I read 50 of the Time Magazine's 100 Best Fantasy Novels- I found them, well....

 So, a couple of years ago, there was an article in the Times magazine listing the 100 best fantasy novels. I noticed it, but didn’t really pay much attention to it until December 2021, when I was really short of books to read. So I looked at the list and… gave some of the novels a try. Spurred mostly by the dream of bragging about my heroic quest to my bookish friends later, I managed to finish 50*of them. I picked out 9 you might want to give a try, and have written a bit about them. 

Here goes…

THE PICKS

First off, let me be clear. It’s not a list of my favourites. I didn’t love reading all of them, but I was… intrigued.
 
#1 Mistborn

The novel revolves around Allomancy, an intricate system of magic where people, Allomancers, can ingest  particles of metal to giver themselves superpowers. However, Allomancy is restricted to the nobility, who use their powers to repress the common skaa. Vin and Kelsier, the protagonists of the novel, are half-noble, half-skaa Allomancers, who are fighting to overthrow the nobility and the all-powerful, immortal emperor.
The novel could have gone a bit more into emotional depth. It’s aloofness makes the characters 2-Dimensional and hollow, mere artistic symbols than actual people. 
The "oppressed people" thing is sadly not new for either the fantasy world or the real world. However, the novels’ clever magic system, and its portrait of the difficulty of sparking rebellion in a community that has been supressed for a very long time, makes it a worthy read.

#2 The Name of the Wind 
The novel is “epic fantasy”. (But don’t run away yet). In my limited experience with epic fantasy, the novels drag on for what feels like forever, and is at least 700 pages. This one actually didn’t feel long at all.
It tells the story of Kvothe, a musician, brilliant scholar, magician and general prodigy in a world vaguely inspired by medieval Europe. After the tragic murders off his travelling-performer parents by monsters only heard of in lore, Kvothe sets off on a quest for understanding, and revenge. 
The novel details only part of Kvothe’s journey, taking us with him from starving orphan to university (where the novel actually starts getting fun), where he has numerous exploits, makes an evil arch nemesis (Draco Malfoy, but worse), has a deep obsession, befriends an insane girl who is hiding in the school and more. 

The book, as you may have guessed from my short note, is slightly cliche ridden. Nevertheless, the end product is quite good. The magic system is fascinating and clever, though a bit briefly mentioned. Kvothe makes a charming character, his propensity for getting into trouble sort of taking the obnoxious “golden prodigy!” edge off. Though slow to open up, the book unfurls into something that has a enough pure creativity, charm and humour, to be a decent read.

#3 The Poppy War 
The Poppy war is as brutal as the events it describes and the events it was inspired by. The novel foregoes graceful description, instead detailing the horrors of war bluntly, almost crudely.
The Poppy war was inspired by Chinese history, as you might have guessed. The opium wars, the Sino-Japanese wars, and the Chinese Civil War are all drawn on. 
The novel follows Rin, a young orphan, who desperately studies to get into a prestigious military academy to escape a terrible fate at home. She succeeds, and finds herself an eccentric tutor, Jiang at the academy. Under his tutelage, Rin starts to evolve from a desperate orphan to a powerful shaman. But when war breaks out, she is sent out half-trained and ill-equipped into the real world, and ends up in a group of deadly shamanic assassins, under the command of the unstable, mysterious Altan. Rin is tossed around as a weapon in the hands of the powerful, with increasingly deadly results, as the war gets uglier and uglier.
The novel, and it’s sequel The Dragon Republic (also on the Times list), are written gritty, bloody and grim. The plotline teems with twists. Alliances are made and betrayals abound.  The book manages expresses the truly vast multitude of problems  from famine and poverty to noble infighting faced by a war-torn country and deftly conveys inequality, classism, elitism, racism, and more.
The book may not be one you like, due to it’s cast of cruel, power-hungry characters, but is certainly worth a read for it’s chilling message of what power can do in the hands of unpredictable, unstable people.

And on that fun note, I wind up. Watch out for the rest in part 2 and 3.