although not strictly fantasy, anne rice's "interview with the vampire" is honestly one of the absolute best vampire books that exists. as an opener to her vampire chronicles, not only is it an incredible book but also the best modern depiction of vampires.
Love these tier videos, i’m new to fantasy and there’s sooooo many books out there idk where to start. These videos help me get a good idea at what to pick up next
I’m so glad you found it helpful! I hope you find some great reads. What books are your favorites? I might be able to point to a couple specific recommendations for you if I know what you already like.
@@ToriTalks2 i very much love character heavy focus too. The wider range of colorful characters the better. And political type plots. But really i’m open to just about anything lol
@@dr.hiccup573 if you like deep character work and complex political intrigue, I’d suggest the Green Bone Saga by Fonda Lee, and you might also enjoy Gentleman Bastard. After that? Long Price Quartet and Malazan. 💜🔥
I knew our tastes differed based on some of your favorites, but I didn’t realize how much until today! This was a fun video, even if you broke my heart with A Wizard of Earthsea and All Systems Red 😂
Hi Tori, great video. Love your ranking. It's interesting for me in that I have only read 9 of the books you have in this Tier list. Although I do own 5 other books on here that I haven't got round to reading yet and 2 of them are in your top tier. 🙂 Out of that 9 I think there are only a couple of them I'd strongly disagree with though. Hunger Games I'd put in Cast it into the Fire and I'd put Priest Of Bones into It's OK. The others are pretty close to where I'd rank them.
I love that everyone has read different series across Booktube, it makes the discussions so much more diverse and interesting! I hope your upcoming reads end up in your top tiers too :)
Monumental undertaking. It's always interesting to see how books work for other people; the surprises aren't where my views are different but where they coincide. A few random comments: * I had a similar response to All Systems Red. But after reading the first four novellas, I think together they make up quite a good first novel in a series. The first novella doesn't really go anywhere, but the arc of those four books is remarkably good. * Jade City didn't work for me at all. The writing was fractured by skips of PoV and the result broke my immersion. Plus the world didn't make a lot of sense to me either. * I read Ender's Game as a short piece before the novel came out and thought it was brilliant. Then, when I read the novel, I thought it was even better (though I was skeptical about the increase in length). * Mistborn (my version doesn't mention the phrase "The Final Empire" until the internal cover about 6 pages into the bind-up) didn't work for me as a world and for a magic system trying so, so hard to be scientific, it had some serious flaws. The plot had interesting twists, but seemed more interested in being twisty than in making sense. Not a favorite, and I haven't yet continued the series.
Mistborn magic system and world gets built up with each book with more understanding. Frankly, it gets more complex, but the rules are simple and it’s well explained enough to keep up and make sense of it. I urge you to try again with a mind that all your questions have answers.
Mistborn definitely has some flaws, I enjoyed it as a gateway into my epic fantasy journey so some of my appreciation is based in nostalgia. That's interesting and also makes sense that the Murderbot series would fit together as a singular story more than separate novellas. Thank you so much for watching!
Love this tier list! I think mine would look pretty different, other than Lies of Locke Lamora up at the top haha. I still have to read Long Price, and maybe give Red Rising another chance 😅
I didn't like Red Rising but the number of people I have spoken too who felt the same as me who went on to LOVE the sequels has me wondering if I ought to try the series again
Out of the Silent Planet is simply CS Lewis' Space Trilogy (along with Perelanda and That Hideous Strength). I read it as a young adult around 1990 and again in my 40's and would consider it a C compared to Narnia which was a B as an adult read. mog other books you list that I have read, Mistborn is a give a kidney and my GOAT. Guards Guards is a solid romp (I've also read Mort), but like Piers Anthony and Robert Aspirin books, there is no meat so I can't give them more. Older book series you should consider reading are Roger Zelanski's Amber series (first 9 books are great, but he didn't know how to finish it well) and Ann McCaffrey's Dragonflight series. Also, despite the most epic fail for a book to movie translation in cinema history, Divergent was a banger for a young adult series.
Some great reads in here! I disagree that there's no meat in Discworld. There's so many layers and he packs in some really powerful themes while writing incredibly intelligent character dialogue and humor. :D I definitely agree that Silent Planet was not as good as Narnia. I haven't read Ann McCaffrey or Roger Zelanski yet!
Wait you didn't love Twilight? Heresy Tori, your wolf boy Jacob would be disappointed 🤣 No but really, I am so impressed with how easily you were able to rank all of these. I would be uhm-ing and ah-ing for wayyyyy too long lol. That top tier is chef's kisssss btw, though I have yet to read Iron Prince and you have me VERY excited! In general, I feel like the ones I have read pretty much rank in the same way for the most part, so love that for us 🤩
Sorry to disappoint Jacob, that'll haunt me for a couple seconds at least. XD Girl I cannot wait for you to read Iron Prince. I think you're really going to love it. Mostly ranking stuff like this is just "don't think too hard, just vibes" when I get stuck. Lol!
Stumbled on your channel and couldn’t agree more about red rising. Question-did you read the follow up trilogy?? I’ve tried to read book 4, and I just can’t keep st it. Not sure why.
I just finished Lightbringer last week! The first two books in era 2 were NOT my favorite, to be honest. But Lightbringer was leagues better, and a return to form that honors the original trilogy much better.
Hi! Nice list. How about: The Bear and the Nightingale - Katherine Arden, Grass - Sheri S. Tepper, The Windup Girl - Paolo Bacigalupi, Ancilary Justice - Ann Leckie, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August - Claire North, The Builders - Daniel Polansky. 🙂
Listening to you talk about Dungeon Crawler Carl, I get the feeling this was an excellent book that was ruined by one thing. Now, I like a bit of potty humor every once in a while, but that's just me. However, I know this feeling when reading a scene that we know shouldn't have been included. I had this feeling with Peril at End House by Agatha Christie. It was fast approaching my top ten Agatha Christie books when she hits me with a scene that was only there to satisfy a terrible trope. Do you get this feeling much? Good book brought down because of one creative choice?
I'm with you on the selling your kidney to read it again tier. There isn't a miss among them. I'd also put Mistborn up there... I clearly have a type :D I had a bit of a knee jerk response to Guards! Guards! not being up there too, but Pratchett's storytelling only gets better from there, so I can't complain.
You know, Guards Guards was really fun and I liked it a lot, but it wasn't until Men at Arms that I fell head over heels for Pratchett's storytelling. That's still my favorite!
Locke Lamora is also one of my favorites, in any genre. And I haven't read like 95 percent of the books here, so I'm just gonna back away slowly with both of my palms up, and an awkward smile.
@ Yeah I’m on the fifth book, The Heroes and finding the constant cynicism to wear a bit thin. I get what he’s doing and appreciated it more in the trilogy, but hoping he switches things up a bit more.
Really enjoyed this video and thank you for making it. What a reader you've been! How can I not seriously consider those books in your highest tier?! Have you done one of these for series as a whole? ('ll have to check.) Also, am I correct in thinking this list is overwhelmingly fantasy over sci-fi? (I know there was Ender's Game.) Curious what you'd think of books like Hyperion (Simmons) or A Fire Upon the Deep (Vinge). Also Flowers for Algernon (Keyes) and the classic Frankenstein (Shelley), but they are not first books in a series. Again, great job!
I have read Flowers for Algernon, and Frankenstein is one of my favorite books of all time! This particular list is overwhelmingly fantasy, since that's the majority of what I read, but I am excited to get into some more sci fi series in 2025!
There are two 1st books technically. You've got the original publication order, which would be Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, and then the chronological order being Magician's Nephew. Either one works!
Joe Abercrombie is one of my favourite authors and even my interest in reading Shattered Sea is borderline non-existent 90% of the time. Love the ending to Last Argument of Kings 😅
@ToriTalks2 Never say never but vikings are a tough sell for me at the best of times for the last 3 or 4 years, especially in books. It's kinda why I've been dragging my feet on continuing Cornwell's Last Kingdom series.
Ok so I got to the part in Red Rising where (spoiler) they execute the guy's girlfriend, and I felt NOTHING, and i feel like if you kill off a character and I have 0 emotional reaction, then it's not worth reading. Someone sell me on finishing it
If it's not working for you, that's okay. :) But I will say that the heart of the story is found family, self-sacrifice, and loyalty. The character work as the story progresses through the first trilogy is so good, some of my favorite ever!
Court of Thorns and Roses is like the Taylor Swift or Sabrina Carpenter of books. And not in a good way😅 Just generic, cringe, lowest common denominator slop.
although not strictly fantasy, anne rice's "interview with the vampire" is honestly one of the absolute best vampire books that exists. as an opener to her vampire chronicles, not only is it an incredible book but also the best modern depiction of vampires.
Love these tier videos, i’m new to fantasy and there’s sooooo many books out there idk where to start. These videos help me get a good idea at what to pick up next
I’m so glad you found it helpful! I hope you find some great reads. What books are your favorites? I might be able to point to a couple specific recommendations for you if I know what you already like.
@@ToriTalks2 the series ive finished/caught up to so far are ASOIAF, Hunger Games, and almost done with First Law trilogy!
@@ToriTalks2 i very much love character heavy focus too. The wider range of colorful characters the better. And political type plots. But really i’m open to just about anything lol
@@dr.hiccup573 if you like deep character work and complex political intrigue, I’d suggest the Green Bone Saga by Fonda Lee, and you might also enjoy Gentleman Bastard. After that? Long Price Quartet and Malazan. 💜🔥
@@ToriTalks2 thanks i appreciate it very much. I will rent Green Bone saga from my library right away!
You broke my heart with the blade it self in that place, but I can understand. Really dope tier list. Love your videos.
I'm sorry XD I'm glad you enjoyed the video!
I knew our tastes differed based on some of your favorites, but I didn’t realize how much until today! This was a fun video, even if you broke my heart with A Wizard of Earthsea and All Systems Red 😂
RE Earthsea, same 🤣
Same, read Earthsea for the first time last year and loved it. Was such a fun D&Dish adventure vibe.
Sorry XD I wasn't a fan of the writing style in Earthsea! What is a list of some of your favorites of all time?
Disappointing you with my book tastes is a staple of the channel at this point, Rogue XD
@@ToriTalks2 haha, is all good. We seem to at least have a couple books in common. Like Jack London 🫶
Really enjoyed this. I agreed with enough of your top rankings to suspect I need to try Red Rising even though it doesn't sound like my usual fare.
Thanks so much for watching! I hope you enjoy Red Rising if you pick it up. :D
Blood song hits so hard. I’ve read it five times now and it has so much confidence.
It’s really good! 🔥
Hi Tori, great video. Love your ranking. It's interesting for me in that I have only read 9 of the books you have in this Tier list.
Although I do own 5 other books on here that I haven't got round to reading yet and 2 of them are in your top tier. 🙂
Out of that 9 I think there are only a couple of them I'd strongly disagree with though. Hunger Games I'd put in Cast it into the Fire and I'd put Priest Of Bones into It's OK.
The others are pretty close to where I'd rank them.
I love that everyone has read different series across Booktube, it makes the discussions so much more diverse and interesting! I hope your upcoming reads end up in your top tiers too :)
I had the exact same experience as your husband. I BINGED The Books of Babel last year 😂 Great tier list Tori!
Nice!!! So glad you enjoyed them. Thank you for watching!
Sun Eater will be top tier but I don't know if Empire of Silence would.
I’m open minded, and I’ve committed to at least two books before I decide anything
Monumental undertaking. It's always interesting to see how books work for other people; the surprises aren't where my views are different but where they coincide.
A few random comments:
* I had a similar response to All Systems Red. But after reading the first four novellas, I think together they make up quite a good first novel in a series. The first novella doesn't really go anywhere, but the arc of those four books is remarkably good.
* Jade City didn't work for me at all. The writing was fractured by skips of PoV and the result broke my immersion. Plus the world didn't make a lot of sense to me either.
* I read Ender's Game as a short piece before the novel came out and thought it was brilliant. Then, when I read the novel, I thought it was even better (though I was skeptical about the increase in length).
* Mistborn (my version doesn't mention the phrase "The Final Empire" until the internal cover about 6 pages into the bind-up) didn't work for me as a world and for a magic system trying so, so hard to be scientific, it had some serious flaws. The plot had interesting twists, but seemed more interested in being twisty than in making sense. Not a favorite, and I haven't yet continued the series.
Mistborn magic system and world gets built up with each book with more understanding. Frankly, it gets more complex, but the rules are simple and it’s well explained enough to keep up and make sense of it. I urge you to try again with a mind that all your questions have answers.
Mistborn definitely has some flaws, I enjoyed it as a gateway into my epic fantasy journey so some of my appreciation is based in nostalgia. That's interesting and also makes sense that the Murderbot series would fit together as a singular story more than separate novellas.
Thank you so much for watching!
Love this tier list!
I think mine would look pretty different, other than Lies of Locke Lamora up at the top haha. I still have to read Long Price, and maybe give Red Rising another chance 😅
I didn't like Red Rising but the number of people I have spoken too who felt the same as me who went on to LOVE the sequels has me wondering if I ought to try the series again
Honestly there are a lot of people who were meh about the first book that really enjoyed the rest of the series!
I hope you do someday. XD But I totally understand that it isn't for all readers. Long Price is a masterpiece!
Out of the Silent Planet is simply CS Lewis' Space Trilogy (along with Perelanda and That Hideous Strength). I read it as a young adult around 1990 and again in my 40's and would consider it a C compared to Narnia which was a B as an adult read. mog other books you list that I have read, Mistborn is a give a kidney and my GOAT. Guards Guards is a solid romp (I've also read Mort), but like Piers Anthony and Robert Aspirin books, there is no meat so I can't give them more. Older book series you should consider reading are Roger Zelanski's Amber series (first 9 books are great, but he didn't know how to finish it well) and Ann McCaffrey's Dragonflight series. Also, despite the most epic fail for a book to movie translation in cinema history, Divergent was a banger for a young adult series.
Some great reads in here! I disagree that there's no meat in Discworld. There's so many layers and he packs in some really powerful themes while writing incredibly intelligent character dialogue and humor. :D
I definitely agree that Silent Planet was not as good as Narnia. I haven't read Ann McCaffrey or Roger Zelanski yet!
I did not have beating Gwynne on my Bingo card!
HAHA 😆 well congratulations! 🍾
Wait you didn't love Twilight? Heresy Tori, your wolf boy Jacob would be disappointed 🤣
No but really, I am so impressed with how easily you were able to rank all of these. I would be uhm-ing and ah-ing for wayyyyy too long lol. That top tier is chef's kisssss btw, though I have yet to read Iron Prince and you have me VERY excited! In general, I feel like the ones I have read pretty much rank in the same way for the most part, so love that for us 🤩
Sorry to disappoint Jacob, that'll haunt me for a couple seconds at least. XD Girl I cannot wait for you to read Iron Prince. I think you're really going to love it. Mostly ranking stuff like this is just "don't think too hard, just vibes" when I get stuck. Lol!
Wow, that's quite the list. For a classic, you might want to try Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey.
Stumbled on your channel and couldn’t agree more about red rising.
Question-did you read the follow up trilogy?? I’ve tried to read book 4, and I just can’t keep st it. Not sure why.
I just finished Lightbringer last week! The first two books in era 2 were NOT my favorite, to be honest. But Lightbringer was leagues better, and a return to form that honors the original trilogy much better.
Hi! Nice list. How about: The Bear and the Nightingale - Katherine Arden, Grass - Sheri S. Tepper, The Windup Girl - Paolo Bacigalupi, Ancilary Justice - Ann Leckie, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August - Claire North, The Builders - Daniel Polansky. 🙂
I haven’t read any of those yet or else they’d be on the list!
@@ToriTalks2 Well, maybe you'll try them. 😊
Listening to you talk about Dungeon Crawler Carl, I get the feeling this was an excellent book that was ruined by one thing. Now, I like a bit of potty humor every once in a while, but that's just me. However, I know this feeling when reading a scene that we know shouldn't have been included. I had this feeling with Peril at End House by Agatha Christie. It was fast approaching my top ten Agatha Christie books when she hits me with a scene that was only there to satisfy a terrible trope. Do you get this feeling much? Good book brought down because of one creative choice?
Oh absolutely, I think there are a lot of books that suffer from that. I haven't read any Agatha Christie yet but she's on my TBR for 2025. :D
I'm with you on the selling your kidney to read it again tier. There isn't a miss among them. I'd also put Mistborn up there... I clearly have a type :D
I had a bit of a knee jerk response to Guards! Guards! not being up there too, but Pratchett's storytelling only gets better from there, so I can't complain.
You know, Guards Guards was really fun and I liked it a lot, but it wasn't until Men at Arms that I fell head over heels for Pratchett's storytelling. That's still my favorite!
If you liked Red Rising, may I humbly suggest that you read Empire of Silence?
It's on the list for 2025! That's been the most recommended series on my channel for the past year and a half!
Locke Lamora is also one of my favorites, in any genre. And I haven't read like 95 percent of the books here, so I'm just gonna back away slowly with both of my palms up, and an awkward smile.
No need to back away. XD The great part is there are always so many great books left to read. I'm glad you liked Locke Lamora so much!
Yesss Jade City up top! And big shout out to Redwall!
Always a shoutout to Redwall! :D
Is Empire of Silence on this list? One of my favorite books ever
I haven’t read it yet! That’s a 2025 read 🔥
That’s a lot of book 1’s!!! Great to see the tier list! Out of curiosity Tori how many First Law books did you read?
It is a lot, and I forgot a few 😂 I read all three First Law books. 👍🏻
@ Yeah I’m on the fifth book, The Heroes and finding the constant cynicism to wear a bit thin. I get what he’s doing and appreciated it more in the trilogy, but hoping he switches things up a bit more.
Really enjoyed this video and thank you for making it. What a reader you've been! How can I not seriously consider those books in your highest tier?! Have you done one of these for series as a whole? ('ll have to check.) Also, am I correct in thinking this list is overwhelmingly fantasy over sci-fi? (I know there was Ender's Game.) Curious what you'd think of books like Hyperion (Simmons) or A Fire Upon the Deep (Vinge). Also Flowers for Algernon (Keyes) and the classic Frankenstein (Shelley), but they are not first books in a series. Again, great job!
I have read Flowers for Algernon, and Frankenstein is one of my favorite books of all time! This particular list is overwhelmingly fantasy, since that's the majority of what I read, but I am excited to get into some more sci fi series in 2025!
20:55
I don't think The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe is the 1st book in the series..... correct me if i am wrong.....
It depends if you go by the original publication order, or the internal chronological order.
it most certainly is :)
It’s the first one he wrote but not the first chronologically. Magician’s Nephew quite literally introduces the beginning of everything.
There are two 1st books technically. You've got the original publication order, which would be Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, and then the chronological order being Magician's Nephew. Either one works!
Please read, The name of the wind. It will go on your sell a body organ list. So good.
I've attempted it a couple of times, but I'm not sure that it's going to be a good fit for me. I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
I think my opinion on Red Rising (the series overall) would be kinder if people hadn't hyped and compared it to First Law. Now I've trust issues 😂
Haha! Yeah no it’s not like First Law at all. Thank goodness. 😜
Nuts!
Joe Abercrombie is one of my favourite authors and even my interest in reading Shattered Sea is borderline non-existent 90% of the time.
Love the ending to Last Argument of Kings 😅
Yeah honestly book 1 of Shattered Sea is great. After that? Not so much.
@ToriTalks2 Never say never but vikings are a tough sell for me at the best of times for the last 3 or 4 years, especially in books. It's kinda why I've been dragging my feet on continuing Cornwell's Last Kingdom series.
Ok so I got to the part in Red Rising where (spoiler) they execute the guy's girlfriend, and I felt NOTHING, and i feel like if you kill off a character and I have 0 emotional reaction, then it's not worth reading. Someone sell me on finishing it
If it's not working for you, that's okay. :) But I will say that the heart of the story is found family, self-sacrifice, and loyalty. The character work as the story progresses through the first trilogy is so good, some of my favorite ever!
For me Murderbot Diaries in S-Tier.
She reminds me of Janet Devlin
I'll take that as a compliment. :)
Court of Thorns and Roses is like the Taylor Swift or Sabrina Carpenter of books. And not in a good way😅
Just generic, cringe, lowest common denominator slop.
I don’t disagree with you 😂