I'm currently reading the Bound and Broken series by Ryan Cahill. Seems pretty solid. It has dragons, wizards, other magical creatures, elves, dwarves... There is some war, but it's largely a coming of age story centered around an 18-20 year old man.
Fairy Tale by Stephen King is a refreshing take on classic fantasy themes!
Discword
Discworld is so fun, start with book 4 7 or 11 or 13 to get a feel for the strength of the story (and read one of the best ones), but really its pretty fun from the start if rough because the author is figuring out how to be an author still a bit
11 is probably my favorite, but you should read 4 and then 11 because they're connected.
edit: damn I should read the whole post first...
Have you continued with Abercrombie's books? He does not miss.
My fantasy go-to series is The Chronicles of Amber. Roger Zelazny was a poet, and it comes out in his prose. Dude evokes visions inside your mind.
The universe is a collection of infinite reflections between order (ie Amber) and the Courts of Chaos. Corwin is one of the nine princes of Amber, an immortal who can travel between the reflections.
I read the first five books of the series every few years. But word of warning, the first book reflects the casual chauvinism of the the time it was written. Worth powering through those bits though.
The last five books are okay, but nowhere as good as the first five.
My longtime favs (apart from LOTR by Tolkien) are:
Rick Riordan's various series might catch your fancy - they're really young adult fiction, but they're still a good read. They cover Greek, Roman, Norse, and Egyptian mythology from the perspectives of the god's half human offspring, bringing the mythology into a modern context while retreading the old myths.
I'm saving this thread for later because I'm interested in this genre, I am totally new to books, I haven't even read LOTR, The Hobbit, Game of Thrones or House of the Dragons books, I have only consumed that through the movies and TV Shows, but seems like there are some really neat suggestions here.
Reading Wheel of Time and I'm really enjoying it
Give The Prince Of Nothing series a read. A bit more of a philosophical series than a hack and slash fantasy.
The Eragon series? It's not that heavy fantasy, but the world is pretty nicely built IMO.
Also, on the wizardy side, I can recommend the Bartimaeus books, too, if you liked Discworld. Again, nothing super serious, but they are fun reads. (Best to read from physical books, they are heavy on footnotes and I found it reading on e-readers kinda awkward)
The Belgariad and The Malloreon by David Eddings. His books have classic D&D feel, light reading with bits of humor.
Realm of the Elderlings by Robin Hobb. A massive plotline (all books already written so no need to wait), very dark, superb characters.
assasins trilogy is among my favorite
last trilogy starting with bee is kinda bad
the final book reads too much like pandering to fans
Hobb has great books and books with whiney paralyzed main characters which can be a slog
I just finished Dragon Weather by Lawrence Watt-Evans. It's got the dragons, magic, adventure and intrigue while also getting the main plot going almost immediately, which I like because I feel the beginnings of books from this genre can drag on forever. It's also a trilogy, so there's more if you like it. Currently I'm reading Empire of the East by Fred Saberhagen, and it's interesting so far because it is fantasy, but there's a science fiction element to it which is fun.
you started way too high the quality list imo
You say fantasy, but while technically sci fi, I'd like to suggest the galactic milieu series by Julian May. It starts out sci fi and I guess constantly has sci fi elements but leans pretty heavily into bridging the gap to fantasy (elves, dwarves, shapeshifting monsters, magic etc)
The Dragonbone chair it has the politics and war but the world also has quite a few different types of races that are not your typical Human/elf/dwarf.
I am enjoying the first book and it is series.
One for the Morning Glory by John Barnes
The King of Elfland's daughter, by Lord Dunsany
Mistborn is great, less dragons and more alchemical science. Begins with a satisfying tale of overthrowing the government, and then tackles some of the “okay… now what” with tons more interesting stuff along the way
Also great if you are a fan of raising a single eyebrow
The Reyira Revelations Is great fun. Five Gods is an outstandingly well-written series.
Yay, Riyria Revelations! Sullivan's books got me back into a love for Fantasy
I'd recommend David Eddungs' Belgariad. Got me into fantasy genre. Then there's Robin Hobb, Trudi Canavan, Raymond, E Feist (brilliant), Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus Trilogy. So many good things out there. If you enjoyed Discworld you'll enjoy these too even though they're not comical like Pratchett novels are.
There is a book anthology called Rogues, complied by Phyllis Eisenstein. It is a compilation of short stories from various writers across many disciplines. While there is a lot of different stories, they all come back to a character who is deceitful in character you can't help but root for them a bit.
Book reader community.