Best Stand Alone Classic Fantasy (Results)

The results of our book recommendations for best stand-alone fantasy (written before 1980) are in, and wow, are these ever some amazing books. This might be the first time EVER that I've read every single book on the list, and they all deserve the praise they got. Thank you to SO many people for participating and making this our best book recommendation post yet. Results will go onto our massive compilation post in the next few days.

We did have a hiccup (again) a bunch of you went ahead and ponied up recommendations for books that were NOT stand-alone. They have clear sequels or ARE clear and obvious sequels. So, like last time with the sci-fi results, I'll run a separate poll for books that AREN'T stand alone but totally SHOULD be. We will also of course do another such post for MODERN fantasy (written after 1980). 

On to the results…

Favorites (Remember, there was no voting, so the only "order" I've put them in is how many seconds they recieved.)

Watership Down, R. Adams 5

The Last Unicorn, P. S. Beagle 4

The Neverending Story, M. Ende 4 

The Phantom Tollbooth, N. Juster 3

Kindred, O. Butler 2

Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast, R. McKinley 2

Fahrenheit 451, R. Bradbury 2

A Canticle for Liebowitz, W. M. Miller, Jr 2

Something Wicked This Way Comes, R. Bradbury 2

Drawing of the Dark, T. Powers 2

The Farthest Away Mountain, L. R. Banks

Out of their Minds, C. D. Simak

Operation Chaos, P. Anderson

Momo [The Grey Gentlemen], M. Ende

Undersung Heroes: 

This Time of Darkness, H. M. Hoover

The Shaving of Shagpat: An Arabian Entertainment, G. Meredith

The Princess Bride, W. Goldman 

Dandelion Wine, R. Bradbury 

Rule-Breaking Mention

I'll mention three rule-breaking exceptions that defied the rules of our post but not simply by being published after 1980 or having a clear-cut sequel. One is not a novel. So does each of its short stories count as sequels or part of a series? The other is a book that has multiple endings released over 40 years apart including one that opens up the possibility of a sequel (possibly for its TV serialization). The last is a world-building book for Lord of the Rings which doesn't really have anything to do with The Hobbit or LotR, but is still kind of an edge case.

The Stand, S. King

The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien

The Illustrated Man, R. Bradbury (Short story collection) 2



The books that were part of series will show up on the next poll.

Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, R. C. O'Brien 4
Bunnicula, D. Howe and J. Howe 2
Bridge of Birds, B. Hughart 2
The Dark is Rising, S. Cooper
Inferno, L. Niven and J. Pournelle
Over Sea Under Stone, S. Cooper