The Ultimate Fantasy Series Ranking

Author page

Tanith Lee

4 universes Last reviewed 2026-10-04

Tanith Lee was a prolific British author of fantasy, horror, and science fiction, born September 19, 1947, in London, England, and she died May 24, 2015, in East Sussex from breast cancer at age sixty-seven. She attended several primary schools due to her family's frequent relocations, later attending Prendergast Grammar School for Girls and completing one year at Croydon Art College before withdrawing; she had mild dyslexia, diagnosed later in life, though her father taught her to read at age eight. Before her writing career took off, she worked as a file clerk, waitress, shop assistant, and assistant librarian. Her first professional sale was a ninety-word story titled "Eustace" at age twenty-one, and her breakthrough came in 1975 when DAW Books in the United States accepted her adult fantasy epic The Birthgrave, allowing her to write full-time. Lee's major works include her first novel, The Dragon Hoard (1971), and The Flat Earth Cycle, beginning with Night's Master and Death's Master. She also wrote two episodes of the British television series Blake's 7. She became the first woman to win the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel, for Death's Master in 1980, and later received two World Fantasy Awards, the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013, and the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement. She married artist and writer John Kaiine in 1992.

Universe(s)

Tales from the Flat Earth

  • Core Canon books: 5
  • Current rank: #200 in the official ranking
  • Weighted average: 4.14
  • Award recognitions: 1 won, 1 nomination

Wars of Vis

  • Core Canon books: 3
  • Current rank: #785 in the official ranking
  • Weighted average: 3.51
  • Award recognitions: None recorded

The Birthgrave Trilogy

  • Core Canon books: 3
  • Current rank: #716 in the official ranking
  • Weighted average: 3.76
  • Award recognitions: None recorded

Piratica

  • Core Canon books: 3
  • Current rank: #817 in the official ranking
  • Weighted average: 3.60
  • Award recognitions: None recorded

Books

Aggregate across all universes

These are separate, unrelated universes; the totals below are plain sums of already-published per-universe facts, never a blended or averaged score across them. See each universe's own figures above.

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