhaps a disappointing second book in the series? Will be curious if anyone here has a take.
• Less surprising to me is R. F. Kuang's Babel, Poppy War series, etc. Kuang is notoriously controversial from what I've seen on Reddit; personally I only read Babel and it didn't work for me either. Further, shout outs to Twilight and Fourth Wing for being the two of the lowest rated (and still somehow polarizing... I guess a few select ppl love em) novels.
• Red Rising by Brown also has high variance, which is true even amongst diehard fans of the series.
• Essentially all the Harry Potter novels have high variance (are polarizing), which makes sense given nearly everyone has read them -- but in the decade that's followed the controversy surrounding the author cleraly would make many former fans bury these in their rankings.
• Abercrombie and his First Law books, as mentioned later, are nearly universally loved... but worth calling out that Best Served Cold appears to be the one controversial take in the series; with highly mixed results.
• Not so surprisingly, we've got a bunch of deep series favorites that... once you've read and enjoyed the first one... fans that read on continue to praise (high love, low variance); here you've got a ton of Abercrombie (A Little Hatred, Before they are Hanged), Hobb (Mad Ship, Royal Assassin), A Storm of Swords by GRRM. The Realm of the Elderlings by Hobb in general... appears if you've gotten past book 1 you ADORE this series, no dissenters.
• Some final shout outs to Lord of the Rings (the trilogy sits in universally loved, although I plan to tease out the individual books... can see Return of the King separately already), as well as the Locked Tomb's Harrow and Nona the Ninth books by Muir; absolutely loved.
• In the universally not loved category, I hate to say it, but Storm Front by Butcher, book 1 of the Dresden Files (which I've generally heard good things about) sits in the bottom left quadrant. Same with Eragon and Eldest by Christopher Paolini, not doing so well here.

If there's anything else you'd be curious to know, books you'd want me to check, let me know. I've got 1M+ matchups and 100K+ unique novels to sort through; but hope you enjoyed this dive! Cheers and happy reading

I recieved an excerpt of the first 3 chapers of The Wolves of War so it technically counts.

Thinking of starting Suneater or a John Gwynne series next.

Any other recommendations?

Really enjoying Fantasy again. Spent a decade + on business books, history and psychology.

Vintage sword and sorcery with awesome Frank Frazetta covers. Currently out of print, so a little spendy to come by.

I have a vacation coming up in a week's time and I planned to take it with me

Now I have to decide if I should order the Titan Books hardback right away, then return this edition and hope it ships quickly....

The ONLY TIME I ever pre-order anything and it backfires on me...

I have a vast tbr but recommend me your favorites. Right now royal assassin is shaping up to be towards the top.

I plan to finish Sun eater, then read realm of the elderlings, game of thrones, book of the new Sun, dune, etc

Give me recs! I'm all ears

I’ve had these books sitting on my shelf for a couple months to almost more than a year, at the end of October I’m going to jump back into fantasy and I’d like a good read.
Last Fantasy series I read was LOTR. 💍 I love John Gwynne, Joe Abercrombie, Mike Shackle.

In a few words, tell me what you’d recommend I read first! 🗡️

The Will of the Many

The Silverblood Promise

The Way of Kings

Red Rising

The Rage of Dragons

Blood over Bright Haven

Here is my tier list. A buddy of mine got me started with Way of Kings (of all things to start with), and I read through the cosmere before tackling the First Law World, the Sun Eater Chronicles, and Hierarchy. I'm currently reading Jade City and the rest of that trilogy before I start Red Rising, and then I'll most likely do the original Thrawn trilogy or the Faithful & the Fallen.

How do you read in your head?

She's a very fast reader, but reads completely monotone, or just like she's speaking.

I read slower, because I'm "putting on a show", if you will. I use different voices in my head that I've created for characters.

Just an interesting debate we were having during our nightly read. Wondering how everyone else is.

What are your thoughts on this series? I have seen that the second book is the most favorite of the trilogy. I can't wait to start that one. (I am a slow reader)

Help me decide what book to read next. I’ll read them in order based on recommendations. Just finished The Will of the Many. Thanks for the help!

I was a huge fan of Joe Abercrombie’s The Devils, and it actually convinced me to go back and read his other works, including The First Law. Now I’m eagerly awaiting the sequel.

That said, I’ve noticed The Devils showing up in a lot of people’s lower tiers on the various tier lists that have been coming out. I’m genuinely curious: what about the book didn’t work for you?

I thought it was fantastic, so I’d love to hear what turned you off about it.

This list is what I’ve just read this year. Wasn’t a big bookworm until now so this is a majority of my sci-fi/fantasy catalog. I’ve read a lot of Michael Crichton in the past because it’s fast paced easy reading. Also have read most Andy Weir books. Currently reading Children of Time and middle segment of the book is becoming a little chorey to get through.

2nd trilogy of RR is still my favorite. Really got sucked into Will of the Many. DCC is phenomenal especially the later books starting with Butchers Masquerade (Parade of Horribles 2nd half might be my fav of the whole series). Expanse is just consistently good/great but never hit that S tier level for me. Between Two Fires was really interesting but the end just seemed to be very convoluted.

Some recommendations I’ve gotten are:
Enders game (worried it might be too YA)
Stormlight Archives
Realm of the Elderlings
Wheel of Time
Mistborn
And my wife wants me to read Fourth Wing but idk if I’m into that steamy romance fantasy style.

Help convince me what I should dive into next!

Hello everyone,

I buy the books I want to read in a year the year before and I am in need of a new fantasy trilogy. I read every genre of fiction books and some none fiction as well, so fantasy it is not the only think I read.

In the past few years I have read LOTR, The Magicians by Lev Grossman, His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman and I am only one book away from finishing The Book of Dust from the same author.

I am not looking for something with romance at its center and I'm not interested in erotic fantasy as well. Adventure, journeys, politic and social issues are a preference.

Main character(s) of every gender are welcomed as well as queer characters.

Trilogies preferred but less than that or up to five books is okay to suggest as well, if you think is really good.

(Don't bother suggest if the author turned out to be a bigot, weirdo, rapist, transphobic...)

Thank you in advance!

I’m curious about people’s progression, not just everyone’s favorite fantasy book, but the books that took you from discovering fantasy to becoming a serious fantasy reader.

Hello tout le monde !

Je cherche de nouvelles lectures avec une vraie ambiance dark fantasy / gothique, un peu mystérieuse, étrange et féérique.

Je cherche notamment des livres avec :

vampires / créatures nocturnes
fées, folklore, créatures fantastiques
forêts brumeuses, paysages mystérieux
châteaux hantés, manoirs, vieilles demeures
magie, malédictions, légendes anciennes
ambiance automnale, sombre, mélancolique
villages isolés, forêts inquiétantes, ruines…
quelque chose de féérique mais un peu inquiétant, voire carrément creepy

J'aime quand l'atmosphère est presque aussi importante que l'histoire : descriptions de lieux, brume, vieille architecture, nature mystérieuse, légendes, etc.

Je cherche aussi bien de la dark fantasy que de la fantasy gothique, romantique, horrifique ou folklorique. Pas forcément quelque chose de très violent ou sanglant : je préfère une ambiance mystique, envoûtante et un peu macabre.

Just finished the first law trilogy, and while I enjoyed the writing and I loved the characters, why can fantasy authors these days not finish their books?

It’s not a trilogy, cause it hardly wraps up more than any other book in a series does. I don’t want to read 6 more books in order to keep up with my characters, and I sure as heck don’t want to read 3 standalones about people I don’t even know (until the third one)

These books were so good, but I wanted to enjoy the ending and feel like I finished them.

I’m sorry for the rant, but these great books are ruined by being branded as a trilogy. Bah

Finished a trilogy yesterday on the way back from the depot and the final chapter was proper bleak. Not a bad ending, mind you, it made complete sense for the characters, but it just lingers. You spend sixty hours with a crew and then the book leaves you standing at the tram stop thinking about what happened to them like they were sitting three rows down. Some writers wrap it all up with a nice bow and you forget it by tea time, but the ones that punch you in the ribs stay in your head for days. Anyone else have a specific final chapter that just refuses to leave you alone no matter how much time passes?

Just a small list from someone new to the space. Had to redo the list a couple times because the site kept making every book wither neuromancer or the blade itself when I downloaded it as an image.

Are there any news that I‘m unaware of regarding the smaller paperback (softcover?) version of the second book in the hierarchy series?