Hated Goodkind. Read the first, tried the second (because I was told it got better) and put it down.
I’ve read a couple of things by him…some series with “hobbits” only they weren’t called hobbits. And another one that ended up being a love story between a dwarf and an elf.
As for the others. Eddings is okay. I liked both series originally but have recently come to my senses and realized what a pile of crap the Mallorean is (I mean really…the combined firepower of their little group is totally overwhelming and they have to cringe and hide constantly. PLUS, there is the phrophecy that one of them will die by the end of the story and he ends up killing a minor character. Weak.).
I really like the first series from Feist, but I haven’t read any of the later ones. I also really enjoyed Faerie Tale (a contemporary supernatural story that is very cool).
I’ll cast another vote for George RR Martin. What a versatile writer! He seems to move effortlessly from science fiction to horror to fantasy.
And to give credit where it’s due, the old Robert Jordan, through about the first 3 to 5 books of his series (depending on who you talk to) was bloody fantastic. It’s a testament to how good those books were that so many of us still keep reading his stuff, which has (we admit) really gotten slow of late.
I’d like to put in a word for John Marco. The Jackal of Nar series was pretty good.
That fact right there should suffice to settle the argument in favor of Tolkien. If the genre is defined as being like Tolkien, then Tolkien is the best of the genre.
But assuming that we mean “other than Tolkien”, I’ll nominate Stephen Brust’s Jhereg series. Granted, the main character is an assassin, rather a departure from the traditional hero, but the swords and sorcery is laid on thick.
I’ve also read some good epic fantasy from David Weber (the Bahzell Bahnakson series), but he’s primarily an SF writer.
And it’s a children’s series, but Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain series deserves a mention. Not so much a ripoff of Tolkien; Alexander mostly worked directly from the old Welsh legends (which were also one of Tolkien’s sources, of course).
Not logical. It’s entirely possible to be “like” something that came first and yet be better. My secret meatball recipe is *like *my mother’s, and way better, because I took her recipe and tweaked it and improved upon it. My computer is *like *the Apple IIE I learned to program BASIC on, but much, much better.
'Sides, I think Tolkein is eliminated due to the “I don’t want to hear about great, innovative fantasy writers as they’re easy to identify” clause in the OP. We can argue (again) till we’re blue in the face about whether Tolkien was great, but I’ve never heard anyone dare to speculate that he was not innovative.
I have an affectionate hatred for the works of David Eddings and Mercedes Lackey. I’ve read most of their books multiple times each, but keep complaining about how terrible they are. (Which reminds me, I haven’t read any Eddings in YEARS. I should go dig some out…)
I like Raymond Feist a fair amount and Tad Williams a bit more.
I read a few Terry Goodkind books, partly in response to the pleading of an ex-boyfriend who really liked them, got bored, and quit.
I read the first… eight or so? of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time books, got bored, and quit.
The only one I’m enthusiastic about anymore is George R. R. Martin, and I’m VERY enthusiastic about him. He manages to have swords and dragons and castles and knights and heirs to things and kids who get their own special magical companion animals without making it… well, suck.
Any animals start talking in anybody’s mind, though, and he is OUT of my good graces. 