If you like rollicking reads about dragons and dwarves or wizards and elves. If you like stories of magical adventures and mystical battles, with or without a medieval twist. If you like tales of fairies and goblins or weird talking animals. If you like marvellous epics set in intricate make-believe worlds where things aren’t always what they seem. Then do I have a book list for you.

After more than a year of painstaking research and debate, Time Magazine has released its ultimate list of fantasy books. The curated list of books includes classics that date back to the 9th century, like Arabian Nights, as well as modern classics like Lewis Carroll’s Alice through the Looking Glass and Travers’ Mary Poppins. Chuck in contemporary gems like Neil Gaiman’s American Gods and Cassandra Clare’s City of Glass and you have a fantasy reading list to be reckoned with.

An expert panel of authors and editors – including Neil himself and a host of others – spent more than a year crafting the ultimate fantasy book list. An initial 250-strong book list was narrowed down, based on factors including originality, artistry, popularity with readers and critics and its influence on both the fantasy genre and literature generally. The final mix includes fantasy chapter books for children, YA and adults.

The art of story-telling

Author N.K. Jemisin says the list of top fantasy novels encapsulates the art of story-telling and deals in the “realities of societal strife”.

“These are fraught times—but there have always been fraught times for someone in the world, somewhere. And there have always been those whose mastery of the art of storytelling has helped us understand how powerfully stories shape the world,” she writes, in an introduction to the Times‘ list.

“There is a preponderance of stories aimed at children on this list, possibly because we’re still openly hungry for stories in the years of our childhood, and thus the stories we absorb then have a lasting effect. Our hunger for stories doesn’t really change when we grow up, however; the need is still there, acknowledged or not—especially if the stories we’ve been given up to that point don’t accurately encapsulate reality. 

“The good guys don’t always win, the bad guys don’t always lose, and either way, the ones who suffer most will be the people who were already struggling to get by.”

The end result is a completely brilliant book list crammed with 100 must-read fantasy novels that’ll rock your reading world. That’s right, the best 100 fantasy novels of all time. Check it out.

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100 fantasy books to read before you die

1. The Arabian Nights
2. Le Morte D-Arthur by Thomas Mallory
3. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
4. Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
5. Five Children and It by E.Nesbitt
6. Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum
7. Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
8. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.L. Lewis
9. The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola
10. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.L. Lewis
11. The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
12. My Life in the Bush of Ghosts by Amos Tutuola
13. The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien
14. The Return of the King by J.R.R Tolkien
15. A Hero Born by Jin Yong
16. The Once and Future King by T.H. White
17. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
18. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
19. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
20. The Wandering Unicorn by Manuel Mujica Lainez
21. Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
22. The Last Unicorn by Peter. S. Beagle
23. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin
24. The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart
25. The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula Le Guin
26. Watership Down by Richard Adams
27. The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
28. The Princess Bride by William Goldman
29. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
30. A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L’Engle
31. The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
32. The BFG by Roald Dahl
33. Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce
34. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
35. Redwall by Brian Jacques
36. Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner
37. The Lives of Christopher Chant by Dianna Wynne Jones
38. The Eyes of the World by Robert Jordan
39. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
40. Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie
41. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
42. Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay
43. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
44. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
45. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
46. The Subtle Knife by Phillip Pulman
47. Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson
48. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
49. Spindle’s End by Robin McKinley
50. A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin
51. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
52. The Wee Free Men by Neil Pratchett
53. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
54. Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
55. The Name of the Wind by Cassandra Clare
56. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
57. City of Glass by Cassandra Clare
58. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
59. Who Fears Death by NNedi Okorafor
60. Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor
61. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
62. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
63. Angelfall by Susan Ee
64. A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar
65. The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
66. The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
67. An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
68. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
69. Get in Trouble by Kelly Link
70. The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu
71. Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older
72. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
73. The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
74. All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
75. A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir
76. The Wall of Storms by Ken Liu
77. Beasts Made of Night by Tochi Onyebuchi
78. The Black Tides of Heaven by Jy Yang
79. The Changeling by Victor Lavalle
80. Jade City by Fonda Lee
81. The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin
82. Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi
83. Blana & Roja by Anna-Marie McLemore
84. Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
85. Circe by Madeline Miller
86. Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri
87. The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
88. Song of Blood and Stone by L. Penelope
89. Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse
90. Witchmark by C.L. Polk
91. Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
92. Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi
93. The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang
94. Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia-Moren0-Garcia
95. Pet by Akwake Emezi
96. Queen of the Conquered by Kacen Callender
97. The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter
98. We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal
99. Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
100. Woven in Moonlight by Isabel Ibanez

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Want more great reads? Take a look at this list of the 100 books you need to read right now or this list of the best historical fiction books.

(via Time Magazine)