Fantasy book or series recommendation needed

Manky

Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series (6 books in all) is one of the best fantasy series I've read in the last decade.

A series I've been rereading every few years for quite a while is Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry trilogy. I think he helped Tolkien's son assemble what was eventually published as The Silmarillion, and you can see the influence of Tolkien in the trilogy. I've tried a couple of his later novels but didn't enjoy them enough to read again.

Clive Barker's Weaveworld is a standalone novel that's worth a read. I've only read a couple of his novels but it's my favourite.

As mentioned by others:
The Belgariad is Eddings at his most enjoyable. Later works do seem to be the same story and characters in another setting.
Stephen Donaldson's Mordant's Need is an easier read than the Thomas Covenant stories and probably more enjoyable too.

NewMan

I also quite enjoyed Robin Hobbs' Farseer trilogies - Assassin's Apprentice and The Tawny Man.

GloopyJon

Agreed...but steer clear of the Forest Mage series - atrocious!!!

Llamatronian

Joe Abercrombie's 'The First Law' trilogy is well worth a read.

Theydon Bois

Yep, a bloody good read.

WildeKarde

Someone already mentioned crystal shard so might throw in Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. Should still qualify as fantasy albeit modern day.

jenam93

Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series.  I'm currently on book 7, there's about 13 of them.

Edit: DOH, note to self......pay more attention to the first post!!

GloopyJon

...and soon you will lose the will to live, or at least to continue reading as he drags the story out waaaaaaaaaay beyond its finish-by date.

Llamatronian

This is the only thing that puts me of reading this series.

Andyh4324

It's a decent enough story.  I'm on book 4 or 5 now but am taking a break and reading other stuff before reading any more.  It does drag on a bit and it hopefully won't seem so bad when I come back to it.