Sanderson's stuff is good.

The Stormlight Archives are ongoing and well worth dipping your toe into the 1st 3 Books.

Book 4 should be out in the next 6 months or so?

Stephen Kings Dark Tower series, George RR Martins Game of Thrones, Patrick Rothfuss Kingkiller Chronicles. Those last two series are unfinished and nobody knows when they will be.

I absolutely adore the “Dark is Rising” books.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Is_Rising_Sequence

Like the Hobbit/LOTR, Book 2 is really the start of the main story - but the characters in Book 1 come back later on. At the time I had connected them more with CS Lewis’ stuff, but they are way more folklore-based, like LOTR.

They are supposed to be Teenager/high school books but they are just as involved and deep (and dense) as Tolkien. Not George R R Martin level - I’ve never been able to get into his pace... of... needing... 15 ... pages... to write ... what... could have ... been .. conveyed .. in ... 2 ... sentences...

Big, long, epic and full of detail...The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.

Not really fantasy books, but the Jack Higgins books with Sean Dillon, Charles Ferguson, Harry Salter, etc are very enjoyable. More in the line of the Tom Clancy books.

Brian Mclellan's Powder Mage Trilogy is also very good.

And there is additional stuff beyond the original series that is also well worth the read.

Sullivan's Legens of the First Empire is also a good read.

Not fantasy at all, but cj box writes great, easy readers mostly about a game warden in Wyoming. Read in order tho

Straight pass. Rothfuss is an excellent writer but it will be 2120 before book three comes out. Do not waste your time.

I have mixed feeling. There are like two and a half good books in the series. Worth a read, maybe. The good books make up for the lack luster ones

Stephen King Dark Tower Series
1.The Gunslinger short& intense
2.The Drawing of the Three
Pulls you in to his world deeper
3.The Wastelands now you can’t you back!
Wizards and Glass my favorite it’s a western best friends and love story in one

Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson, epic world building at it's best. Not for the faint of heart, 10 books in the main series, many others in the world.

Wheel of Time way over rated imo, was OK, killed lots of time (and brain cells)

Joe Abercrombie The First Law Trilogy and follow up books.

I second Sanderson‘s Stormlight Archives.

Dark Tower is great as well.
Rothfuss is good, but who knows when that will be finished.

Robin Hobb is worth a look: The Farseer Trilogy, The Tawny Man Trilogy and the Fitz and the Fool Trilogy are pretty epic. In between you can also read about the Liveship Traders, which is a great trilogy in itself in the same world with some overlap.

I am thinning out some books. Maybe the closest I have right off the bat, are a bunch of Clive Cussler novels.
Take a peek and see if the subject matter interests you.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Cussler

Over 100 Books and 20 Best Sellers.

If you or another pinsider is interested, I can grab them in the next 3-4 weeks, and just cover postage.
Shoot me a PM.

I may have 6-12 books in total.

Sword of Truth series is kinda love or hate it, but you could read the first book and decide to bail if it’s not your jam

Gene Wolfe deserves a mention as does Zelazney. Nine Princes in Amber is a great read.

His latest, wolf pack, was very good, easy, 2 night read

Another vote for the Dark Tower series, but if you also are looking for a couple of Stephen King stand alones The Talisman (with Peter Straub) is long and a very good read, and 11/22/63 while based on history is an excellent mind bender of his.

In non-fantasy but fiction, the Stieg Larsson series of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is very good. It is a bit on the violent/graphic side at times but is a good read.

Forgotten realms is a pretty good series

Any idea what’s going on with the tv series ?

Farseer trilogy, First Law trilogy, Prince of Nothing, Demon Cycle, Wheel of Time.

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson.

Red rising series by Pierce Brown. My wife doesn’t care for this kind of stuff , I begged her to read the first 2 chapters of the first book; she proceeded to finish the entire series in a matter of a few weeks. All of my buddies have read it, it’s amaze balls... I’ve only read the first 4; the 4th book is a little odd, but the 5th is supposed to be amazing

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Have you read R. L. Steins Goosebumps?

Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever
Stephen Donaldson.

6 books. Awesome series. Fantasy.

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Edward Lee “City Infernal” series. The Fantasy/Horror equivalent to a Netflix/Hulu “guilty pleasure” where you spend a weekend drinking/smoking/eating your weight in fried foods as you binge your way through the episodes. It is an “easy” read which will do nothing to challenge the reader, but I’ll be damned (pun intended, ha) if it didn’t suck me in and even make me wish I could take a short vacation in Hell! Really, I am almost embarrassed that I enjoyed these books as much as I did!

Currently, four titles in the series (listed in order here):

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Terry Brooks. Sword of Shannara is the beginning........ENJOY!

This! You'll still be reading them even if covid lasts until 2024

It's actually really fun to go back and read in chronological order too, starting with Running with the Demon. close to 40 books I believe.

Glen Cook, The Black Company. Incredible series.

“With the Black Company series Glen Cook single-handedly changed the face of fantasy--something a lot of people didn't notice and maybe still don't. He brought the story down to a human level, dispensing with the cliché archetypes of princes, kings, and evil sorcerers. Reading his stuff was like reading Vietnam War fiction on peyote.”

Patrick Rothfuss “The Name of the Wind”.

Outstanding!!

The Necroscope series by Brian Lumley is fantastic.
Anyone here ever read them?

Not fantasy, but amazing.
James S.A. Corey. The Expanse.
Great hard science fiction. I'm on book
Four, there are at least 3 more, and counting.
It's been turned into a wonderful tv series also.

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I read the first one. It was weird as hell

Check out the Traitor Son Cycle by Miles Cameron. First book is the Red Knight and is a bit of a reimagining of Arthurian legend. The author really knows his armor and battle tactics; I believe he competes in various armored combat competitions.

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Indeed!
I've only read the first five Necroscopes, but they get even weirder (in a good way).
To say the author has a wild imagination, would be one hell of an understatement.

(no spoilers)

Brandon Sanderson's stormlight archives starting with the Way of Kings. Read them last year and they are awesome. I have heard the Wheel of Time referenced several times and enjoyed the first few books. When Robert A Jordan knew he was dying, who did he choose to finish out his epic book series? Brandon Sanderson.

I've only read his Stormlight Archives and really enjoyed them. They are very long and verbose, but the storyline is great with fantastic characters and great world building. My only complain is that if Sanderson describes clothing the same way Tolkein describes language and Martin describes food... just too much.

As far as shorter books, you mentioned LOTR... the Hobbit is great if you never read it. Also, in my opinion Tom Clancy's best book wans't part of his main series and is his one of Red Storm Rising WW3 book. The Expanse novels mentioned above are also great books with unique world building. They were born out of the back story for a planned MMORPG.

Shoutout to Dan Simmons for his Hyperion series. Killer stuff

The Dune series, new film out soon as well so this is a good time to dip into it if you haven't before.

If you liked Game of Thrones you might enjoy Ken Follett's Kingsbridge series that starts with Pillars of the Earth. His Century trilogy is pretty great too but not really fantasy.

First book is among the best ever...after that it starts sliding downhill until it completely falls off.

Messiah and Children are pretty good -

I know it has been mentioned a couple times already, but I highly recommend Stephen King's the Dark Tower series. Just excellent!

Codex Alera by Jim Butcher I think his Dresden books are more popular but the Alera books were enjoyable.