The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub.
there's a werewolf in it, but he's adorable so its okay.

How about Beowulf? It's a must read for any avid fantasy reader

Read it in high school, actually (and loved it)! I really ought to pick up a copy.

Heh, that's even better!

Mmm... How about arthurian books? You know, the books about the knights of King arthur (Yvain, the Knight of the Lion, Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart, Perceval, the Story of the Grail, etc...).

ERAGON

(joke, I wouldn't suggest it at all)

WIsh I could seriously help, the last book I read was Hero, unless you don't mind gay comic book style heroes.

I thought about Eragon when it was first released, but couldn't get past the scaly camel on the cover. :/

it was good when I read it.... when I was 14. And that's about it. Eragon was readable, and the other two make my brain hurt. You could always go Dragonriders of Pern, but Anne McAffrey takes so long getting into the story that it always put me off a bit.

Actually, as far as books go, Out of Position was surprisingly enjoyable. Sex scenes ignored, the characters were enjoyable, with protagonists I could empathize with trying to get into life after college, with antagonists I wanted to personally punch in the face for being antagonizing :P

OMG I was totally going to suggest the Pern series xD

I never read more than 50 pages of any of those book, and I checked out about 10 from the library to see if they were different. She takes too long to get started and it makes me not want to read it.

I agree that some of the books take a while to get going, but once you get into the story it's really rewarding imo.

Good for you, it's awful. Not a single original thought in the whole series.

BUT THEY KILL GOD*wah wah bitch bitch*

The Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews is pretty good. Although it DOES have shapechangers and vampires in it, it's not the Twilight brand of them. Very clever, witty, engaging books.

Also, Fablehaven by Branden Mull, but you'll find those in the independent reader section.

I really loved Gulliver's Travels. Make sure you get the one that is not edited for the kids. It's really very funny, and very good.

It's juvenile fiction but The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud features a hefty dose of politics mixed in with magic and Victorian England, and The Knife of Never Letting Go by Phillip Ness is surprisingly adult in theme. Plus there's always the His Dark Materials Trilogy.

Wow, I read a lot of juvenile fantasy stuff.

I absolutely recommend the Bartimeus Trilogy, a very good novel in my opinion. While it doesn't contain material stirring a lot of higher thought processes, the novel absolutely captures the reader with the sincerity of the emotions and personnalities (mostly the djinn's, though)

Also in the Young Adult section, Hunger Games and Catching Fire. Really, really fun sci-fi action reads and not embarrassing to be caught reading at all. It seems that the read of the WORLD likes Collins, but she's still not resounding so loud in the USA.

Oh, and on the subject of young adult books, the Percy Jackson series of books (haven't seen the movie, and don't intend to anytime soon) is pretty good, and very accurate as far as Greek mythology goes.

My favorite fantasy series is the Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. There's seven of them, but some people consider it the best works the two authors put out.

I've read all of those. They were quite good.

I also recommend the Death Gate Cycle, and anything by Weis&Hickman that's left in print. They've been two of my most loved authors since highschool.

The Rose of Prophet and Darksword Trilogy are also by Weis&Hickman. Both series are out of print now, but well worth the pursuit through libraries and used-book stores.

As long as you remember to avoid anything from the Dragonlance series, not even their awesome writing could save that disaster of badly written books.

Aye I was going to suggest them too, lovely book series, somehow Book 2 of the series remains my favorite.

How about the His Dark Materials novels?

Heh. *looks at his personal library of books* Depends on how obscure you wanna get. Terry Brooks is one of my favorite authors. I recommend just about anything by him. I highly recommend Lord of the Rings if you haven't read it already. And if you can find it, the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik is a great series. I can recommend more depending on what you like or don't like (take them or leave them, the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan and Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind are very popular).

I can totally vouch for any recommendations that ^he makes.

And if you want more stuff with dragons, I can recommend the Age of Fire books by E. E. Knight, Bazil Broketail by Christopher Rowley, the Jouster series by Mercedes Lackey, and Dragon Scroll/Dragon Star trilogies by Melanie Rawn.

Yay! Baz!

Oh, and if you're wondering: I have over 500 books, of which I've read probably half to two thirds of.

The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks (AMAZING), Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson.

There is the Mortal Instruments series. It is a very interesting take on all the fantasy stuff, as that it takes all the traditionnal elves and faeries and such and turns them 180 degrees. While there are vampires and werewolves, it's not clean, it's not lovey-dovey and it isn't cute. According to this series, lycanthropy and vampirism are actually demonic infections. Then we're introduced to the shadowhunters, the 'police' of the underworld.

Essentially, Cassandra Clare took all the fantasy inspiration she could, and made her own world out of it. An interesting read, but the main theme is (again) revolving around love, between a 'mundane' and a shadowhunter.

George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series is pretty gripping.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke is an interesting take on pseudo-historical fantasy.

<i>Glass Dragons</i>... I don't remember who wrote it, though.

I recall a bit where a human encounters dragons in human form and is all like, 'You're gonna eat me!', with one of the dragons going, 'Eat is such a harsh word! It's more like... savor.'

...

But, then, there's a vampire in it... kinda. Not a stereotypical one like I see in <i>Twilight</i>.

My favorite series are <i>The Belgariad</i> and <i>The Mallorean</i> by David Eddings. Also, the companion books, <i>Belgarath the Sorceror</i> and <i>Polgara The Sorceress</i>.

Dangit, I keep forgetting that HTML tags with <> don't work here.

And I can vouch for this too. I had forgotten the Eddings stuff. The Belgariad and Malloreon quintets are excellent books.

I second Drakkoid with regard to the Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey.

I also second what he said about the story taking a while to get going lol, but it's still an excellent series. It's also a really long-running series (with over 20 books, I believe,) so if you get hooked, it'll be a while before you exhaust the material xD

And I can kinda vouch for it too. I liked the books as a teenager, but not so much anymore. It's essentially just romance novels with dragons.

I cannot stress this series enough. It's called "The Black Magician" trilogy and by name alone it sounds kinda hokey but the story over the three novels is exceptionally awesome. it's by Trudi Canavan.

Try Redwall series by Brian Jacques

The Temeraire books are pretty good.

If you haven't read Ender's Game and Orson Scott Card's books after, do it. Robert Asprin's MythAdventures sport some quirky reads less punny than Peirs Anthony's XANTH, and both are enjoyable. Most of the other's I would've named (Pratchett,Mercedes Lackey, David Eddings) have been cited already, but if you're looking for some dragons NOT Eragorn or Pern, try Jane Yolen's Heart's Blood and Dragons Blood or Lawrence Yep's Dragons of the Lost Sea series, two old favorites that often fall through modern day racks. The former is like Dune Lite and the latter is Journey to the West from a spin-off angle.

Also I think no one's mentioned Glenn Cook's Black Company, so here!

If you can find it I recomend 'The Dark is Rising' byt Susan Cooper. Nothing like the movie 'The Seeker' which thrashed te first book to death.

If you like Anne McCaffrey, I can recomend The ships series (usually written with a co author so not as slow a pick up) and The crystal singer series. Also The Doona books starting with Decision at Doona (Has upright bipedal felid aliens)

I'm rereading currently Mercede's 'Five hundred kingdoms series, good if you don't mind retooled fairy tails just this side of 'A dumb romance' as my mome would call them.

Lisanne Normans 'Sholan Worlds' are okay, if you don't mind telepaths and etc... and oh right alien 'cat' sex (Another one just shy of ADR, but with sci-fi and not fantasy)

Sharon Green's "The Blending" and "The Blending Enthroned"

Stephen R. Donaldsons 'The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever' (also a second trilogy after that one.) 'Mordant's Need' (mirror magic)

Janny Wurts 'The Cycle of fire' and 'The Wars of Light and Shadow'


Rodger Zelanzies 'The Great book of Amber' (Ten book omnibus of the tales of Amber, Thing looks like a phone book)

Most of these are series or trilogies and they're all currently out, no waiting. One thing I recomend is if you can't find something and really want to read it, go to the local library and even if they don't have it they can usually get it for you via inter library loan... (And it's free... only suckage is you have to give back the book).

Don't forget McCaffrey's Rowan series, that's not too bad either.

I've read one or two of the Sholan books, they were alright.

I did read both Thomas Covenant trilogies by Donaldson, they were actually quite good. I don't know if you know this, but he's currently working on a third set for Thomas Covenant. "The Runes of the Earth" is the first in that series.

Oh yeah, the FT&T series.. Federated Telephaths and Telporters. I've only read a few of those. Oh really, coolness. I'll have to let the person know who I first borrowed them from know.

No idea if this is good or not but my friend recommended it, "the Paradise War" by Stephen Lawhead...

Assuming good old classics are OK...
The Elric cycle by Michael Moorcock
The Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser cycle by Fritz Leiber
The Cugel and the Lyonesse cycles by Jack Vance

I think the series of books by C.E. Murphy might be up your alley. The series is called The Walker Papers and it's about shamans. Pretty good series in my opinion.

There's also Robert Asprin's Myth series. They're pretty humorous.

Let's see...most of Eoin Colfer's books are entertaining.

For a more scientific type of book I'd recommend Stephen Baxter's Manifold series.

I have a lot more to list if you want...

I heartily recommend Tad Williams' "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn" trilogy. It is the best fantasy I have ever read and will easily engross you in the SUmmer and keep you coming back for more. The series includes "The Dragonbone Chair", "The Stone of Farewell", and "To Green Angel Tower". All wonderful, wonderful bricks. Not a vampire or werewolf in sight!

Dominus tecum

Here's something else: if you want something Tolkien-esque, but without Tolkien's wordiness, the Iron Tower trilogy by Dennis L. McKiernan is pretty good. I could go on and on, but I'll just stop now.

Redwall-series by Brian Jaques. It's THE best book-series I've read. It easily beats LOTR and HP

hey gf~..i haven't read it myself..but maybe you can try christopher pike's - alosha

hmm fantasy novels?..makes me think of those alien and cthulu ones ;*

The Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson was recommended earlier. I just finished book two, and I'm quite enjoying it myself.