[Other] What's the best fantasy story ever created?

[stuartj1992]

What's your point? You could make that argument about every piece of modern day fiction. Is it 100% based off of anything pre-existing? No? Is it based off of snippets from multiple sources? If so, then that's still their originality.

There's a difference between being inspired by something, and just repackaging it with a slightly different name and characters.

Just look at the Watchers of Ulduar, and the associated characters. Thorim? Loken? Hodir? Mimiron? Hell, with Tyr and Sif they didn't even bother to even slightly change their names! The whole Thorim/Loken storyline is just a complete copy from Norse mythology, as are all the Watchers essentially.

So no, that's not borrowing "snippets" - that's just plain copying.

[Herecius]

As much as I desperately want to say the Hyperion Cantos, I know that wisdom decrees the setting and stories of Middle Earth to simply be the most expansive and most realized fantasy ever created. From its myths, to its gods, to its languages and peoples and stories and... really, just everything. Tolkien created a living, breathing world through his writing that managed to transcend the writing itself simply because of how much detail and effort went into its creation.

But I really, really want to say the Hyperion Cantos. That is sci-fi/fantasy at its most incredible for me personally.

[Adam Jensen]

A Song of Ice and Fire and the Wheel of Time win for me.

The first for its brutal grimdark "anyone can die and I'm George R R Martin and I don't give a fuck" attitude. And both for their complex plot and characters (except Nynaeve can go to hell) and well defined world.

[Noomz]

Lord of the Rings is like the grandfather of modern Fantasy, i.e. Warcraft.

It saddens me when people think that. There was a lot of fantasy written before Lord of the Rings that was easily just as good or better.
The Conan stories were made in the 1930's. Howard was a friend of Tolkien as well. There were other contemporary writers at the time who wrote great books, but for some reason LotR seems to have become the most well-known over all others.

Warhammer though, even though it's quite modern, is my favorite. Both the fantasy and the futuristic version. While it's not one story, the entirety of it is awesome.
Same goes for D&D and Forgotten Realms, while not a single story, they are tremendously rich and deep fantasy worlds.

[Anshinritsumai]

For me personally, it's going to be a tie between the entirety of the Warcraft series, as well as the A Song of Ice & Fire series. Warcraft takes the cake for being really rich in the mystical elements of fantasy (I don't care what it's "based on", "stolen from"); and A Song of Ice & Fire for it's more realistic tone in the realm of fantasy.

[Noomz]

There's a difference between being inspired by something, and just repackaging it with a slightly different name and characters.

Just look at the Watchers of Ulduar, and the associated characters. Thorim? Loken? Hodir? Mimiron? Hell, with Tyr and Sif they didn't even bother to even slightly change their names! The whole Thorim/Loken storyline is just a complete copy from Norse mythology, as are all the Watchers essentially.

So no, that's not borrowing "snippets" - that's just plain copying.

Ever heard that there's just 7 stories in the world and we keep re-telling them with different settings? In essence, everything is the same, when you come right down to it.
http://lenwilson.us/seven-stories/

1. man against man
2. man against nature
3. man against himself
4. man against God
5. man against society
6.man caught in the middle
7. man and woman

But yes, Warcraft is heavily influenced by real world mythology. As are many many other fantasy settings.
Consider that MMO Secret World, all it has are the real world stories. That's all it's about.

---------- Post added 2013-04-09 at 05:11 AM ----------

For me personally, it's going to be a tie between the entirety of the Warcraft series, as well as the A Song of Ice & Fire series. Warcraft takes the cake for being really rich in the mystical elements of fantasy (I don't care what it's "based on", "stolen from"); and A Song of Ice & Fire for it's more realistic tone in the realm of fantasy.

It still makes me sad to hear people think that Warcraft is "rich". While not the worst of the lot, Warcraft lore is a shamble and shouldn't even be compared to something like A Song of Ice & Fire. It's like comparing your granny's old moped with a Ferrari.

[sxefluff]

As a person who DOES believe in God (SO I'M NOT FUCKING BASHING) the bible is pretty epic. True or not, it's got A LOT of epic story elements.

[Noomz]

As much as I desperately want to say the Hyperion Cantos, I know that wisdom decrees the setting and stories of Middle Earth to simply be the most expansive and most realized fantasy ever created. From its myths, to its gods, to its languages and peoples and stories and... really, just everything. Tolkien created a living, breathing world through his writing that managed to transcend the writing itself simply because of how much detail and effort went into its creation.

But I really, really want to say the Hyperion Cantos. That is sci-fi/fantasy at its most incredible for me personally.

I'd go so far as to say there was too much detail. While the LotR books are good, with my years of getting older I've come to realize that they aren't THAT good. The story is really slow at times and the way it's told is a bit... dull. Tolkien wasn't a good writer. That might seem strange to say but, it reminds me of Lovecraft, who wasn't a good writer either but could still make up interesting stories.

---------- Post added 2013-04-09 at 05:19 AM ----------

As a person who DOES believe in God (SO I'M NOT FUCKING BASHING) the bible is pretty epic. True or not, it's got A LOT of epic story elements.

No offense against the religion itself but, the Bible is very dull and is terrible at telling a story. It's written more like poems and poetry with pointlessly elaborate language. The Bible is terrible as a book and the "story" it tells is far from the first version such a story about gods. So you see, even the Bible has taken a lot of inspiration from others.

[Schattenlied]

No offense against the religion itself but, the Bible is very dull and is terrible at telling a story. It's written more like poems and poetry with pointlessly elaborate language. The Bible is terrible as a book and the "story" it tells is far from the first version such a story about gods. So you see, even the Bible has taken a lot of inspiration from others.

Thats how people talked and wrote back then /dealwithit


Anyways, my vote goes to Warhammer, 40k or fantasy (though I prefer 40k).

[Deleted]

There's a difference between being inspired by something, and just repackaging it with a slightly different name and characters.

Just look at the Watchers of Ulduar, and the associated characters. Thorim? Loken? Hodir? Mimiron? Hell, with Tyr and Sif they didn't even bother to even slightly change their names! The whole Thorim/Loken storyline is just a complete copy from Norse mythology, as are all the Watchers essentially.

So no, that's not borrowing "snippets" - that's just plain copying.

The æesir after whom the watchers are named were not titanic servants but (arguably half-)gods in their own right, and their trysts were not caused by manpulation from an ancient mind-corrupting entity (as they were guarding no such thing). There is a distinction between Aesir and Vanir in Warcraft, as two different kinds of titans (a group otherwise mainly inspired by greek mythology) rather than watchers, but that's just about where the information about them starts and ends.

Look, the point is, you can't point comparisons at one part of a larger storyline and say the whole work is "plain copying". What you've proven is exactly what you're arguing against: They're borrowing snippets from multiple sources.

[Valeron]

Personally I don't see how any game lore/story could ever be counted in a discussion for best fantasy story ever created.

[MushroomBomb]

Story? I'd have to say that the closest I have to a favourite fantasy story is probably Book Of The New Sun.

But the thing is, when it comes to speculative fiction set in worlds not entirely like our own, the world itself is an enormous part. Truth be told, it's largely why I fell in love with the Warcraft franchise in the first place. The story is, for the most part, good or even great. But the world? That's phenomenal. The vast majority of fantasy stories cannot be judged on story alone, when the world around it is so important. Which is why this thread is sort of slightly useless if the point is to bring out the "best" fantasy work of all time.

[jackofwind]

Tolkien's complete works followed, and sometimes challenged, by Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen.

PS: Erikson totally lives in my city and I've met him in the local grocery store.


And when I was a kid I loved Brian Jacques' Redwall series, and I wholeheartedly and unashamedly argue that it, alongside Harry Potter, are my favorite youth-oriented fantasy.

[rnbwtrout]

the best fantasy world that still lingers with me is Tolkien's middle earth and C.S. Lewis' Narnia.

the one i most enjoyed however is David Eddings series around the knight Sparhawk.

definitely dig Game of Thrones series, but its kinda like they're high fantasy and then kinda not. but they are the first fantasy works i've enjoyed as an adult. loved fantasy as a kid, but when i peruse some of the fantasy books i loved as a kid, they are some awful, awful writings.

[Zhira]

I have 3 favorite worlds:

Middle-earth
Krynn
Randland

Z.

[Deleted]

They're borrowing snippets from multiple sources.

To be fair, they're borrowing quite a bit more than just snippets. Only from norse mythology we have everything from teldrassil, nordrassil and parts of hyjal & most of northrend to a whole bunch of their gods, stories and there's even a whole bunch of npcs with names and looks that are straight up copies from norse mythology. Sons of Hodir, the jormungar-snakes (jörmungandr, midgard serpent), ettins... the list just goes on and on. The amount of things borrowed from norse mythology is just staggering. Then we have zones like Uldum, heavily inspired by the old egyptians and also a few knockoffs from greek mythology throughout the game.

I don't mind this however, they've made some really nice work out of a lot of the old fantasy/mythology stories and it's makes the game a lot of fun to play. Re-reading a lot of norse mythology a year or so ago made northrend a whole new experience while playing through it on an alt a while ago. Same goes the other way around, finding out where they got the inspiration for the game while reading fantasy books and/or mythology.

[Mormolyce]

It saddens me when people think that. There was a lot of fantasy written before Lord of the Rings that was easily just as good or better.
The Conan stories were made in the 1930's. Howard was a friend of Tolkien as well. There were other contemporary writers at the time who wrote great books, but for some reason LotR seems to have become the most well-known over all others.

Well this is true, but pre-Tolkien fantasy was quite different to post-Tolkien fantasy. Tolkien invented the genre sometimes referred to as "high fantasy". Conan belongs more to the "swords and sorcery" sub-genre. The former dominates modern fantasy.

[Dragoncurry]

Tolkien Ima let you finish and all but the greatest fantasy universe ever created was not Middle-Earth but Dune. Sorry, but to me that's the greatest fantasy novel of all time. People label it science fiction but to me it's a different genre from Star Wars, Star Trek, Hitchhikers, or Ender's Game, and it's probably the greatest set of novels ever written. UP TO THE END OF CHAPTERHOUSE OF COURSE. #Dragonballz to wish back Herbert or wish away his son's work...don't know which one.

Also the second greatest fantasy universe ever created in my opinion is Oda's One Piece manga. You may not call it a novel, but I've never been moved by any piece of literature as much as the Alabasta/CP9 arc than any work in the fantasy genre except MAYBE Drizzt Do Urdy in the Dark Elf Trilogy and Elfaba's fate in Wicked, both of which are fanfuckingtastic fantasy worlds. Also, it's deep as fuck and the character development is S-T-E-L-L-A-R. Holla if ya feel me.

[obdigore]

I never finished Wheel of Time. Even though I loved it. After 13 books and the constant drama revisited, I had to give up. Its a shame he didn't live long enough to finish the series, though its my understanding he left copious notes. I admire that.

Robert Jordan and his editor/wife (he needed a new editor, anyway...) chose Brandon Sanderson to finish the series. Sanderson is a better writer than Jordan ever was, and doesn't get dragged down in Minutia as Jordan did.

[tanzir]

Warhammer fantasy.