This week's list is a freebie, so I thought I'd reach back into the dustiest of my bookshelves, push aside the TBR pile, and look at the the Top Ten Fantasy Sagas of My Youth.
- Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson - this series tends to get a lot of bad reviews, based largely on a horrendous act perpetrated early on by the hero, but you have to take things in context. Overall, a brilliantly chilling slice of imagination.
- Dark Tower by Stephen King - while I kind of fell out of love with the series after the Wizard of Oz homage in the fourth book, the next more than won me back . . . and, in hindsight, I have a much greater appreciation for how King incorporate pop culture mythology.
- Dragonlance Chronicles by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman - this was actually the first fantasy saga I ever read, even before Tolkien, and I can still remember being amazed by the thought that not all heroes were good.
- Dragon Prince by Melanie Rawn - one of the first fantasy sagas to really wow me, and the series that began a long love affair with Ms. Rawn through the Dragon Star and Exiles sagas.
- Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb - an absolutely brilliant piece of fantasy, complex and layered, well-written, and full of ambiguity. One of the more challenging reads of my youth, but one that I cannot recommend highly enough.
- Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay - okay, the purists may want lynch me for saying this, but in my humble opinion this is the single greatest fantasy trilogy ever written.
- Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams - at the time I delved into this saga, these books were some of the thickest door-stoppers I'd ever read (particularly the too-big-for-one-book To Green Angel Tower) but I don't know that anyone has dealt with the maturing of a young hero any better.
- Riftwar Saga by Raymond E. Feist - okay, what I just said about Tad Williams . . . well, here is the one author who has done a better job with the maturing young hero. While the later sagas strayed a bit too far from the core storyline for my tastes, sacrificing a lot of the magic, the story of Pug and Thomas is a must-read for any fantasy fan.
- Wayfarer Redemption by Sara Douglass - this was the first fantasy saga to offer me something truly different, to present a fresh take on the epic hero, the quest, and the complex mythology of heavenly gods and earthbound avatars.
- Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan - I'll admit, I resisted the series for a long time, partially because I didn't like being told I had to read it, and partially because I started the first book a few times and just couldn't get into it. At some point Rand and I clicked . . . and the rest is history.
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