Malazan: Book of the Fallen is my recommendation. It is 10 books, and the author had a very specific plan when writing the books. There are 3 separate story arcs that start combining around book 6 or 7, and you don't feel like he is just writing for the sake of "let's just do another for some more cash"
You never know who is going to live, and its stupidly epic. This series does not follow one person, but dozens and dozens of people. If you like following soldiers, then this series is for you. There's epic magic, and gods and Ascendants and dragons and ancient technology, and man you just feel like you are in a very rich world. I like this series more than Wheel of Time.
Wheel of Time is definitely dense, I don't know if you should start there if you haven't read much fantasy. I'm not saying its bad by any means, because it's my second favorite series, but its more complex than let's say the Belgariad series. There are hundreds of characters that the author jumps to and follows.
Belgariad is very standard boy becomes super awesome hero person. Could be a good introduction to fantasy.
I say No to Shannara.... The writing is too dry and straightforward... not a lot of surprises in that one. The author is always explaining everything right at the moment, there is not a lot of mystery too it. I've read the first trilogy of his, and that was enough.
Sword of truth is alright, but the author has a sick love of horrifying torture that he throws in now and then. And some of the themes and ideas i feel was borrowed from other authors... Robert Jordan *cough*
Tolkien, of course! With the hobbit movie on the way, this might be a good book to read. And If you have not read the LOTR books yet, you need to. They are richer than the movies.
The Narnia series is also one of my favorites, if you have not read all of them, you should probably get on that pretty quickly.
Another fun fantasy series is the Saga of Recluce (sp correct) series by L.E. Modesitt Jr. The magic system created in the series revolves around order and chaos and the balance created in between. The author jumps all over time in the series, and the books span a thousand years or more. So in the first book you may hear of a legendary person, but in the next book or the book after, you will read about that person's story. It's a fun way to read about a world. I recommend this one as well. Each book follows one person or maybe 2, so it has very familiar fantasy themes.
I have not read Earthsea.
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