hmm, I pretty much read fantasy, but I haven't done much reading lately...too much anime ^_~. i really like, mmm, I guess you could call it high fantasy...complex worlds, lots of detail, stuff like that..I also find that quartets, trilogies and duologies workout better than epics series like Robert Jordan...so I'd recommend if they haven't already been recommended:
Tad Williams' Memory Sorrow and Thorn trilogy (The Dragonbone Chair, The Stone of Farewell and To Green Angel Tower)
A description borrowed from Amazon:
"Simon is an ordinary kitchen helper who is taken under the tutelage of the magician Morgenes. When King John Presbyter dies and his son Elias ascends the throne, the way opens for a long-dormant evil to enter the realm. Elias, a pawn of the black magician Pyrates, moves to eliminate his brother Josua, and the brother-against-brother, good-versus-evil clash begins. Simon is thrown in with Josua and muddles through adventure and peril, maturing into a hero by book's end. Williams weaves all of the classic ingredients of fantasy into his tale--trolls, giants, elf-like sithi, and dragons. Simon must travel from drought-stricken lands to ice-bound peaks as he follows his far-seeing dreams."
Carol Berg's Flesh and Spirit and Breathe and Bone These are currently my favorite books.
The first book in this duology starts out:
"On my seventh birthday, my father swore, for the first of many times, that I would die face down in a cesspool. On that same occasion, my mother, with all the accompanying mystery and elevated language appropriate for a prominent diviner, turned her cards, screamed delicately, and proclaimed that my doom was written in water and blood and ice."
and from amazon:
At the start of this chilling fantasy from Berg (Daughter of Ancients), the first of a pair set in the land of Navronne, her rebellious hero, 27-year-old Valen, has been hiding from his pureblood family of sorcerers for 12 years. Valen, who's also struggling with a kind of drug addiction called "doulon sickness," possesses his grandfather's magical book, Maps of the Known World ("Legend said it could lead men to the realm of angels"). The book is Valen's passport to sanctuary with the learned monks of Gillarine Abbey, who believe he can unlock its magic. After his family discovers him, Valen becomes resolved to learn the book's power. At stake is not only the protection of an innocent boy sheltered at the abbey from greedy princes vying for control of their dead father's kingdom but also the entire world's salvation.
and any of Sean Russell's books. (The Initiate Brother and its sequel Gatherer of Clouds are set in an Asian setting and if I recall borrow heavily form the story of the 47 samurai...though I may be confusing it with another book...it had been several years since i read it, but I remember it was good. lol)
EDIT: Forgot the Coldfire Trilogy from CS Freidman, great stuff there too and one of my favorite characters...just wanted to add it, since I was discussing it in a different thread
Also, I'm really enjoying the translations for Fuyumi Ono's 12 kingdoms. The anime was really good imo and the books are a much better read than the translations for Vampire Hunter D or Ai no Kusabi, which says to me, whoever is translating 12 Kingdoms also has some real skill at creative writing. If only these were coming out faster, book four is due out in March, i think, but that will leave three more to translate...i think it is a total of 7 books, right?
