 | The Lord of the Rings (3 Book Box set) by J.R.R. Tolkien
Buy new: £11.97 / Used from: £11.37 The classic. No fantasy list would be complete without it.
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 | The Summer Tree (Fionavar Tapestry) by Guy Gavriel Kay
Buy used from: £0.01 About as close as you can get to LOTR but dont let that put you off. The depth of character is enough to make you keep reading.
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 | Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay
Buy used from: £5.44 Impossible to summarise in a few words epic, evocative, full of plot twists that will leave you gaping, and above all beautiful.
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 | The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
Buy used from: £12.79 A historical fantasy based on the Spanish Reconquest which really transports you to another world. A deceptively simple idea carried off masterfully - I cried all the way through the last chapter.
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 | Assassin's Apprentice (The Farseer Trilogy) by Robin Hobb
Please, please dont let the first person narrative put you off breathtaking in its scope and depth of character. After a slowish start this is unputdownable.
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 | The Liveship Traders 1: Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb
Buy new: £6.47 / Used from: £0.01 I thought nobody could top Assassins Apprentice until I read this. Political, personal and with a brilliantly original plot.
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 | The Curse of the Mistwraith (The Wars of Light & Shadow) by Janny Wurts
Buy new: £5.32 / Used from: £0.01 Heartrending stuff, centring on the feud of two half-brothers cursed to hate each other. Excellent world creation and character, and stays clear of fantasy clichés.
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 | A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1) by George R.R. Martin
Buy new: £5.23 / Used from: £2.46 Despite the hype this one left me flat. Good ideas and some memorable characters, but Martin tries to do too much too many characters and a plot that just seems more like a series of events.
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 | The Eye of the World (Wheel of Time) by Robert Jordan
Buy new: £4.99 / Used from: £0.01 The female characters were this books main strength, but the world seemed bolted together rather than organic. Good ideas, but a rather clichéd overall plot.
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 | Wizard's First Rule (Sword of Truth) by Terry Goodkind
Buy used from: £1.19 An odd one this. Where most fantasy has a lot of historical detail, this one seems rooted in the present. No real depth, but I still kept reading.
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 | Magician (Riftwar saga) by Raymond E. Feist
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £0.01 A boys own adventure of a fantasy book, but entertaining enough and some original ideas.
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 | The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gollancz S.F.) by Scott Lynch
Buy new: £9.99 / Used from: £0.01 Lives and breathes the Venetian underworld - with a twist. Violent and suspenseful, with added humour.
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 | The Dragonbone Chair (Memory, Sorrow & Thorn) by Tad Williams
Buy new: £6.97 / Used from: £0.01 Some good ideas and lots of detail, but let down for me by an irritatingly self-absorbed main character and very slow plot development.
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 | The Magicians' Guild: Black Magician Trilogy, Book 1 by Trudi Canavan
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £0.01 Readable and likeable trilogy, but no real depth, despite some interesting plot twists. Good for some harmless escapism.
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 | Colours in the Steel (Fencer Trilogy) by K.J. Parker
Buy used from: £0.01 The central mystery and the cynicism of the main character captured my interest, but in the second book he does something so bizarrely horrible and unforgivable I cant possibly recommend this series.
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 | Daggerspell (Deverry) by Katharine Kerr
Buy new: £7.19 / Used from: £7.18 A memorable female lead and an interesting use of multiple timelines but the second in the series didnt live up to the promise of the first.
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 | The Colour of Magic: The First Discworld Novel (A Discworld Novel) by Terry Pratchett
Buy new: £4.79 / Used from: £0.01 OK, Terry Pratchett isn't 'classical' fantasy, but no fantasy list would be complete without him. Besides, COM is a spoof of classic fantasy that works as a novel in its own right - so that's alright!
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