Chaotically Tier Ranking Every Fantasy/Sci Fi Series I Have Started (91 series)

[@BooksWithBenghisKahn]

Alphabetizing including “A” and “The” at the start of the series names!?!? Chaotic indeed!

[@BooksWithBenghisKahn]

Holy crap you’re being so stingy with your S-tier with Dandelion not making the cut! Loving this so far and your unabashed staying true to yourself. Mistborn Era 2, the Burning-they’re great and no need to apologize!

[@BooksWithBenghisKahn]

That hard magic rant was 🔥🔥🔥

[@jakebishop7822]

I'm an agent of chaos

[@jakebishop7822]

@@BooksWithBenghisKahn I think describing the tier as "as spiritual experience " shows how stingy I am being

[@jakebishop7822]

@@BooksWithBenghisKahn thank you

[@jmaa93]

You seem very naturally charismatic. Talking off the top of your head seems natural.

[@jakebishop7822]

As long as i'm talking about books I have read, I can basically talk for hours other things, well sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe shit

[@Atrulion]

You are very entertaining! I am at work and need something on my ears. Found this, and 1. Very good list! 2. Your voice is just so chill. I could listen for ages!

[@jakebishop7822]

Thanks!

[@separator94]

Oh nice! This is actually a really respectable list. While I haven't read every series here, I have read more than half of them and there's only a few I found to be largely out of place (for myself). You've got me very excited to read Realm of the Elderlings, by the way. I've tried starting it in the past but the length of the series, as a whole, is daunting to me. Love the channel!

[@jakebishop7822]

Cheers!

[@thatsci-firogue]

Sees runtime, this is gonna be a good one!

[@jakebishop7822]

I hope so!

[@WordsinTime]

I watched this whole video so hopefully this blesses your analytics with the algorithm. I’m glad you also loved Children of Time and having Murderbot over Ender’s Game is a wild take haha

[@jakebishop7822]

I didn't really realize I had Murderbot over Enders Game, I think I just didn't know what to do with Enders Game, I read it once when I was like 12

[@WordsinTime]

@@jakebishop7822 I read it an an adult and loved it. I liked some of the sequels but Ender’s Game remained my favourite.

[@praetorxyn]

Doing a Cosmere reading order this year. I've already re-read everything I'd read already, so I'm on a first read of The Way of Kings right now. I think it's starting to get good, closing in on 20% through it.

[@jakebishop7822]

Love to see it

[@Coleton2573]

Oh hell yeah, this is ambitious. Let's see how it plays out 👀

[@jakebishop7822]

I think it played out interestingly

[@Coleton2573]

@@jakebishop7822 It did! I respect your opinions, Jake. Huge rankings like this are always fun. :)

[@samuelleask1132]

Heck of a lineup mate!

[@jakebishop7822]

Gracias

[@truffalachubbles2529]

Some excellent takes 👏

[@jakebishop7822]

@@truffalachubbles2529 thanks, I try my best

[@heidi6281]

Jake add Wyrd Sisters to your TBR, its a one of the good Disc World books!!

[@jakebishop7822]

Most Discworld books are somewhere on my to be read eventually TBR, it will just take years for me to get to a lot of them

[@Matt42MSG]

I'm a little sorry to see Earthsea get the score that it did, but tastes vary, and it's a very specific kind of fantasy. (edit) I'd strongly suggest you seek out Bujold's Sharing Knife series. It's sort of a hybrid of the adventure narrative and the romance novel (done well), and I'd be curious to see what you think of it. It's a tetralogy with an additional sequel novella from a different perspective.

[@jakebishop7822]

Worth noting if this included stand alones The Dispossessed would be in "I love this" for sure At some point I will read every book Lois McMaster Bujold has ever written

[@Matt42MSG]

@@jakebishop7822 "The Dispossessed" is part of the Hainish Cycle though, not Earthsea. Le Guin wrote a whole bunch of worlds.

[@jakebishop7822]

@@Matt42MSG i don't consider The Hainish Cycle a series the same way I don't consider the Cosmere, or GGKs shared world a series

[@Matt42MSG]

@@jakebishop7822 Well, it's a set of books with a shared setting, a setting very different from that of the Earthsea books.

[@esmayrosalyne]

Absolutely love these tiers, this is one of my favourite ranking videos now 🤣 It's interesting to see how we agree very hard on some (Dandelion, Fitz & the Fool, Stormlight, Greatcoats, Daughter of the Moon Godess, and honestly manyyyy more), but also wildly disagree on some others (Gideon, Red Rising, Wheel of Time, Rage of Dragons). Also, now I want to reread RotE and Stormlight, thanks :))))

[@jakebishop7822]

If this video makes you reread Stormlight or RotE, then I won!

[@DiggerdanReads]

I haven't read anywhere close to this many series but this was really fun to watch!

[@jakebishop7822]

Thanks

[@dougsundseth6904]

As should be expected from any such list, I would rate many series wildly differently. But it's entertaining to watch and make note of those disagreements. Really entertaining stuff. It's difficult to fairly rate books that you read when you were a very different reader. When I was young, Doc Smith's Lensman series and Weis and Hickman's Dragonlance series were both favorites. I read part of Dragonlance to my son when he was young, and while he loved it, I cordially disliked it. And they don't make an ink purple enough to do justice to Doc Smith's prose. Is it appropriate to rate such work as you first perceived it, as you see it now, or somewhere in between? FWIW, I don't think there's an obviously correct answer to that question, I just find it an interesting one. I don't think I could possibly do a list like this. I've been a heavy reader since the early '70s, with much of that SF&F. Just too much stuff. That said, if I were to try this, my categories would be something like: Love, Will Recommend, It's Fine, I Admire This but Never Again*, Soft DNF**/Momentum Finish***, and Hard DNF****. There would be a lot of stuff in It's Fine. Most fiction is entertaining, workmanlike storytelling that's in many ways interchangeable with thousands of other books. I don't mind spending money on books like that, but it will never be the kind of thing that I remember forever. * I'm glad I read it, but I never want to read it again. (Thomas Covenant) ** I haven't made a firm decision to never read further in the series, but I have no desire to ever see the books approach the top of my TBR. (ASoIaF) *** I'm 11 books into the series and at this point I just want it to end. But I bought the whole thing, so I'm going to read it. (Cradle, Wheel of Time) **** You can't make me. (Discworld, Hitchhiker's Guide (neither of which worked for me at all, though I recognize that they are favorites for many people), and a variety of absolute dreck.)

[@jakebishop7822]

Glad you enjoyed it, I deliberately try and separate my descriptions from whether I would recommend it, because depending on who I am recommending to I may recommend something I don't particularly like, and not recommend something I really like. I would say this is mostly how I felt when I read it, but curved slightly by how I think I would feel if I read it now, especially if it is a book that is written for the audience I am now. No tier list is too big!

[@knotslip8862]

Thanks and great to see this..one question...Whats the difference between "I do not like these" and "I dislike these" ? To me these both mean the exact same thing... Maybe a harsher phrase for the latter would have been better. :) But we can all get that you dislike the orange row more than the yellow. Maybe it should have been "I dislike these more" Thanks for the great video. Song of Ice and Fire is top tier for me. Peace!

[@jakebishop7822]

Probably just be the weird way I phrase things, but if I say "I don't dislike these" it feels like I am saying like, I can't say I actively dislike them, but that is the most positive thing I can say. So generally it is series I am reasonably neutral on, neither disliking them, but also I don't necessarily actively like them

[@knotslip8862]

@@jakebishop7822 Ah, my bad. I missed that one was I dont not like these. Thanks!

[@bentheoverlord]

Excellent list man ! Really interested in picking up Codex Alera just to see what it's like.

[@jakebishop7822]

Fantastic!

[@calebmauer1751]

Pretty good video from A Jake Bishop. Malazan vs Book of the New Sun is a tough one. I think Gene Wolf is better at the crazy ideas than even Steven Erikson, Urth of the New Sun was nuts, plus that whole inverse Frankenstein thing. But Malazan is a lot more funny and has so many good action scenes. But Book of the New Sun doesn't take months to read. Regarding The Culture, I feel like as a Malazan fan you'd like book 3, Use of Weapons, my favorite. Those books have a lot of cool sci-fi ideas and can go dark without being boring or unfunny like a lot of sci-fi authors do. Book 6 is also pretty solid, it's like "how would The Culture try to help a European medieval society without revealing their presence," and does a real good job on the recurring "intervention vs self-determination" theme.

[@jakebishop7822]

Culture in a medieval society sounds awesome. Definitely a series/world I plan to read more of

[@kingzzz6509]

I probably haven’t even read half of these series, but I would have Dune, Red Rising, Harry Potter and The Faithful and the Fallen way higher. But I respect it. Every time I hear you talk about Hobb it makes me want to pick up Realm of the Elderlings.

[@jakebishop7822]

This is my goal

[@Thomas-zp4ck]

I’ll yell at you in agreement about Elderlings and Sarantine being spiritual experiences. Also-you should continue on to Endymion and Rise of Endymion at some point. I had a similar experience to yours with the first two, but was really glad I came back for books 3 and 4.

[@jakebishop7822]

I hope to read those this year!

[@brancellbooks]

I read Children of Time and liked it. I read Children of Ruin, the first sequel, and it disappointed me so much that I won't be continuing with the third, Children of Memory. I hope you enjoy it more than I did lol

[@jakebishop7822]

I have heard it both ways on that book, we will see what I think!

[@darmokandjalad7786]

IMO, Parable of the Talents is worth reading. Sower-->Talents has a similar dynamic to Dune-->Messiah, with the main difference being that Talents is a very good book beyond just the ideas and interactions with its predeccesor.

[@jakebishop7822]

Noted. I think Kinded will be the next Butler book I read, and Talents would be after that

[@ZOMGfantasy]

* Taking notes for the TBR * :D

[@jakebishop7822]

Gooooooooooood

[@aarononeill8644]

You've read a lot of cool shit. Thats Awesome. Don't stop. And I love the Black Company but I wish more people would check out Cook's Garrett P.I. series. Best fantasy detective. And I always try to recommend the Red Knight series by Miles Cameron.

[@jakebishop7822]

I will definitely read Garrett P.I. I don't know if I will do it this year or next year, but i'm not going anywhere and it is on the list.

[@ericF-17]

Amazing video! I haven't yet read a number of your favorites but overall I think we have decently similar taste in books. Also just random fyi Daniel Greene said he forgot a bunch of series that he had read even when he made his tier list video. And just to be annoying, I'll ask why you put the first book of the series as the picture for like everything except Stormlight.

[@jakebishop7822]

No specific reason why Stormlight was book 4, just happened randomly

[@blacknbluecollarreader]

Awesome list. I'll yell at you for a good pick......ready? RAGE OF DRAGONS IS ABSOLUTE FIRE!!!! lol. I just started it this past weekend and I'm blowing through it. Pacing is level 11. Did you read the second book?

[@jakebishop7822]

The second book is also amazing!

[@chokog2446]

Malazan all the way! 👍

[@rujoolpatil1227]

did not expect dresden not being in the highest tier damn

[@jakebishop7822]

Twas very close

[@thatsci-firogue]

I enjoy Greatcoats but you're not wrong...

[@jakebishop7822]

It's a shame because I like Falcio, especially in book 1

[@readbykyle3082]

Good list, mostly. What in the name in all that is holy does stephatting mean?

[@jakebishop7822]

What?

[@readbykyle3082]

@@jakebishop7822 You keep saying like, 'this is a two book series but we're ____ this list' and I've never heard this term before

[@jakebishop7822]

@@readbykyle3082 oh, stat padding! As in adding to numbers in a way that is unreasonable. So I could have just lumped in Fire and Blood with ASOIAF, but I wanted the number of series to be higher, so I split them

[@readbykyle3082]

I accept your placement of Ender's Game but not your placement of AoM over ASOIAF - get that reread back on its tracks, fam

[@jakebishop7822]

Age of Madness is amazing! I suspect it will stay very close, with me liking AGOT and ACOK about as much as AoM, ASOS more z and AFFC, and ADWD a little less. Also, really Age of Madness is the series you are protesting? Didn't you give it 30 out of 30?

[@readbykyle3082]

@@jakebishop7822 haha I commented this right after Enders Game so I didn't see the full list yet. Black Company and Rage of Dragons, smh

[@BooksWithBenghisKahn]

@@readbykyle3082 glad you called him out!

[@PreppinShootinLivin]

Realm of the Elderlings should be considered 3 different series and not lumped together, imho....All the Fitz and Fool stuff can be considered 1 series essentially, but Mad Ship stuff is separate as is the Rain Wild stuff All the First Law stuff can be considered 1 large series...standalones included Faithful and Fallen and Of Blood and Bone can be considered 1 large series Cosmere stuff should NOT be lumped together as 1 thing....they are all different series.

[@jakebishop7822]

Mostly for this I just made all the series as many as possible because I wanted more series to rank if i'm being honest Normally I consider RotE and The First 1 1 big series, same with Faithful and the Fallen, not the Cosmere. Undecided on whether Mistborn is 1 7 book series or a quartet and a trilogy

[@albin2232]

Restrict yourself to popup books. You will find everything you need in them. Everything else is vain

[@jakebishop7822]

what?

[@jordanreads]

Gideon 😞

[@jakebishop7822]

😔

[@Rumham7291]

not revisiting the enders saga is a BIG MISTAKE. speaker for the dead is one of my all time favorite books.

[@jakebishop7822]

noted, I shall keep it on my radar

[@bintube5269]

Are you nuts?

[@jakebishop7822]

I probably would not know if I was, so quite possibly