史上最偉大的10大魔幻小說
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.
魔幻題材的小說常常遭到不公的非議。儘管確實存在不少貌似只是爲了按字拿錢絞盡腦汁擴大篇幅的作者，同樣也有很多的作家創作出了無以倫比的作品，有些甚至可以被奉爲文學瑰寶。
10. The Wheel Of Time by Robert Jordan 《時光之輪》——羅伯特.喬丹
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《時光之輪》的種種敗筆（比如喬丹不擅長刻畫女性角色；從第四部開始整體質量就開始急速下降；這個系列早在很久之前就應該終結；等等等等），但這部作品的正面影響遠遠大過其不足之處。《時光之輪》是爲那些喜歡幻想鉅著的人創作的，這本書極大地滿足了這些人對魔幻的渴望。你不可能再找到另外一部在深度上可與之並提的作品（當然也有它的短板，每本新書發售都得重讀之前的章節，因爲你不可能記住每個微小的角色（再括號：我去...十幾本磚頭那）），且喬丹顯然像自托爾金之後的任何一個魔幻作家一樣，熱衷於構建世界。像之前提到過的，《時光之輪》有一個龐大的角色陣容，一個完全真實的擁有數十個種族和國家的世界，通過龐雜的分支相互交錯串聯從而組成史上最偉大的魔幻系列。很遺憾喬丹生前沒有完成這部鉅著，希望布蘭頓.桑德森能夠帶給這個系列一個令人滿意的結局。
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》事實上和《時光之輪》有一定相似點。這兩部系列的前四本都是最經典的，同時你也會感覺到，羅伯特.喬丹和史蒂芬.金都不太懂得怎麼去結尾（-皿-so就累死看的人好了），這就導致了《黑塔》的結局備受爭議，許多作者自設的疑問待解，就好比故事中他的自我侵蝕。（self-insertion...這個能直譯成自插麼。或者自我帶入（故事情節）？沒看過《黑塔》實在也搞不明白這個是啥意思）上述就如同《時光之輪》一樣，對於《黑塔》來說，瑕不掩瑜。金創造了有史以來最具標誌性的魔幻人物槍手羅蘭以及他所創造的世界（異次元空間之類的吧...），這些都與我們的現實生活有一定的相似度，可認知感很強。史蒂芬金沒有在魔幻方面做太多的涉獵，這確實令人遺憾，因爲他有一個明確的世界搭建方式。更別說他寫的所有東西看起來都像電話號碼本，剛剛好符合魔幻的題材。
8. The Farseer by Robin Hobb 《刺客正傳》——羅賓.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.
殭屍！類似的，刺客三部曲中最大的威脅來自於其中的反派角色將六公爵的人民變成活死人（- -），相當於將人殭屍化，使人失去所有情感。僅此一條就能讓《刺客》上榜，因爲我就是個殭屍愛好者（- -），但同時，此部作品的文字和故事也都是頂級的。前序有點兒老套（男孩出生後就不知道媽媽是誰，然後其實他是皇傢俬生子blablabla之類的），但能猜出結果的情節到此打住。侯布將主人公刻畫得血肉充盈，使其成爲我在閱讀中享受到的最真實的人物之一。
7. Discworld by Terry Pratchett 《磁盤世界》——特里.布萊切特
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.布萊切特的《磁盤世界》也許不像其他魔幻作品那麼嚴肅，它能夠上榜正式因爲其純粹的好玩兒。布萊切特屬魔幻界的奇才，一邊終成恪守體裁格式，一邊創造一個內在如一的奇妙世界，讓人手不釋卷。如果你尚未讀過《磁盤世界》但對此很感興趣，那麼我建議你現在開始——在09年底這個系列的書已經出到了第37本。
6. Earthsea by Ursula LeGuin《陸海》——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較偏文學性的作家之一。她的陸海循環發生在一個地圖上未標明的海洋，這裏包含了龐大的島羣。這部作品大量的抒情文字讓人不由得向其托爾金式的魔幻。蕾古音並不用普通的魔幻修辭打動你，《陸海》就是這麼一部樸素的，在一個奇妙的世界中發生的故事。
5. Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams《記憶，悲傷和刺》——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.
《記憶，悲傷和刺》發生在一個和我們差不離的世界裏，利用歷史和風俗創造了一個全新的故事。在閱讀這部作品的同時，你會發現英格蘭亞瑟王時期的元素，北歐的故事和宗教（包括基督的象徵，被釘在一棵樹上，從而構成了這個世界的主要宗教，一種基督教和挪威神話的混合體），以及很多其他現實世界的映射。這毫無疑問達到了魔幻境界的頂峯。如果你喜歡托爾金，羅伯特.喬丹以及其他同類的作家，那麼讀一讀泰德吧，他絕不會讓你失望。
y Potter by J.K. Rowling 《哈里.波特》——J.K.羅琳
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.
當考慮評選史上最偉大的魔幻作品時，《哈利波特》這個問題就有點棘手。當一件東西像羅琳的書一樣受歡迎時，必然就會有很大爭議，再加上這部作品表面上看是兒童作品，這不由自主就會引起很多爭論。我並不認爲羅琳在《哈利波特》上有什麼特別創新，但一部作品並不一定要有創新纔好看。就像所有的魔幻系列都要感謝托爾金一樣，但這並不意味着托爾金寫的就是魔幻作品的範本。羅琳並沒有加什麼新的東西進去，但她的技巧是無以倫比的，同時其與數百萬讀者的互動交流也是令人讚歎的。人們在接下來的數十年中都會讀《哈利波特》，我並不確定會有更好的對於魔幻作品的詮釋。
3. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien 《指環王》——J.R.R托爾金
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.
當然你知道的，托爾金早晚會出現在這裏。真正的意外應該在於他並不是第一名（T_T）,這並不能說明《魔戒》系列不如前兩名。當提到托爾金時能寫的東西太多了。我不能確定其他題材的幻想小說是否是這樣，但魔幻題材小說絕對應該歸功於托爾金。即便是在21世紀的今天，托爾金同樣觸及到了各種娛樂形式，包括（很明顯的）書籍，電影，RPG遊戲，視頻遊戲等。你可能會覺得托爾金的三部曲在各個領域的泛濫會導致其失色，但它仍舊是一部魔幻佳作，如果你因爲它年代久遠或者看過同名電影而沒讀過原著，那麼你一定要讀讀，絕對物超所值。
2. The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe《新日之書》——傑因.沃爾夫
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.
《新日之書》這部小說分爲4個部分。它是書中一個叫賽弗裏安的男子以第一人稱來寫的。他是一個行刑官，書中記述了他成爲世界統治者的歷程。世界就是我們現實中的世界，但時間設定在遙遠的未來，在那個時期太陽已經變得冰冷昏暗。這個系列在魔幻題材的書中十分罕見，曾引發了深入的分析以及文學爭議。《新日之書》以殺手背景開始，但並非以此推動情節。我也是最近纔開始讀這部書的，這可以算得上是我讀過的最好的作品之一，不僅限於魔幻作品。這是一部比大多“巫師和騎士”更富挑戰性的作品，值得一讀。
1. A Song Of Ice And Fire by George R.R. Martin 《冰火之歌》—— 喬治R.R.馬丁
並不是說一部夭折的作品就不是好作品，我仍然認爲這是史上最偉大的魔幻作品。毫無疑問，馬丁是站在了巨人們的肩膀上，尤其是托爾金，但是其作品各方面的成熟是其他作品望塵莫及的。出於某些原因，與此同時進入我腦海的是電視劇《火線》，這部電視劇乍一看貌似普通的警匪片，但事實上遠不止如此，它以自己獨有的方式反映了現實。同樣的，《冰火之歌》也是這樣，儘管是魔幻背景設定，但人們仍然表現得有血有肉。當大多作者仍在用千篇一律的人物填充他們所構建的魔幻世界時，馬丁脫穎而出，這就是爲什麼即便他沒時間去完結這部作品，我們仍認爲《冰火之歌》是史上最偉大的魔幻作品。
