4.Harry 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(dāng)考慮評(píng)選史上最偉大的魔幻作品時(shí)，《哈利波特》這個(gè)問(wèn)題就有點(diǎn)棘手。當(dāng)一件東西像羅琳的書(shū)一樣受歡迎時(shí)，必然就會(huì)有很大爭(zhēng)議，再加上這部作品表面上看是兒童作品，這不由自主就會(huì)引起很多爭(zhēng)論。我并不認(rèn)為羅琳在《哈利波特》上有什么特別創(chuàng)新，但一部作品并不一定要有創(chuàng)新才好看。就像所有的魔幻系列都要感謝托爾金一樣，但這并不意味著托爾金寫(xiě)的就是魔幻作品的范本。羅琳并沒(méi)有加什么新的東西進(jìn)去，但她的技巧是無(wú)以倫比的，同時(shí)其與數(shù)百萬(wàn)讀者的互動(dòng)交流也是令人贊嘆的。人們?cè)诮酉聛?lái)的數(shù)十年中都會(huì)讀《哈利波特》，我并不確定會(huì)有更好的對(duì)于魔幻作品的詮釋。