Best-Selling Novel by Brandon Sanderson Is Named the ‘Greatest Fantasy Book of the Last 20 Years’

Fantasy novels are alluring to many readers as they pull individuals away from the mundanity of everyday life and into vast worlds where orcs, elves, and dragons roam. Fantasy fans also enjoy protagonists who, no matter their status in their society, manage to give the good fight and vanquish evil, usually with a lovable team of friends at their sides.

The publication Collider highlighted a few of the best fantasy books published relatively recently. The ranking, titled “The 10 Greatest Fantasy Books of the Last 20 Years,” included magical novels like 2011’s Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence, George R. R. Martin‘s A Dance with Dragons, also published in 2011, and The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, released in 2006. According to Collider, the “greatest fantasy book of the last 20 years” is Brandon Sanderson‘s Oathbringer, published in 2017. The New York Times Best-Selling novel, which is over 1,000 pages long, marks Sanderson’s third The Stormlight Archive installment.

Oathbringer has a rating of 4.60 out of 5 from 389,485 on Goodreads.

Brandon Sanderson Explained the Premise of ‘Oathbringer’ in 2017

While speaking to G3EK at a premiere party for Oathbringer in 2017, Sanderson shared what readers needed to know before opening up the book. He explained that The Stormlight Archive series, which currently has five books, is “kind of a combination between multiple characters’ storylines,” specifically Kaladin Stormblessed, Shallan Davar, and Dalinar Kholin.

Sanderson stated that Dalinar, the main protagonist of Oathbringer, “is a former warlord who gained conscience through certain events and came to kind of realize maybe I shouldn’t just be destroying.” However, Dalinar isn’t sure how to change his behavior.

“The first book [The Way of Kings (2010)] he started seeing visions that a lot of people thought he was going crazy. He’s like, ‘Why would I see visions? I’m a terrible person.’ And it’s kind of this story will do flashbacks to catch him up to where that first book began. And then also bringing his story along a little bit further, so a lot of mysteries are going get dug into in this book,” teased Sanderson.

During the G3EK interview, Sanderson also explained that his fantasy books mirror modern-day issues.

“I write the fantasy books because they’re reflections of all the things I’m thinking about right now. And so the fantasy books, we taught a joke about this, and actually, about the past, they’re kind of about the present, but seeing through the lens of these weird things happening in the fantastical worlds,” said the author in the 2017 interview.