Fantasy recommendations

[Albertosaurus Rex]

Well, as the title says. I'll start by listing mine:

Robin Hobb, obviously. I've read everything she's written so far, except for The Soldier Son, which is on my to-be-read pile. An excellent author.
I like the Megan Linholm books too, although I haven't been able to obtain all of them yet.

George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire just blew me away. It is currently my favorite fantasy series, and this is not likely to change in the immediate future. The only other book I've read outside of ASOIAF so far is Dying of the Light, which I unfortunately did not enjoy.

Michael Ende's The Neverending Story is one of my all-time favorites, about a boy who becomes part of the story he is reading. Much better than the movies, which I dislike (although the first one was a good, though flawed, effort).

Garth Nix is an excellent writer, I love his Old Kingdom novels. The first of those, Sabriel, which originally written as a stand-alone, so be sure to give it a try. It's about necromancers, sorta, only they put the dead to rest instead of raising them.

Stephen Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant are not an easy read, I think, but well worth your time. About a man who is transported into a fantasty world, but believes that he is hallucinating.

David Gemmell writes some solid stuff, but he does get repititive.

Katharine Kerr is okay I guess.

[Nobody]

I'll second Martin and Nix.

I also adore anything by Neil Gaiman. American Gods is my favourite, followed closely by The Graveyard Book, but pretty much anything he writes is guaranteed to be brilliant. And he has tons of short stories out there.

[joost]

Michael Ende's The Neverending Story is one of my all-time favorites, about a boy who becomes part of the story he is reading. Much better than the movies, which I dislike (although the first one was a good, though flawed, effort).

Don't forget Momo, Ende's other 'big work'.

Other writers:
Mary Gentle: I discovered her with the Orthe omnibus, and am slowly collecting all her work. ASH is of course her masterpiece, but her other books are well worth reading too, especially 1610: a sundial in a grave and the aforementioned Orthe. The only book I never really got into was White crow.

Clive Barker: Although usually more associated with horror, his books contain enough fantasy elements to be liked by fantasy fans. For pure fantasy reads, the Abarat series (volume 3 is planned end this year) is probably the best starting point, together with Imajica.

Stephen Donaldson: Although the Thomas Covenant books are good, I prefer the two Mordant books.

Jude Fisher: Fool's gold is probably as cliché as you can get in fantasy terms, it's still a very good read.

Ursula le Guin: The Earthsea books are a classic, and justly so. Especially The farthest shore is very very good. Too bad about Tehanu, it's a mediocre finish...

[Albertosaurus Rex]

Michael Ende's The Neverending Story is one of my all-time favorites, about a boy who becomes part of the story he is reading. Much better than the movies, which I dislike (although the first one was a good, though flawed, effort).

Don't forget Momo, Ende's other 'big work'.

For some reason I have never bothered to read any other novels by Michael Ende back when I was a kid, and now that I'm older, I wonder if I should try them now. I did watch a lot of the Jim Button cartoon back when, however, which I thought was pretty cool, but I don't know how faithful to the books it is (although by looking at the adaptations of The Neverending Story, I have my suspicions).

[n00854180t]

Stephen Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant are not an easy read, I think, but well worth your time. About a man who is transported into a fantasty world, but believes that he is hallucinating.

I second this, certainly not an easy/lighthearted read by any means, but excellent indeed. I think it takes a certain type of reader to appreciate Covenant, but if you're able to get past the first part(s) and not absolutely revile Thomas, you'll probably greatly enjoy the trilogy.

The second trilogy was somewhat painful and definitely not as good, but still interesting for completeness' sake.

[Chiquita]

I just finished reading Brent Weeks' Night Angel trilogy and really enjoyed it alot. All three books are out in paperback and they are his first books.

The Way of Shadows
Shadow's Edge
Beyond the Shadows

[n00854180t]

Oh, I also recommend the Coldfire Trilogy by C. S. Friedman, as it's a verra nice sci-fi presented as fantasy series.

[Nuytsia]

I liked the Thomas Covenant books , and I only just found out recently that Donaldson wrote some more of that story and I think is still writing it.

It's been so long since I read them though that I would need to re-read them all before reading the new ones. Argh!!! My to-read list!!!!!!!

Yeah I now have the latest post on every topic of the 'Other Universes' subforum and I am no longer newboy too!!!!!!!

[Manephelien]

Trudi Canavan is great, even if I've only read her Black Magician trilogy. A great read, even if labeled as YA in some markets.

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned JK Rowling yet. Harry Potter is a modern classic, and unusual in that the longer the series goes on, the better it gets.

[Albertosaurus Rex]

Oh, I do love Harry Potter, but I think it's a kinda pointless recommendation; virtually everyone knows about the books and lots of people have already tried them (and either liked them or not).