 | A Feast for Crows (Song of Ice and Fire) by George R.R. Martin
Buy used from: £4.45 It's the greatest series in the world, getting better with each book. Buy the series, read, then read again and again.
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 | The Bonehunters (Malazan Book of the Fallen) by Steven Erikson
Buy used from: £7.00 While Martin is off building realistic worlds, Erikson is revolutionising high fantasy on a whole new epic scale.
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 | The Warrior Prophet: The Prince of Nothing - Book Two (The Prince of Nothing) by R. Scott Bakker
Buy used from: £9.38 Falling between the two above you have the gritty, character-led and wondrous world of Bakker.
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 | Shaman's Crossing (The Soldier Son Trilogy) by Robin Hobb
Buy used from: £4.00 Queen of Fantasy? I think so. With only three trilogies under to her name, Robin Hobb has proved to be an excellent writer of lovable characters.
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 | Iron Council by China Mieville
Buy used from: £0.61 While most authors are stuck in 15th century europe, Mieville manages in three novels (so far) to create a wondrous, unique world. The progressive force of the genre.
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 | Thud! (Discworld Novels) by Terry Pratchett
Buy used from: £7.26 King of Comic Fantasy, PTerry manages to hit the mark with his witty, intelligent and enjoyable books.
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 | The Runes Of The Earth: The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (Gollancz S.F.) by Stephen Donaldson
Buy used from: £2.25 You may loathe or love Thomas Covenant, but you can't deny Donaldson's impressive skills.
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 | The Tyranny of the Night (Instrumentalities of the Night) by Glen Cook
Buy new: £9.60 / Used from: £2.03 The spiritual predessor to the Martin-led current gritty epic trend. A fantastic storyteller.
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 | The System of the World (Baroque Cycle 3) by Neal Stephenson
Buy used from: £19.66 Historicl fiction with a fantastic twist, Stephenson is a marvelous writer.
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 | The Last Light of the Sun by Guy Gavriel Kay
Buy used from: £1.04 Another writer of excellent quality, with his pseudo-history and sensative writing.
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 | The Wizard (Wizard Knight) by Gene Wolfe
Buy used from: £3.18 One of the genre's most treasured writers, an inventive master storyteller.
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 | A Sword from Red Ice (Sword of Shadows) by J. V. Jones
Buy used from: £13.02 The lovely Ms. Jones started off with a fairly average trilogy, but is currently undertaking an epic, dark trilogy of pristine quality.
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 | The Charnel Prince (Kingdoms of Thorn & Bone 2) by Greg Keyes
Buy used from: £3.44 An good attempt at epic fantasy. Not as epic as Erikson or as developed as Bakker, but still good.
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 | Shadowmarch (Shadowmarch 1) by Tad Williams
Buy new: £10.36 / Used from: £0.60 While William's work may seem long-winded to some, he's produced some fine food for the imagination in inventive works such as Otherland and War of the Flowers.
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 | The Anubis Gates (Fantasy Masterworks) by Tim Powers
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £3.45 One word: classic.
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 | Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Buy used from: £0.01 Overrated it may be, but there's no denying that this book is a good, solid read.
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 | The Etched City by K.J. Bishop
Buy used from: £1.03 An original and well-writen novel. It fortells great things for K J Bishop.
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 | Flight of the Nighthawks: Darkwar (Conclave of Shadows) by Raymond E. Feist
Buy used from: £3.71 Although he's not one of my 50 favourite modern fantasy authours, Feist is THE author to get into fantasy and reading with.
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 | The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower by Stephen King
Buy used from: £6.00 King of Horror writes a Western-fantasy. It becomes his masterwork. Read it.
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 | The Sea Beggars: The Mark of Ran by Paul Kearney
Buy used from: £0.53 Intelligent and epic. Enough said.
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 | The Dark Mirror (Bridei Chronicles 1) by Juliet Marillier
Buy used from: £4.25 Truly one of the world's greatest, with her historical leanings and beautiful prose.
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 | Knife of Dreams (Wheel of Time) by Robert Jordan
Buy used from: £1.95 And now for four bad, bad men. First up is Robert Jordan. Wheel of Time started as a fairly fun, if unoriginal series to read, but somehow Jordan decided to lose all his writing skills.
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 | The Crystal Gorge (The Dreamers) by David Eddings
Buy used from: £2.34 Mr Eddings, the master of writing the same book twenty-six times. He makes Jordan's work look intelligent. Avoid more than the plague. Still, at least he's not Newcomb.
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 | The Fifth Sorceress: Volume I of the Chronicles of Blood and Stone by Robert Newcomb
Buy used from: £0.47 "Epic Fantasy of Year," the book claims. Ten pages in, you want to die. Bland and unoriginal and full of sexism, even compared to the unholy one below. He fills me with hope that I can get published.
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 | Chainfire (Sword of Truth) by Terry Goodkind
Buy new: £7.62 / Used from: £4.50 Goodkind, delusional megalomaniac. I can't sufficiently desribe the horror of his novels. Worst of all, the man himself is a US nationalist and thinks he's the only good author around. Killhimifyoucan
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