Quoted from scootie: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
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.