Books

• The Belgariad and The Malloreon by David Eddings. His books have classic D&D feel, light reading with bits of humor.

• Realm of the Elderlings by Robin Hobb. A massive plotline (all books already written so no need to wait), very dark, superb characters.

My fantasy go-to series is The Chronicles of Amber. Roger Zelazny was a poet, and it comes out in his prose. Dude evokes visions inside your mind.

The universe is a collection of infinite reflections between order (ie Amber) and the Courts of Chaos. Corwin is one of the nine princes of Amber, an immortal who can travel between the reflections.

I read the first five books of the series every few years. But word of warning, the first book reflects the casual chauvinism of the the time it was written. Worth powering through those bits though.

The last five books are okay, but nowhere as good as the first five.

The Eragon series? It's not that heavy fantasy, but the world is pretty nicely built IMO.

Also, on the wizardy side, I can recommend the Bartimaeus books, too, if you liked Discworld. Again, nothing super serious, but they are fun reads. (Best to read from physical books, they are heavy on footnotes and I found it reading on e-readers kinda awkward)

I'm currently reading the Bound and Broken series by Ryan Cahill. Seems pretty solid. It has dragons, wizards, other magical creatures, elves, dwarves... There is some war, but it's largely a coming of age story centered around an 18-20 year old man.

Michael Moorcock's Elric books tick all of the boxes in your list. So do his Corum and Hawkmoon books.

I'm saving this thread for later because I'm interested in this genre, I am totally new to books, I haven't even read LOTR, The Hobbit, Game of Thrones or House of the Dragons books, I have only consumed that through the movies and TV Shows, but seems like there are some really neat suggestions here.

My longtime favs (apart from LOTR by Tolkien) are:

1. The Realm of the Elderlings series bei Robin Hobb
2. Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams
3. Ea Cycle by David Zindell

Check out dungeon crawler Karl and he who fights with monsters! Can also find them in audio book format 👌

Mistborn is great, less dragons and more alchemical science. Begins with a satisfying tale of overthrowing the government, and then tackles some of the “okay… now what” with tons more interesting stuff along the way

NPRs top 100 scifi and fantasy books.

https://imgur.com/a/zHxdYSF

There is a book anthology called Rogues, complied by Phyllis Eisenstein. It is a compilation of short stories from various writers across many disciplines. While there is a lot of different stories, they all come back to a character who is deceitful in character you can't help but root for them a bit.

The Dragonbone chair it has the politics and war but the world also has quite a few different types of races that are not your typical Human/elf/dwarf.

I am enjoying the first book and it is series.

Reading Wheel of Time and I'm really enjoying it

One for the Morning Glory by John Barnes

The King of Elfland's daughter, by Lord Dunsany

The Reyira Revelations Is great fun. Five Gods is an outstandingly well-written series.

I just finished Dragon Weather by Lawrence Watt-Evans. It's got the dragons, magic, adventure and intrigue while also getting the main plot going almost immediately, which I like because I feel the beginnings of books from this genre can drag on forever. It's also a trilogy, so there's more if you like it. Currently I'm reading Empire of the East by Fred Saberhagen, and it's interesting so far because it is fantasy, but there's a science fiction element to it which is fun.

You say fantasy, but while technically sci fi, I'd like to suggest the galactic milieu series by Julian May. It starts out sci fi and I guess constantly has sci fi elements but leans pretty heavily into bridging the gap to fantasy (elves, dwarves, shapeshifting monsters, magic etc)

I'd recommend David Eddungs' Belgariad. Got me into fantasy genre. Then there's Robin Hobb, Trudi Canavan, Raymond, E Feist (brilliant), Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus Trilogy. So many good things out there. If you enjoyed Discworld you'll enjoy these too even though they're not comical like Pratchett novels are.

Have you considered Kate Elliott novels? Jaran was amazing if you like sci-fi/fantasy crossover, or King's Dragon if you like pure fantasy. If you prefer easier reading check out the Dragonriders of Pern series.

Irene Radford The Dragon Nimbus series. I read it ages ago and have fond memories.

You should get on goodreads and look up books you loved to see what else is recommended from people who also read that book. I find great ones that way!

Otherwise I absolutely could not put “Forth Wing” down by Rebecca Yarros! The second book (five are expected) comes out in a week or two. A friend recommended it and it was so good I fell into a slump afterwards trying to find something as exciting.