Well thank you then!
Right before Book Ten comes out we really need to have a “Who’s Who and What’s What in Malazan” thread. I was completely lost in Book Nine because I’d read the first eight the year before. Also “Plotlines of ASOIAF, a reminder” (ifGRRM ever comes out with A Dance With Dragons, that is).
If you like the Dresden Files, then check out Butcher’s Codex Alera, which is closer to traditional S&S fantasy in a non-modern setting, and which (in accordance with the OP’s preference) is now a complete series with a definite story arc.
Wait, what? Can you explain that?
I read most of the Darkover books when I was younger, and enjoyed them quite a lot. Marion Zimmer Bradley was also a good friend of another of my favorite authors, Jacqueline Lichtenberg. What’s this about “paedophile-enabling”?
As far as other series go, Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah’s *Sime/Gen *series is good (a little different, but quite good). Starts with “House of Zeor” (which is fairly YAish) and gets more complex as it goes on.
Also, Anne McCaffrey’s *Dragonriders of Pern *series is pretty good, at least the first few. I got tired of it after awhile, but enjoyed the first several books quite a bit.
Modest, too.
Bradley’s husband, Walter Breen, was an active pedophile/ephebophile, to the point where he was banned from some SF conventions because of it. He was actually an active member of NAMBLA. Bradley was apparently aware of and accepting of this, and didn’t divorce him until he was arrested for child molestation in 1990.
Does the Discworld series count? It’s a little zany but I love the comedy and allegory. I’ve always described it as Monty Python style sci-fi/fantasy.
There are 30 or so books in the series, but they are not chronollogical. They are written in categories. I’d start with the first, The Color of Magic. I love the Death character related books best.
I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet, but I’ve always been intrigued by the “Temeraire” series. It’s basically an alternate Napoleonic history, but with a dragon airforce.
Also on my list is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
Good Luck
You know I have been dancing around picking up that series for a while now, but there is always something more interesting that gets my attention instead. This might be the right time to finally do it.
Or Mike Carey’s Felix Castor novels, another ongoing urban fantasy series that’s up to about it’s fifth book. I prefer them to Butcher’s, though I agree the Dresden books do start getting better after starting out as kind of journeyman hack work.
Let me introduce you to Cugel, star of Jack Vance’s [COLOR=“Blue”]Dying Earth series.[/COLOR]
He’s a schemer, lair, braggart and all around screw-up. But boy is he funny.
And boy can Vance write.
These are the books that World of Warcraft is reportedlly based on
Those books would depress a hyena. 
Not worth it.
Belgariad and sequels by Eddings is enjoyable and even re-readable.
Susan Cooper wrote a excellent YA series. “Dark is Rising”.
Christopher Golden’s Veil series.
Congratulations! For what, you ask? I’m about to make your year.
Lynn Flewelling wrote a trilogy called the Tamir Trilogy, which begins with The Bone Doll’s Twin which is seriously fantastic. It came highly recommended to me, and I highly recommend it to you. The very best praise I can offer this book is that I have reread maybe two or three books in my life and I eagerly await rereading these.
I also second The Name of the Wind, which is not yet a finished trilogy/series/etc., but has a second book coming out early next year and the first is well worth getting into now.
I’ll add my vote to this as well, although it doesn’t meet the OP’s requirements for a completed series. The next book is due out in March, 2011. Pat Rothfuss also has a great blog on his website.
Possibly not coincidentally, the first commercially-available text editors with search-and-replace functions debuted in the mid-1970s, and Sword hit the presses in 1977.
Have you read “When You Reach Me”? It’s a recent book about a girl who feels like she is experiencing things to do with people in the future contacting her.
I have a confession to make.
I’m broken up about this, too, so don’t judge me to hard or dismiss me right away.
I have tried, twice, to get into Discworld novels…and I can’t. I don’t know what is wrong with me. I was raised with a British Mother, too, so I get British humor and so forth. I want, want, wanted to love them, but have had a hard time.
For the record, the first time I read Colour of Magic. I know! Not the best place to start.
So this September, I picked up Mort.
I smiled a bit, but ended up finding it dull, too.
I don’t know what is wrong with me, but both of my attempts to read Discworld have ended with me finding them…not as interesting as I hoped.
:hangs head in shame:
Well try his YA books, start with *the Wee Free Men. * But no author, no matter how good, is everyones cup of tea.
I teach 7th grade and was going to read his Johnny Maxwell series, but ended up getting drawn toward the Dark Tower and am heading to other adult fantasy now.
I go with how I feel pulled and for some reason, I am not currently being pulled toward Discworld.
I thought it was awful. I mean, actively dreadful. I got halfway into the first book because I was stuck at the gynecologist’s office and I’d already read all the pamphlets about genital warts and I sat there just seething at how bad this book was. YMMV.
ETA - forgot what I actually came in to say - the first Fionavar Tapestry book (The Summer Tree) is amazing. The second two… meh.
Steven Brust has a fantastic crackly-snap series that was written out of order but I believe now comes in an omnibus called The Book of the Jhereg? Anyway, before Brust got boring he wrote several really fun, funny, awesome books about a human assassin in a non-human society. Highly recommended.
Mort isn’t a great intro either. I can see why you might not have been into it. I like Mort, but it’s better once you are familiar with the world.
Try Guards! Guards!, Small Gods, or maybe Wyrd Sisters. Those are all books written after Pratchett figured out how he wanted to write, and they are also all good jumping off point books.