It is the first book of his series about Styx, an underworld river where the dead finds themselves. Publication Date: Aug(first published in 1895)Īs stated earlier, the author of this book is considered a pioneer of the Bangsian fantasy genre.They are cared for to start afresh but have no idea what the purpose of the afterlife is all about.

It tells the story of an unknown world, a Riverworld where humans find themselves when they die. A 1972 Hugo Award winner for Best Novel, the book also received a Locus Award nomination for Best Novel that same year. The first of Farmer’s stories of the Riverworld, To Your Scattered Bodies Go is one of the best fantasy books from the Bangsian sub-genre.

Publication Date: J(first published in 1971).

Its name was derived from John Kendrick Bangs, an American author considered a pioneer of the genre. Some of The Best Fantasy Books That Are Worth Your Time Bangsian Fantasy BooksĪ sub-genre of fantasy literature, Bangsian fantasy concerns itself with the afterlife.

However, based on the factors we considered before selecting the following works, it’s fair to regard them as some of the best fantasy books people should read. It is really like finding a needle in a haystack and to be honest, rather audacious to make a list of fantasy books and proclaim them the best. Given that, it is easy to see how fishing out the best fantasy books is quite a difficult and herculean task. The implication of this is that there are also thousands of such works that have been published. The genre has evolved so much over the centuries that it now encompasses numerous genres with a multitude of subsets.įrom Low and High/Epic Fantasies to Fables, Magical Realism, Superhero Fiction, Dark, Romantic, and Bangsian Fantasies there are just too many fantasy literature genres to keep up with. Before people started printing and circulating fantasy literature stories about strange creatures, magical powers, and imaginary universes existed, albeit in spoken form. The fantasy genre is older than writing and probably as old as humanity. The best fantasy books should take you out of this world, or keep you here but with a touch of wild possibilities that are far from reality or defy scientific explanations.

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