A few more for your consideration:
The Worm Ouroboros, by E. R. Eddision. I view this book as the prototype of all epic fantasy. J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and T. H. White all adored this novel and the rest of Eddison’s work (which I haven’t yet read). It’s about heroes, villains, damsels, battles, swordfights, quests, chases, castles, magic, plots, betrayal, monsters, mountain-climbing, returning from the dead, seafaring, loyalty, poison, storms, hippogrifs, narrow escapes, desperation, leadership. All the good stuff, in other words. It is written in intentionally archaic language, so you may wish to have a dictionary handy if you don’t have an annotated edition. It’s out of print, unfortunately, but your library may have a copy.
Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, by Tad Williams. A huge epic fantasy series that basically revived the genre in the late 80’s. Very influential for recent fantasy writers. Notable for an enormous cast of characters, surprising plot twists and touches of humor. The three books are The Dragonbone Chair, Stone of Farewell and To Green Angel Tower; the last one is split into two volumes.
Princess of Ayodhya, by Ashok K. Banker. This is the first is a projected seven-volume series based on the ancient Hindu epic called The Ramayana. It’s about the war between the human race and an invading army of demons from the underworld. The scope is tremendous, everything happens on a big scale, and the author knows lots of detail about life in ancient India, which gives the book some extra zing and sets it apart from standard fantasy.
