[HoneyBadger]

I'm going to keep adding to this and editing it where I feel it's appropriate, since there's a lot missing from the list
(I'm getting old, and my memory's starting to go).

Modern Fantasy:

"The Eye in the Stone"-by Alan L. Wold. This is really a superlative
novel. The author, the publisher, and the reading public all made
mistakes by not giving this book a lot more support. It's 1980s
modern, hard magic with lots of action

"Little, Big" by John Crowley. Absolutely THE fantasy novel of the
1970s-1990. The Best. 'Nuff said.

Neverwhere. The best fantasy novel that I'd recommend for pretty
much anyone and everyone to read. Good for kids, good for adults,
good for grandparents, good for brits and yankees, republicans and
democrats, moslems and jews. If you haven't read it, you probably
should. Probably the best of the 1990s-plus, in terms of being a
successor to Little, Big.

Sandman is supposed to be his best work, but I haven't managed to get the collection yet-it's also graphical, which isn't something I'm generally including here, because it's a little bit more difficult defining, and you start to get into movies. Otherwise, I'd list the Dark Crystal and-coincidentally, the Jim Henson Company and Brian Froud.

American Gods-also by Neil Gaiman. I actually found it a bit dry
after Neverwhere, but still, a very worthy read-and once you've read
Neverwhere, you MUST read American Gods-otherwise, you won't have a
grasp on Neil Gaiman's range as an author-plus, I command you to!

Oldschool Fantasy: This is the hardcore stuff that's every bit as relevant, and in the end, generally better written and better fantasy than, the Lord of the Rings.

Dying Earth series by Jack Vance. Really excellent techno-fantasy with lots of neat magical and technological weirdness.

The Lankhmar books by Fritz Leiber. If you haven't read them, you should. Amazing, weird, at times philosophical, and funny!

Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock, the Anti-Tolkien.
Another incredible read. Very weird, very intense at times.

Conan. Read the originals by Robert E Howard. They're a lot better than the movies and Conan's *very* different from Gubernator Schwartzenegger.

Gormenghast-all Titus books by Mervyn Peake: I've just started
reading this, so normally I wouldn't recommend it, but the author
is/was an appealing personality, and the book itself flies in the
face of all that bad fantasy stands for-plus, it feels a bit like
Kingdom Hospital.


Epic Fantasy:

Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn; and the Song of Ice and Fire-just the first book, though, the rest are more and more disappointing-if you
absolutely MUST read about dragons and elves, and get your epic on,
these two are actually worth the time of day.

"The Dark Tower" By Stephen King. Stephen King gets a bad
rap-mostly deserved-of having churned out book after book in order
to get paid. He's still a really good author, and the Dark Tower
series is his Opus. Besides, who doesn't like the idea of a fantasy
version of The Good the Bad and the Ugly?

"Magician" by Raymond E. Feist
More dragons and elves, but I decided to include Feist, because Magician really is quite a good book (it was divided into Apprentice and Master for publishing reasons), even though I don't really care for most of the later books after Darkness at Sethanon, the exception being the Empire books he did with Janny Wurtz. Atleast for a little while, he was really innovative and exciting as an author, which isn't easy to do in such a tired genre.

Other:

"The Black Company" The first two books, by Glen Cook-the best
military fantasy currently extant. I'm only recommending the first
books because I've only read the first two, and I've heard
discouraging things about the rest of the series, but the first one's groovy, the second one's gravy. Cook does with fantasy exactly
what I want done with fantasy in a military fantasy novel-apparently, later
on he screws up the formula, but oh well.

"Weaveworld" By Clive Barker-I haven't read this one either, all the
way through, but I like what I've read, and I've heard very good
things, and it's written by Clive Barker-besides, if I had read all
the best fantasy, already, I'd be pretty depressed.

"Ambergris" all works, By Jeff Vandemeer. Really great quirky
fantasy/horror set in a third world and written by a teacher (and
probably a very good one) of creative fiction. Again, it's written
the way I'd want it to be written.

Terry Pratchet: The single best comic fantasy author of the 21st century, and one of the very best fantasy authors of the 20th and 21st. I recommend pretty much anything and everything he writes.