One of my all-time favorite High Fantasy series is Jack Vance’s Lyonesse trilogy ( Suldrun’s Garden, The Green Pearl, and Madouc ). VERY highly recommended, really some of the best to be found in the genre, though I fear they may be out of print at the moment ( Amazon claims they are ).
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I’ve got a authors who are guilty pleasures thread going over here
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Fenris
I liked Ship of Magic (I read that while waiting in the Suffolk County Courthouse for jury duty during finals week. That … sucked.) but Mad Ship seemed to drag. Paragon just kept whining and whining and whining.
I prefer to forget the books under that name. It apparently was a good career move of hers to pick a new nom de plume.
I had no idea she used a pseudonym. And evidently the jury is hung as to her previous work’s quality…
Excuse me?
I adored Belgarath the Sorceror when I first discovered it, around the age of 13. Naturally I proceeded to the Belgariad…and I couldn’t believe it was the same writer. Jesus Christ, did those books suck out loud. I finished the Belgariad only out of a desire to see how the story begun in Belgarath ended. My tolerance did not extend to the Malloreon.
A couple weeks ago I decided to pick up Belgarath again, out of nostalgia…and you know what? It’s not as good as it was when I was in eighth grade, but it’s still pretty good. Eddings is much, much better at first-person than third-person narration, and Belgarath’s an interesting character. Polgara the Sorceress wasn’t as good as Belgarath - I actually liked the character of Polgara less after I finished reading it - but it still beats the pants off the Belgariad and Malloreon.
Actually, IIRC it’s the other way around: she stopped using the pen-name. Hobb is her real one. And I’ll stand by my recommendation of The Wizard of the Pigeons, but I’ve gotta admit, I can’t remember anything about her other Lindholm books.
Fenris
I loved the Belgariad when I was in high school. I read all the books 5 or 6 times. I tried to read them again about 5 years ago and I couldn’t even force myself to finish the first book. Pure camel shit. The stuff he has written since then is even worse, regurgitated camel shit.
The only thing I can figure is that I had horrible taste back then. I read Piers Anthony back then too, until I finally got disgusted with having to buy just two more books to complete the series (until he decided to extend the series by two more and then two more, ad infinitum). Ugh.
I don’t read much modern fiction any more, except Terry Pratchett. Non-fiction is more interesting, and when I want fiction I usually stick to the stuff that has stood the test of time.
yup, read it all when i was 'bout 13/14. eminently forgettable, but still, it’s better than jeffrey archer, or those dreadful “teen” books that they give you to read.
those tend to be 320 pages of a homeless teenagers battle with drug abuse, bulimia and prostitution and she’ll still manage to find a boyfriend, who accepts her as she is, in the end. bleurgh!
when you’re wracked with hormones, and real life boys are horrible, you want knights in shining armour with magic powers for some harmless escapism.
of course, within a year i was reading American Psycho…
To correct: the Belgariad was always intended (by the authors) to run the full length of the Belgariad and the Malloreon. However, show an editor a ten-book series by an author whose only other work was a complete non-selling crapfest (High Hunt) and that editor will turn slightly green.
In this case, the editor told D & L Eddings they could have five books, with all the loose ends tied up at the end of book five. If those first five sold well, they could then complete the series with the next five books.
Have to agree with you on the Sparhawk books though. Only pure cussedness kept me going.
To correct the correction ( 
) The authors now claim that they’d always intended to tack on another series.
However, when the Belgariad was coming out, there were numerous interviews with Eddings (I’m not convinced that she was as involved with the first series: there’s a definite difference in authorial voice between the Belgariad and the Mallorian.) where he was saying that once the Belgariad ended he was going to write a couple of books of backstory (Polgara and Belgarath presumably) and another fantasy series (presumably the Sparhawk stuff) but he never mentioned a sequel. He kept saying that after the Belgariad ended there wouldn’t be any more stories to tell in that world. It would be done. (Little did we know: he was right…so he just retold the first story.)
And Judy-Lynn Del Rey, (his editor, the best editor of the 70s and 80s) wouldn’t have blinked at a 10 volume series.
Fenris
There are a couple of things in the first series, though, that left me wondering where the answers were - Errand and his thing with Horse springs to mind immediately. That was never wrapped up until the second series.
Not like it’s one of the world’s burning questions or anything, but still… 
And if you want to see “authorial difference”, read High Hunt and The Losers (if any copies still exist). Ye gods and little fishes, what was he thinking?
“Thinking”? What does “Thinking” have to do with The High Hunt or The Losers?
And the most horrible moment in either series is where Belgarion turns into Ricky Ricardo while Ce’Nedra’s giving birth:
“Wood! For Baby! Durrrr.”
It wasn’t funny, it wasn’t in character and it didn’t fit. It was at that moment I realized that something had horribly changed between the first series and the second. I’m still convinced that Leigh either wrote that scene or encouraged David to write it. I have no evidence of this, but… Feh.
Fenris
I actually like The Losers, but I still think it could use another round of editing.
Howyadoin,
If you want fantasy without compromises, try Stephen R. Donaldson’s two Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series or the Mordant’s Need series. If you want “hard” SF, check our his Gap series. Highly recommended!
-Rav
Eddings’ Belgriad was crap.
Go and read Julian May’s Many Coloured Land books. High brow fantasy/sci-fi.
THE REDEPTION OF ALTHALUS-- is the Eddings’ newest book and not only did i buy it, i even paid full price.
It seems to me that Leigh had had a greater hand in writing this story, and does run long at 726 pages.
I like the Eddings’ books, for brain candy.
I have not read the Wheel of Time series.
What made me give up on Piers Anthony, was the story about women used as cows for milk, and our hero saves a baby born to one of the “cows”. YE GODS!
Read this thread for some commentary on Donaldson.
I’d suggest The Deed OF Paksenarrion trilogy by Elizabeth Moon. Not the most highbrow stuff ever, but a good read.
Paksennarion came to me so highly recommended, yet I found it to be anticlimactic, dull, and dragging. I don’t get it.
Ooh! My very first hijack!
Donaldson’s Gap series as hard sci-fi?
What are you thinking? That series epitomizes space opera to me. Great series. Not a bit of hard sci-fi in it. If you want true hard sci-fi, read something by Robert J. Sawyer (my current favorite author).
[sub]Darn, I think I’ve just opened myself up for criticism by expressing a strong viewpoint in here[/sub]