Bellgariad and Mallorian by David Eddings. Nine Princes in Amber series Roger Zelazny. Dragon Riders of Pern, Anne Mccaffery. All awesome series from the 80's

Actually there are 10 books. Donaldson released 4 more a couple of decades ago. They were better than the first six!

I popped in to recommend this series. Glad to see others did as well!

The books are pretty easy reads, but The Legend of Drizzt series by R. A. Salvatore is a fun read and there are plenty (30+) of books.

As others have said, Brandon Sandersons stormlight series (Way of Kings is the first book). Its amazing. I also really like The Night Watch series from Sergei Lukenyenko (sp?). Very cool books. Very bad movies.

The Archers Tale series by Bernard Cornwell. Epic books. Surprised they are not made into movies yet!

https://www.amazon.com/Archers-Tale-Grail-Quest-Book/dp/0060935766/ref=sr_1_2

If you enjoyed Lord of the Rings, there are many volumes of Tolkien’s material detailing the earlier ages of Middle Earth. They were compiled by his son Christopher. It’s a pretty deep dive, though.

I don’t read a whole lot of fantasy. Not much of what I have compares well with Tolkien in terms of depth. I do remember liking the Dragon Riders of Pern novels, but that was decades ago. I’m pretty sure that it earned the author, Anne McCaffrey, a Hugo Award.

Just started Mistborn and so far it’s fun.

I enjoyed Mistborn, as well. I planned on pursuing more of the series, but never got around to it. I may have to circle back on that one.

Asimov. Classic.

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I also would recommend this series, if you are lucky book 6 will come out after you read first five.

In addition to much of the preceding, but more fun and less dark than some, try Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series: the protagonists "become" Death (On A Pale Horse), Time (Bearing an Hourglass), Fate (With A Tangled Skein), War (Wielding A Red Sword), Earth (Being A Green Mother), Evil (For Love of Evil) and Good (And Eternity) in this 7-book-arc. Each aspect of reality is a cosmic senior responsibility ... but you might not have applied for the task!

I remember that series from when I was in (high school? I think?). Those books have some STRONG NSFW content lol

I was going to say this! The dark elf trilogy is awesome.

If you love huge fantasy books you should check out Tad Williams. He writes Stephen King style with 800+ page books. I've read his Otherland series and some of his stand alone books and they are fantastic. I need to start into his other series. Also, another fantasy/sci-fi author I like is China Mieville. The City & The City is amazing as well as, Kraken, and Embassy Town. I need to get back into these as well.

This is not exactly what you were looking for but its an excellent
non-fiction science/astronomy book I just finished;

The Super Nova Story by Marschall (sp?).

This is a fascinating book that explains how stars are formed and how
they die. But also how the stuff left over from exploding stars was
made and created all of the known elements which of course our
planet and even we are made of.

Far better than some sci-fi books because its true.
Steve

Magician by Raymond E Feist
Dune

I feel terrible for not even thinking of it before, but Terry Pratchett's Discworld series takes the best of the medieval fantasy world and the worst of our current real world, lots of humor.

Magician: Apprentice by Raymond E.Feist.

Not precisely fantasy but definitely epic, The Long Ships is a Viking adventure novel with first-rate characters and some nice laughs peppered in amongst the drinking and pillaging. If you like Tolkien I’d almost guarantee you’ll love this too. One of my all-time favorites.

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All great series, but Eddings' series will always rank as the best to me. I really enjoy Butcher's Dresden series and the Alera series was well written, but the basic plot is similar. Nothing wrong with that, and Butcher gives credit to Eddings.

I would not call this epic, but is okay. Jim Butcher is a bit lazy in my opinon, there are large jumps in time between books and not a lot of character development. I would consider this more of a child's series, but not like Harry Potter where all ages enjoy.

I second the Dark Tower series. It is my favorite fantasty series ever. I have all first prints, except the first two, which are thousands of dollars. The hardback books have awesome art throughout. DO NOT judge this based on the shitty movie that came out a year or two ago. I have to admit though that I'm a huge Stephen King fan in general.

Dune was also mentioned. What a great series to read. I support this recomendation as well.

Michael Moorcock has several good things. His Von Bek series is a very long read, but pretty interesting from what I read!

LOL, Anthony was indeed a delightfully randy old man (not sure he was truly “old” - my criteria are far different now than at age 12)!

Nothing quite like unexpectedly learning the definition of “kink” at age 13 when you think you are merely reading a cool story about swords and sorcery and such, but are suddenly presented with not only a description of what a “Centaur” is, but also the reproductive processes which brought it into being!