Books

[Sian]

for something ever so slightly off mark for normal fantasy i'd suggest "Spellsong Cycle" by L.E Modesitt, which goes on the Music=Magic

[Commodore]

Oh! How could I forget, "The Codex Alera" by Jim Butcher. Skewing more towards fun and awesome.

[DaveV]

Ichabod - if you haven't read the Discworld books (first book: The Color of Magic) by Terry Pratchett, I'd expect them to meet your specifications exactly. Not too challenging in vocabulary or plot, more of a light-hearted parody of the genre.

[Ichabod]

Wow, lots of good suggestion, from what I can see. If I count Darrell's link, I have books to read for the next 10 years . I think i'm going to start with Terry Pratchett, since I've heard a lot about him, but never read anything written by him.

You read all the Twilight books??

No, no, I was just kidding. I'm not into vampires and werewolves, I'm more of a zombies and fairies kind of guy (yeah, I'm kidding again ).

[Tyrmith]

If you get tired of pure fantasy after reading all the books that have been suggested and want to see fantasy done well in the modern day Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden series really is amazing. Perfectly tight storytelling, everything in there is there for a reason (especially as you get further on in the series). One of the few authors that gets better and better as the series goes on. He's on book 14 at the moment, and it really is awesome how he pulls everything together.

[spellman]

I just started Mistborn. It's really, really freakin' good.

[Mardoc]

I like most of those recommended so far; I'll add in David Eddings' Belgariad and Crystal Throne series. The plots aren't particularly special, but the characters and setting are interesting enough to keep you reading. I'd rate these as second-tier, but worth reading once you've run out of the better ones.

[Rowain]

for something ever so slightly off mark for normal fantasy i'd suggest "Spellsong Cycle" by L.E Modesitt, which goes on the Music=Magic

If you like this Twist you should try the Spellsinger-cycle from Alan Dean Foster which are also great fun to read.

Elantris (from Brandon Sanderson author of Mistborn) is also a very nice and interesting book.

[KingOfPain]

Hmm, no one recommended the ones that started "it" all, Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms?

Wikipedia

Dragonlance is a shared universe created by Laura and Tracy Hickman, and expanded by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis under the direction of TSR, Inc. into a series of popular fantasy novels. The Hickmans conceived Dragonlance while driving in their car on the way to TSR for a job application. At TSR Tracy met Margaret Weis, his future writing partner, and they gathered a group of associates to play the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. The adventures during that game inspired a series of gaming modules, a series of novels, licensed products such as board games, and lead miniature figures.

The Dragons (Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Dragons of Winter Night and Dragons of Spring Dawning) trilogy would be a good start. The Time/War/Test of the Twins trilogy are must read in the Dragonlance.

Wikipedia

The Forgotten Realms is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers alike as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setting for his childhood stories.[1] Several years later, Greenwood brought the setting to the D&D game as a series of magazine articles, and the first Realms game products were released in 1987. Role-playing game products have been produced for the setting ever since, as have various licensed products including sword and sorcery novels, role-playing video game adaptations (including the first massively multiplayer online role-playing game to use graphics), and comic books. The Forgotten Realms is one of the most popular D&D settings,[2][3] largely due to the success of novels by authors such as R. A. Salvatore and numerous role-playing video games, including Pool of Radiance (1988), Baldur's Gate (1998), Icewind Dale (2000) and Neverwinter Nights (2002).

There are many outstanding series of course just form the list above - The Avatar Series is must read.

[Brian Shanahan]

I'm interested in finding a fantasy book/series to read. I prefer traditional fantasy (in the lack of a better term - probably using the wrong one, though), like Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones, rather than Sci-Fi (though the only Sci-Fi thing I've read that I can remember is Neuromancer, which I didn't even finish). Feel free to recommend even the most known ones, because my knowledge about fantasy literature is very limited (if it doesn't sell millions and has a blockbuster movie, it'll not reach Brazil). The only thing is that it would be better if it has simple language (not too old or complex), becuase I'll have to read it in english.

And I've already read all the Twilight books, so those are off.

Hey, Gaspar!

I quite like the books of David Gemmell. His books were mostly fantasy but spanned from a post-apocalyptic earth (the Jerusalem Man series) to an imagining of the Trojan war (his final three books, he also had a few more Ancient Greece books, focused on an Alexandrian General Parmenion), but his (by far) most famous creation was Druss, a man who, to paraphrase to old Spartan warning, was brought home on the shields of his foes.

And Twilight *bleugh*