2025's Top Twenty Based Fantasy

Speculative Fiction Without Apology

A couple of weeks ago, we shared the Top Based Science Fiction offerings for 2025.

Now, it’s time to look at the Top Based Fantasy offerings of 2025.

It took at least forty one sales to break into the top ten, and twenty nine to secure a place in the top twenty. Our list presents Based Fantasy from currently active authors (sorry Robert E. Howard, we’ll mention you in the overall rankings).

Let’s take a closer look at what fantasy offerings were favorites with Based Readers in 2025.

The Top Based Fantasy of 2025

Grandmaster John C. Wright takes top honors in fantasy for 2025 with One Bright Star to Guide Them, a marvelous story of childhood fantasy heroes having grown up and needing to recapture their youthful idealism.

John C. Wright collects second place honors as well with The Iron Chamber of Memory: “[a]n eerie, suspenseful, romantic fantasy in the mood of C. S. Lewis and Charles Williams.” “[T]he first 25% is a romantic farce,” explains author Declan Finn. “Like Bringing Up Baby, only it's funny. Then the next 25% is an epic romance. The third quarter .... transitions nicely into the last 25%, in which the fecal matter hits the air impeller, and we are in for one hell of a ride.”

Vox Day’s epic fantasy A Throne of Bones captured third place. In Selenoth, the race of Man is on the ascendant. The ancient dragons sleep. The ghastly Witchkings are no more; their evil power destroyed by the courage of Men and the fearsome magic of the Elves. The Dwarves have retreated to the kingdoms of the Underdeep, the trolls hide in their mountains, and even the savage orc tribes have learned to dread the iron discipline of Amorr’s mighty legions. Epic fantasy at its deepest and most gripping. Military fiction at its most fantastic. A Throne of Bones is Book I in the ARTS OF DARK AND LIGHT series.

Vox Day also captured fourth place with his new release, Death and the Devil, a brilliantly dark and witty collection that reimagines cosmic forces with heart, humor, and humanity. What happens when Death decides to take up haiku? When the Devil’s carefully laid plans go awry? When the Incarnation of War discovers that the only thing worse than war is when the dead don’t die?

Rounding out the top five is M.S. Olney with The Sundered Crown Saga (1-3): (Books 1-3+ The Nightblade prequel novel) An Epic Fantasy Boxset! The Sundered Crown Saga is a tale of magic, monsters and epic battles.

The Rest of the Top Ten

In sixth place, Awake in the Night Land is an epic collection of four of John C. Wright's brilliant forays into the dark fantasy world of William Hope Hodgson's 1912 novel, The Night Land. Part novel, part anthology, the book consists of four related novellas, "Awake in the Night", "The Cry of the Night-Hound", "Silence of the Night", and "The Last of All Suns", which collectively tell the haunting tale of the Last Redoubt of Man and the end of the human race. Widely considered to be the finest tribute to Hodgson ever written, the first novella, “Awake in the Night,” was previously published in 2004 in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-First Annual Collection. Awake in the Night Land marks the first time all four novellas have been gathered into a single volume.

Vox Day is back in seventh with A Sea of Skulls Book 2 of the Arts of Dark and Light. Beneath the widespread violence that has seized all Selenoth in its grasp, a select few are beginning to recognize the appearance of a historic pattern of almost unimaginable proportions. Are all these conflicts involving Orc, Elf, Man, and Dwarf the natural result of inevitable rivalries, or are they little more than battlegrounds in an ancient war that began long before the dawn of time? Epic fantasy at its deepest and most intense. A Sea of Skulls is Book II in the ARTS OF DARK AND LIGHT series that began with A Throne of Bones.

In eighth, the anthology: Shoot the Devil. Ten of superversive's finest team up to bring you tales from a serial killer's basement, to the weird west, to the average small town, all featuring “mostly” ordinary men and women fighting back against the forces of darkness.

N.R. Lapoint earned ninth place with Gun Magus. “Gun Magus uses the imagination of John C Wright, the action of Jim Butcher, and the genre tonnage of every pulp novel put together,” confirms author Declan Finn. “Seriously, what’s not to love?”

We close out the top ten in fantasy with a tie. The Shoot the Devil 3: Militia of Martyrs anthology, by a host of talented authors shares tenth place with Vox Day’s Summa Elvetica: A Casuistry of the Elvish Controversy & Other Stories (Arts of Dark and Light)

In Summa Elvetica, a medieval fantasy world in which the realm of man is dominated by a rich and powerful Church, the Most Sanctified Charity IV decides the time is ripe to make a conclusive inquiry into the matter. If, in his infallible wisdom, he determines that elves do have immortal souls, then the Church will be obliged to bring the Holy Word of the Immaculate to them. But if he decides they do not, there will be holy war. Powerful factions line up on both sides of the debate. War-hungry magnates cast greedy eyes at the ancient wealth of the elven kingdoms and pray for a declaration that elves are little more than animals. And there are men who are willing to do more than merely pray.

The Rest of the Top Twenty Based Fantasy

In twelfth place, we have Roy M. Griffis with his Lovecraftian satire, The Thing From HR. “What Roy Griffis has done is apply a completely new and fresh perspective to the Cthulhu mythos. The Thing From HR is as snarky, humorous, darkly twisted view of the old ones. I struggle to say what genre this book fits into. Yes, there is the insanity generating horror you’d expect, but this novel is much more. Picture The Office meets Cthulhu, meets Scooby Doo. I was laughing, audibly, as I read it. It is witty, daring, and worthy of your time.” - Blaine Pardoe, award-winning New York Times bestselling author

John C. Wright captured thirteenth with Swan Knight’s Son (Moth and Cobweb Book 1).

Gilberic Parzival Moth is a strange and lonely boy who has grown up without a father, raised by a single mother who moves from town to town in fear of something she will not name. His only friends are animals, with whom he has always been able to speak. But when he awakens one night at the Thirteenth Hour, and sees for the first time the cruel reality of the secret rule of Elf over Man, he begins to learn about his true heritage, the heritage of Twilight. And when his mother finally tells him the terrible truth of her past, he must choose whether to continue running with her in fear, or learning how to fight against ancient powers that are ageless, soulless, and ultimately damned.

In fourteenth, Robert Kroese’s Mercury Falls. “The Apocalypse is nigh in this whimsical, riotous debut. Christine Temetri, a freelancer for a popular religious news magazine, is tired of endless assignments covering cults incorrectly prophesizing the End of Days. When she talks her boss into giving her a better assignment, she doesn’t anticipate it will actually lead her back to a cult leader: the charismatic Galileo Mercury, who turns out not to be a cult leader at all, but a bona fide angel.”

Robert Kroese shows up again in fifteenth place with The Dis Trilogy. In the land of Dis, dragons have gone corporate, prophecies are best ignored, and death is more of a suggestion than a rule. The Dis Trilogy is a genre-bending, trope-skewering, theology-tinged fantasy saga that blends satire, swordplay, and metaphysical slapstick in only the way Robert Kroese can.

In sixteenth place is Declan Finn with Hell Spawn. His name is Officer Thomas Nolan, and he is a saint. He can smell evil. He shows mercy to the lesser criminals - the desperate. Even those he’s put behind bars seem to like him. But now there’s a serial killer bringing darkness beyond imagination to his city. He can smell the serial killer’s stench a mile away. But how can he prove it? How do you do forensics on a killer possessed by a demon?

In seventeenth place is the second Shoot the Devil anthology. Welcome back to a world filled with horrors beyond count. A world where madmen fly across galaxies chasing forbidden power and ancient evil seeks to infect and eradicate all life. A world filled with heroes ready and willing to fight the darkness. To raise the crucifix and the blaster rifle to send the evil straight back to hell.

Asterius (Timelessness) by Susana Imaginário came in eighteenth. “My Name is Asterius, yet I have never seen the stars. You all know me as the Minotaur. This is my story.” The Minotaur himself relates to a mysterious listener the events that led to his death in the Labyrinth as he reflects upon the meaning of good versus evil, right versus wrong and monsters versus heroes.

Roy M. Griffis appears again in nineteenth place with Supply Closet of Eternal Terror. “A Cthulhian romp that’s equal parts Terry Pratchett and Mel Brooks… and it just might be the funniest novel I’ve ever read.”

Finally, Robert Kroese closes out the top twenty with his five-volume Mercury Omnibus box set. When a wisecracking angel with a checkered past gets put on divine probation, Earth becomes his proving ground—and humanity his unwitting straight man. This complete collection brings together all five books in Robert Kroese’s riotously irreverent Mercury series, a satirical blend of theology, action, and cosmic bureaucracy.

Here’s the complete top twenty Based Fantasy works for 2025.

Why Do the Based Book Rankings Matter?

Ranking books by actual purchases rather than votes provides a more reliable measure of genuine interest, as it reflects real economic commitment and is harder to manipulate than free or anonymous voting systems. Sales data captures broader market trends, incentivizes quality through consumer willingness to pay, and offers traceable metrics that indicate lasting relevance. Amazon inherently limits voters to one purchase and therefore one vote per book. While not completely immune to manipulation (e.g., bulk buying), purchase-based rankings generally offer a higher signal-to-noise ratio than popularity contests driven by casual opinions or coordinated campaigns.

The most recent Hugo Awards for which data is available had 1647 ballots cast. Compare that to the Based Book Sale rankings for 2025 which incorporate the input of over 10,000 purchases. That’s on par with the total number of votes for the better-known Dragon Awards.

How do the Rankings Work?

The numbers are generated from Amazon Affiliate links on the sale pages (from which the Based Book Sale gets a 4% royalty), and they do not include purchases outside the sale. Authors typically report sales 50% to 100% higher. Also, you have to be present to win. Books not in the sale are not eligible for Top Based Book honors. And books that appear in multiple sales have an edge over those that only appear in one sale. Nevertheless, the Based Book Rankings is a crowd-sourced list of some of the best Based Books available, crowd-selected from a list of a few hundred.

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Our next Based Book Sale will be February 11-16, 2026.

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