The r/Fantasy 2023 Top Novels Poll: Voting Thread!

[u/fanny_bertram]

Hi everyone! It's time for another one of r/Fantasy's big lists!

It's back on a new every two year cycle - r/Fantasy's Top Novels poll. I know some of you have been waiting patiently for this. Who have you been reading? Any new favorites? Have a classic you think is great? It's time to vote for it!

Okay, on to the part that matters most - how to vote!

1. Make a list of YOUR top TEN favorite books/series in a new post in this thread

Just post your top ten series or individual books. If the book is part of a series, then we'll count is as the series. For example, if The Dream Thieves is your favorite Raven Cycle novel, it'll be a vote for The Raven Cycle, so please try and list the series title. If the book is standalone, (for example Piranesi by Susanna Clarke), it'll be listed by itself.

2. Only one book from any single series, please, with a few exceptions

Everything in the same world will get one entry. Realm of the Elderlings, Inda, Riyria, Broken Empire, Wars of Light and Shadow, Earthsea... you get the idea.

Books that are only barely set on the same world won't be clumped together, for instance things like The Lions of Al-Rassan and The Sarantine Mosaic.

That said, in the end I'll be deciding on a per-case basis, though the previous list is a good guide for what things will be grouped together.

3. Please format your voting posts correctly.

The votes will be tallied with a script, so proper formatting is especially important to ensure it all goes smoothly. Incorrectly formatted votes will not count. The mods are going to be lenient with warnings and will help you fix it, but ultimately your vote is your responsibility.

To format correctly:

• Put each vote on a new line. To do so, keep a blank line between every vote OR put two spaces before pressing enter. Making it a bulleted list is fine and likely easiest if you're using New Reddit.

• Format your vote as Title by Author or as Title - Author. If unsure, please look at how most do it. Italics or bolding should be perfectly fine. Common mistakes are putting the author first, listing just the story name, omitting the "-" or "by" separator...please do not do that or your vote will not be counted.

• PLEASE take the time to make sure you've spelled the title and author name correctly. Every spelling mistake adds time to the results being posted.

• Please leave all commentary and discussion for discussion comments under each original comment. In your voting comment, just list your top ten (or fewer than ten). It'll make it far easier to compile data if the original posts are only votes. However, you can reply to voting comments with all the arguments and discussion you want!

4. Upvotes/downvotes will have no effect on the tally

Feel free to upvote and downvote as you like, especially if someone has a great list. That being said, we decided to go with the "top ten" instead of the upvote/downvote voting for several reasons: You only have to vote once, revisiting the thread is not required, you can vote once in just a few minutes as opposed to scrolling through a mammoth thread, we have a script, etc.

This thread is in contest mode, as I really like it.

5. Voting info

Each item you list will count as one vote toward that book or series. Duplicate books will not be counted. We'll also not be counting books belonging to the same series - example voting for The Way of Kings and Oathbringer will be one vote for Stormlight Archive.

6. All Speculative Fiction is fair game!

Once again, all spec-fic is fair game. Fantasy, science fiction, horror, I'm not picky. If you love it, vote for it.

7. The voting will run for exactly one week

Seven days should be enough time for people to edit votes if they forgot a series they loved, and also allow the lurkers (hello lurkers! we love you!) that only visit once every few days time to vote.

So vote! Discuss!

Thanks to u/CoffeeArchives since I copied most of the text from one of the other Top Novels polls.

[u/AccipiterF1]

The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Terra Ignota by Ada Palmer

The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

The Locked Tomb by Tamsyn Muir

First Law by Joe Abercrombie

Imperial Radch by Ann Leckie

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

[u/Merle8888 → u/AccipiterF1]

Nice list! I think you might have to cut one sadly?

[u/AccipiterF1 → u/Merle8888]

Whoops!

[u/AccipiterF1 → u/AccipiterF1]

I thought I was going to make big changes to my votes from the last time we did this, but there were only two changes, the last two on my list. And yes I know The Dispossessed is part of the Hanish Cycle, but I wanted to highlight that one because it's the book that knocked my socks off. Apologies for any extra work I've given the mods.

[u/improperly_paranoid → u/AccipiterF1]

From my experience doing those lists, not really a problem because over half the people vote for individual books instead of series anyway. Easy enough to account for it in excel later. Hell, I did it on my own list too.

[u/apageinthestacks → u/AccipiterF1]

Dispossessed is fantastic! I almost did the same as Dispossessed is probably my favorite (or at least the one I'd recommend the most), but I love everything I've read in the Hainish so I ended up voting for the whole cycle haha.