What other fantasy books do YOU read?

[Pitchwife]

Originally Posted by Alassë Estel

Riddle-Master Trilogy by Patricia A. McKillip (I can't believe it is not more popular. I was quite surprised by how much I enjoyed these books)

McKillip had the magic quill (or, well, keyboard I guess), her writing was pure gold.

I quite enjoy Fritz Leibers short stories featuring Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser once in a while (expert prose and a tongue-in-cheek humour at the expense of his heroes). Also read Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion / Phoenix in Obsidian / The Dragon and the Sword a while ago, admiring his colourful imagination and concise writing which allows him to complete a whole trilogy in less pages than the first volume of ASoIaF. I also like how he ties this story back to our real world, and the insight his protagonist finds in the end:

Indeed, to be a hero, forever at war, is to be in some ways always a child. The true challenge comes in making sense of one's life [...] I still dream frequently of the great battle-blades, the chargers, the massive fighting barges, the weird creatures and the magical cities, the bright banners and the wonder of perfect love [...] But I have discovered an equal intensity of experience in this world, too. We have merely, I think, to teach ourselves how to recognise and to relish it.

QFT.