I just finished the first books in Robert Jordan’s (The Eye of the World) and George RR Martin’s (A Game of Thrones) big series and I liked them both. I also want to recommend Hope Mirrlees Lud-In-The-Mist, a smaller jewel of a book. Her book was published in 1926. It was somewhat reminiscent of John Crowley’s work, with the fairy world as a source of beauty and peril and purposes unrelated to our own.

Even better, to my mind, is Gene Wolfe. His Wizard Knight books, and his Books of the New Sun are challenging and rewarding works. The Books of the New Sun are Arthur C. Clark’s “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” taken to the nth degree, with a beautiful, thoughtful, dense prose style. I would go along with calling him one of the best authors living.