Earthsea.

Discworld (Terry Pratchett), no question.

Oglaf 😆

His dark materials aka the Northern Lights series. I read it as a young teen and again as an adult. Really good.

Brandon Sanderson books, specifically the cosmere stuff are all pretty fucking good.

My favourite is probably Mistborn but I know a lot of people prefer The Stormlight Archives. All worth reading!

I really like Frank Herbert's Dune. It is science fiction, but takes many aspects from history, like fiefdomship/politics and religion, especially from medieval times. Some argue the book is too much into details and thus can be dry (no pun intended) but I like it as the world seems more authentic, the characters more relatable.

Malazan, Malazan, Malazan. Literally the result of two bored archaeologists and their DnD campaign while they were out on a dig.

It hangs with the best in terms of humor, tragedy, epic scope, and heroism. It does not hold your hand, in fact it will delight in letting your hand go while leading you through a dark room. Deeply philosophical, challenges and embraces tropes in equal part, absolutely interesting magic system(s). It is hardcore hopecore, it champions the little guy, empathy, and the bright mind over the slow. Main series is finished, 10 giant books. Also a bunch of others outside that series by both creators.

Be patient with it, some payoffs take a while. Read Gardens of the Moon and then Deadhouse Gates to see if it's clicking. It isn't for all.

Series?

• Le Guin's Earthsea Trilogy

• Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain

• Discworld, especially the Night Watch books

• Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker series

Individual Books:

• Robin McKinley, The Hero and the Crown, or anything else she wrote

• Diana Wynne Jones, Fire and Hemlock and Howl's Moving Castle, or anything else she wrote

• Philip K. Dick, "Galactic Pot-Healer" (Dick straddles the line between science fiction and science fantasy, but this one's firmly the latter)

• Madeline L'Engle, Many Waters

I'm sure I'll think of more but my break is up.

Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse 5

Firsthand account of one of the scariest events of the Second World War in the shape of highly entertaining sci-fi novel.

Must read for everyone.

Ah, I love recommendation posts.

It depends on what you actually enjoyed reading and why. I see you already have a lot of great suggestions. The only author I haven't yet seen mentioned is perhaps Asimov, although you said you prefer fantasy to sci fi. That's also my preference, however I find his short stories are worth reading and also low commitment for this reason.

One thing I find useful in recommendations is to know what else people have read and what they think about that. It helps me get an idea of which books I'm more likely to enjoy best or not, especially if I can compare their thoughts to mine about the same books. With that in mind, my thoughts:

Discworld is amazing. Pratchett is a great author. I like that he can write a story that on the surface is just a simple comedy/adventure, but if you are the type that also analyzes what they read you will soon see his stories go much deeper than what they appear to be. He will keep things entertaining and witty but also throw at you a piece of his mind for you to mull over and reflect on various aspects of life. Small Gods is one of my favorites.

I also really enjoyed Dungeon Crawler Karl, and I mean really really really. Hilarious. But it doesn't have the depth Pratchett has.

On a similar vein, The Witcher- loved the characters and the story is very entertaining, but t can't say I was blown away as with Pratchett.

I absolutely loved Abercrombie's First Law trilogy. Now that's some solid writing. The characters are so well fleshed out, unique, original. Somehow the world and the plot feel realistic, crazy as it sounds for a fantasy book. It may feel a bit slower in pacing than any of the three I previously mentioned, but not slower than LOTR which you have already read.

DISCWORLD

• Anne Rice's Vampire books.
• Sanderson's Stormlight Archives
• Jordan's The Wheel of Time

Sci-Fi:

• James S A Corey's The Expanse series

LOTR... Of course, since this is really the start of the genre as it exists today. So when you read it and think that it's full of tropes... Continue thinking a little bit and realize that LOTR CREATED those tropes.

The Belgariad by David Eddings. I'll come out and say it, David Eddings was a horrible person, but this series is worth reading. He's dead now so you won't be supporting him if you get these books. The followup series "The Mallorean" is not a must read, it's basically a retread of "The Belgariad". As are his later series "The Tamuli" etc...

The Cosmere by Brandon Sanderson. A lot of people will recommend Mistborn, or the Stormlight Archive, but both of those series are just parts of a greater arc called "The Cosmere". I would recommend starting with Elantris or Warbreaker, both of which are standalone books, but are in the Cosmere. Then go to Mistborn series 1, then tackle Stormlight Archive. Be warned, each book in SA is longer than LOTR in its entirety. But it's well worth the read.

A Song for Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay: One of my wife's favorite books. Not a series, but worth the read.

Memory, Sorry and Thorn by Tad Williams: Excellent series that doesn't get the recognition it deserves.

Destiny's Crucible by Olan Thorensen: I liked this one a lot and continue to follow it, although it's starting to get a little long.

The Riyria Revelations and Chronicles by Michael J Sullivan: Both of these series are great and worth the read.

The original "The Princess Bride" by S. Morgenstern

I would recommend Jack Vance’s Dying Earth series as well as his Lyonesse Trilogy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dying_Earth

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyonesse_Trilogy

I'm gonna suggest a web novel, Practical Guide to Evil. Great series about 8 books long that follows the apprentice of a medieval fantasy villain. Looks like the first book just dropped on Amazon for kindle and audiobook last year

"A Song of Ice and Fire" if you can accept that the last books will never be written

Titan, Wizard, and Demon by John Varley. The first book starts off with a bog-standard "first human exploration of Saturn's system" bit, but starts going off the rails immediately. By the end, you'll meet a 50 foot clone of Marilyn Monroe and think, "eh, I'll accept that."

It's one of sci-fi's more delightfully unhinged stories.

Kingkiller chronicles so everyone can peer pressure rothfuss into finishing the fucking thing

Ok so since you're doing sci-fi as well, Hyperion/Hyperion series.

I always loved the Bartimaeus books from Jonathan Stroud.

I also think if pop culture catch-up is a concern you could read Twilight and Eragon both were quite influential in my social circle at the time they were new. I have read both and I liked them too. I don’t think that they are revolutionary or the best pice of writing but they had arguably an impact.

Surprised I haven't seen someone yet mention Magician by Raymond E Feist. That whole first riftwar trilogy is great. Also the spin off Empire trilogy with Janny Wurts.

Seconding those who mentioned the R.A. Salvatore books including the Dark Elf series and the Icewind Dale series.

I don't really like manga, but one of the best stories I've ever read in any format is the 7-volume Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. It's post-apocalyptic fantasy about the nature of evil, the corruption of humanity, the extent to which individuals can fight against historical forces, and the fragility of civilization, for a start. Plus there's a lot of action and world-building. There's an anime movie which covers about one tenth of the story, if you want to get a feel for it.

The Neverending Story. Beautiful story and a deep musing on why humans need fantasy and storytelling.

I'll share my favourite part. Gmork the werewolf has revealed that, when a creature from the magical world Fantastica falls into the Nothing, it emerges in the real world as a lie.

"When it comes to controlling human beings there is no better instrument than lies. Because, you see, humans live by beliefs. And beliefs can be manipulated. The power to manipulate beliefs is the only thing that counts. That's why I sided with the powerful and served them - because I wanted to share their power."

"I want no part in it!" Atreyu cried out.

"Take it easy, you little fool," the werewolf growled. "When your turn comes to jump into the Nothing, you too will be a nameless servant of power, with no will of your own. Who knows what use they will make of you? Maybe you'll help them persuade people to buy things they don't need, or hate things they know nothing about, or hold beliefs that make them easy to handle, or doubt the truths that might save them. Yes, you little Fantastican, big things will be done in the human world with your help, wars started, empires founded. . ."

For a time Gmork peered at the boy out of half-closed eyes. Then he added: "The human world is full of weak-minded people, who think they're as clever as can be and are convinced that it's terribly important to persuade even the children that Fantastica doesn't exist. Maybe they will be able to make good use of you."

My ex was really fond of Dragonlance which is a DnD original setting. Inspired a bunch of heavy metal music I guess.

My mother is pretty obsessed with Anne McCaffrey's Pern series, which blends sci-fi into fantasy.

I can remember liking fantasy way too much as a teenager but nothing that I still think holds up now. Maybe Sabriel by Garth Nix, it was about necromancers