Fantasy as a genre is often unfairly maligned. While there are plenty of authors who seem to be paid by the word and are only concerned with churning out volume, there are many authors producing fantastic works that transcend genre and often are even worthy of the word literature. While there were many worthy contenders, here are what we consider to be the 10 greatest fantasy series of all time.

魔幻题材的小说常常遭到不公的非议。尽管确实存在不少貌似只是为了按字拿钱绞尽脑汁扩大篇幅的作者，同样也有很多的作家创作出了无以伦比的作品，有些甚至可以被奉为文学瑰宝。

10. The Wheel Of Time by Robert Jordan 《时光之轮》——罗伯特.乔丹

I could probably write several pages on what's wrong with The Wheel of Time (Jordan never could write female characters, the quality fell off a cliff after book four, the series should have ended many, many books ago, etc., etc.), but the positives of the series greatly outweigh the negatives. The Wheel of Time was made for those who like their fantasy writ large, and The Wheel of Time fulfills that desire epicly. You won't find a more in depth work (which has it's downsides as well, every new book release begs for a rereading of the incredibly long series since it's nearly impossible to keep track of every minor character) and Jordan clearly takes as much pleasure in world building as any fantasy author since Tolkien. As previously mentioned, WoT has a huge cast, a fully realized world with dozens of races and nations, and a huge tapestry of plot lines that combine to form one of the greatest fantasy series of all time. It's a shame that Jordan didn't live to complete it, but hopefully Brandon Sanderson will bring the series to a satisfying conclusion.

我很容易就可以找出《时光之轮》的种种败笔（比如乔丹不擅长刻画女性角色；从第四部开始整体质量就开始急速下降；这个系列早在很久之前就应该终结；等等等等），但这部作品的正面影响远远大过其不足之处。《时光之轮》是为那些喜欢幻想巨著的人创作的，这本书极大地满足了这些人对魔幻的渴望。你不可能再找到另外一部在深度上可与之并提的作品（当然也有它的短板，每本新书发售都得重读之前的章节，因为你不可能记住每个微小的角色（再括号：我去...十几本砖头那）），且乔丹显然像自托尔金之后的任何一个魔幻作家一样，热衷于构建世界。像之前提到过的，《时光之轮》有一个庞大的角色阵容，一个完全真实的拥有数十个种族和国家的世界，通过庞杂的分支相互交错串联从而组成史上最伟大的魔幻系列。很遗憾乔丹生前没有完成这部巨著，希望布兰顿.桑德森能够带给这个系列一个令人满意的结局。

9. The Dark Tower by Stephen King 《黑塔》——史蒂芬.金

The Dark Tower actually shares some similarities with The Wheel of Time. In both series the first four books are the strongest, and you also get the sense with both Robert Jordan and Stephen King that they didn't quite know how to end their creation, which led to a very controversial ending in The Dark Tower's case along with some questionable decisions by King like his self-insertion in the story.

That being said, like The Wheel of Time, the pluses outweigh the minuses in the case of The Dark Tower series. King has created one of the most iconic fantasy characters of all time in the Gunslinger Roland and the world (dimension? alternate universe?) he creates, with all of it's similarities to our reality, is lush and feels tangible. It's too bad that Stephen King doesn't dabble more in fantasy, because he clearly has a knack for world building. Not to mention everything he writes seems to be phone book sized, which would fit right in with the fantasy genre.

《黑塔》事实上和《时光之轮》有一定相似点。这两部系列的前四本都是最经典的，同时你也会感觉到，罗伯特.乔丹和史蒂芬.金都不太懂得怎么去结尾（-皿-so就累死看的人好了），这就导致了《黑塔》的结局备受争议，许多作者自设的疑问待解，就好比故事中他的自我侵蚀。（self-insertion...这个能直译成自插么。或者自我带入（故事情节）？没看过《黑塔》实在也搞不明白这个是啥意思）上述就如同《时光之轮》一样，对于《黑塔》来说，瑕不掩瑜。金创造了有史以来最具标志性的魔幻人物枪手罗兰以及他所创造的世界（异次元空间之类的吧...），这些都与我们的现实生活有一定的相似度，可认知感很强。史蒂芬金没有在魔幻方面做太多的涉猎，这确实令人遗憾，因为他有一个明确的世界搭建方式。更别说他写的所有东西看起来都像电话号码本，刚刚好符合魔幻的题材。

8. The Farseer by Robin Hobb 《刺客正传》——罗宾.侯布

Zombies! Sort of; the big threat in The Farseer trilogy comes from the villain turning the people of the Six Duchies into Forged ones, a type of zombification that removes all emotion from someone. That alone would probably get The Farseer on my list as I'm a pretty big zombiephile, but the writing and story here are both top notch. The premise sounds a little stock (boy grows up never knowing his mother, turns out to be a royal bastard, etc. etc.) but the predictability stops there. Hobb really fleshes out her main character, making him one of the more real characters I have had the pleasure of reading.

僵尸！类似的，刺客三部曲中最大的威胁来自于其中的反派角色将六公爵的人民变成活死人（- -），相当于将人僵尸化，使人失去所有情感。仅此一条就能让《刺客》上榜，因为我就是个僵尸爱好者（- -），但同时，此部作品的文字和故事也都是顶级的。前序有点儿老套（男孩出生后就不知道妈妈是谁，然后其实他是皇家私生子blablabla之类的），但能猜出结果的情节到此打住。侯布将主人公刻画得血肉充盈，使其成为我在阅读中享受到的最真实的人物之一。

7. Discworld by Terry Pratchett 《磁盘世界》——特里.布莱切特

Terry Pratchett's Discworld might not have the gravitas of other fantasy works, but it makes our list by virtue of being pure fun. Pratchett is a rare thing in the fantasy niche - an honestly good writer who masterfully parodies the genre while still creating an internally consistent world that is interesting and enjoyable to read. If you've never read a Discworld book but feel interested I'd recommend getting cracking - the series is up to 37 books as of the end of 2009.

特里.布莱切特的《磁盘世界》也许不像其他魔幻作品那么严肃，它能够上榜正式因为其纯粹的好玩儿。布莱切特属魔幻界的奇才，一边终成恪守体裁格式，一边创造一个内在如一的奇妙世界，让人手不释卷。如果你尚未读过《磁盘世界》但对此很感兴趣，那么我建议你现在开始——在09年底这个系列的书已经出到了第37本。

6. Earthsea by Ursula LeGuin《陆海》——厄休拉.蕾古音

Ursula LeGuin is one of the more literary writers you will find writing fantasy. Her Earthsea Cycle takes place in a world of uncharted sea that contains a huge archipelago of islands. The books are full of lyrical prose that bring to mind Tolkien style fantasy. LeGuin doesn't beat you over the head with normal fantasy tropes, the Earthsea Cycle is understated and an intriguing story that just happens to take place in a fantastical world.

厄休拉.蕾古音是魔幻作家中比较偏文学性的作家之一。她的陆海循环发生在一个地图上未标明的海洋，这里包含了庞大的岛群。这部作品大量的抒情文字让人不由得向其托尔金式的魔幻。蕾古音并不用普通的魔幻修辞打动你，《陆海》就是这么一部朴素的，在一个奇妙的世界中发生的故事。

5. Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams《记忆，悲伤和刺》——泰德.威廉姆斯

Memory, Sorrow and Thorn takes place in a world not entirely different from our own, drawing upon history and folklore to create a new story. Reading this series you will find elements of Arthurian England, Nordic stories and religion (including a Christ figure that was executed by being nailed upside-down to a tree, leading to the formation of this world's main religion which is a mixture of Christianity and Norse mythology), and many other parallels to our own world. This is high fantasy at it's best, writ large and with bold strokes. If you enjoy Tolkien, Robert Jordan, and other similar writers check out Tad Williams who does things somewhat similarly, and often arguably better.

《记忆，悲伤和刺》发生在一个和我们差不离的世界里，利用历史和风俗创造了一个全新的故事。在阅读这部作品的同时，你会发现英格兰亚瑟王时期的元素，北欧的故事和宗教（包括基督的象征，被钉在一棵树上，从而构成了这个世界的主要宗教，一种基督教和挪威神话的混合体），以及很多其他现实世界的映射。这毫无疑问达到了魔幻境界的顶峰。如果你喜欢托尔金，罗伯特.乔丹以及其他同类的作家，那么读一读泰德吧，他绝不会让你失望。

4.Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling 《哈里.波特》——J.K.罗琳

When considering a ranking of the greatest fantasy series of all time, the question of Harry Potter is a thorny one. There's inevitably a backlash when something is as popular as Rowling's work, and add to that the fact that the series is ostensibly meant for children and you have a case that naturally inspires a lot of debate. I'm not sure I believe Rowling did anything particularly new with Harry Potter, but a work doesn't necessarily have to be innovative for it to be great. Nearly every fantasy series owes a debt to Tolkien for instance, but that doesn't mean Tolkien has written the only work of fantasy that matters. Rowling didn't really come up with anything new, but her execution was peerless, and the connection she made with tens of millions of readers is laudable. People will be reading Harry Potter for decades to come, and I'm not sure a better introduction to fantasy could be found.

当考虑评选史上最伟大的魔幻作品时，《哈利波特》这个问题就有点棘手。当一件东西像罗琳的书一样受欢迎时，必然就会有很大争议，再加上这部作品表面上看是儿童作品，这不由自主就会引起很多争论。我并不认为罗琳在《哈利波特》上有什么特别创新，但一部作品并不一定要有创新才好看。就像所有的魔幻系列都要感谢托尔金一样，但这并不意味着托尔金写的就是魔幻作品的范本。罗琳并没有加什么新的东西进去，但她的技巧是无以伦比的，同时其与数百万读者的互动交流也是令人赞叹的。人们在接下来的数十年中都会读《哈利波特》，我并不确定会有更好的对于魔幻作品的诠释。

3. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien 《指环王》——J.R.R托尔金

The king, you knew Tolkien would be showing up here sooner or later. The real surprise is that he's not number one, which isn't so much an indictment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy as it is praise for the top two. Gallons of ink have been spilled when it comes to Tolkien. I'm not sure any other genre of fiction owes as much to one person as fantasy owes to Tolkien. Even today in our 21st century life Tolkien touches many different avenues of entertainment, including (obviously) books, movies, role playing games, and video games. You'd think with his trilogy being such well worn territory by now that it would have lost some luster, but it's actually still a fantastically good read, and if you haven't made the effort yet because it seems old or you've seen the movies you really should. The payoff is definitely worth the time.

当然你知道的，托尔金早晚会出现在这里。真正的意外应该在于他并不是第一名（T_T）,这并不能说明《魔戒》系列不如前两名。当提到托尔金时能写的东西太多了。我不能确定其他题材的幻想小说是否是这样，但魔幻题材小说绝对应该归功于托尔金。即便是在21世纪的今天，托尔金同样触及到了各种娱乐形式，包括（很明显的）书籍，电影，RPG游戏，视频游戏等。你可能会觉得托尔金的三部曲在各个领域的泛滥会导致其失色，但它仍旧是一部魔幻佳作，如果你因为它年代久远或者看过同名电影而没读过原著，那么你一定要读读，绝对物超所值。

2. The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe《新日之书》——杰因.沃尔夫

The Book of the New Sun is a novel written in four parts. It is written in first person by a man named Severian. His profession is torturer and the books chronicle his rise to power as ruler of the world. The world is our world, but set in a distant future where the sun has begun to cool and dim. The books are rare in the fantasy genre in that they have invited serious analysis and literary criticism. The Book of the New Sun starts with a killer premise and more than delivers. I came to the series only recently and count it as one of the greatest reads I have ever had, fantasy or no. It is a more challenging work than most "wizards and knights" fantasy, but oh so worth it.

《新日之书》这部小说分为4个部分。它是书中一个叫赛弗里安的男子以第一人称来写的。他是一个行刑官，书中记述了他成为世界统治者的历程。世界就是我们现实中的世界，但时间设定在遥远的未来，在那个时期太阳已经变得冰冷昏暗。这个系列在魔幻题材的书中十分罕见，曾引发了深入的分析以及文学争议。《新日之书》以杀手背景开始，但并非以此推动情节。我也是最近才开始读这部书的，这可以算得上是我读过的最好的作品之一，不仅限于魔幻作品。这是一部比大多“巫师和骑士”更富挑战性的作品，值得一读。

1. A Song Of Ice And Fire by George R.R. Martin 《冰火之歌》—— 乔治R.R.马丁

并不是说一部夭折的作品就不是好作品，我仍然认为这是史上最伟大的魔幻作品。毫无疑问，马丁是站在了巨人们的肩膀上，尤其是托尔金，但是其作品各方面的成熟是其他作品望尘莫及的。出于某些原因，与此同时进入我脑海的是电视剧《火线》，这部电视剧乍一看貌似普通的警匪片，但事实上远不止如此，它以自己独有的方式反映了现实。同样的，《冰火之歌》也是这样，尽管是魔幻背景设定，但人们仍然表现得有血有肉。当大多作者仍在用千篇一律的人物填充他们所构建的魔幻世界时，马丁脱颖而出，这就是为什么即便他没时间去完结这部作品，我们仍认为《冰火之歌》是史上最伟大的魔幻作品。