Just finished A Series of Unfortunate Events, though I don't think it's necessarily fantasy. Either way, I enjoyed it. I never finished it as a child, I fell away from them over time, but this time around I made it all the way through and very much enjoyed it. More so than as a child, I think, possibly because its signature narrative style reminds me of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan.

I liked its ending. It was exactly as bleak as promised throughout the series, without becoming mere melodrama. Life doesn't match most peoples' bizarre sense of fairness, disaster can strike for no reason, there's no such thing as good or evil, people are stupid, there are rarely satisfying answers to life's questions and you have to just get on with things as best you can anyway.

It was a better ending than I expected from a children's series (I know, I should know better, but modern YA is so idealistic and naive despite its superficially bleak promises and it's lowered my expectations), and I'm quite impressed by Daniel Handler's willingness not to condescend to children with the ending. Yeah, the story had bleakness throughout, but until the ending there was always a sense that there would be a satisfying conclusion, as is traditional, and this along with the narration's sense of humor diluted the message, made it more palatable and less effective. The end discarded the humor, talked to the reader seriously and respectfully about some unpleasant truths and managed to instill a lesson without feeling like an Aesop's fable.

Definitely a favorite children's series. Give it a go - it starts off episodic but the longer story arc kicks in toward the end of book five, so if you try it, get at least that far. Highly recommended.

I've moved on to The Chronicles of Prydain now. I never read these as a child so it's a first time for me, but I loved the horribly forgotten Disney adaptation (regardless of how unfaithful I've heard it to be) and Welsh (or British in general) mythology, so I have high hopes.