Welcome back Frøya ! You were missed!

Why the attitude about feist. I loved Magician and thought it was a great book.
My favourite fantasy books are:
1. Faerie Tale by Raymond E. Feist
2. Daughter of the Empire and the three books that follow it by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts.
3 The Truth by Terry Pratchett
4. The Belgariad and the Mallorean by David Eddings.
5. The Harry Potter Series

I chose only one Pratchett Book but if I had to list all the one's I liked it would be a much longer list than just 5.

I also wanted to say that I adore the characters that David Eddings created and I think the Elium and the Tamuli are excellent series as well. There just wasn't room on my list.

Deep Secret - Diana Wynne Jones
Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones
Tam Lin - Pamela Dean
The Perilous Gard - Elizabeth Marie Pope
The Changeover - Margaret Mahy
Good Omens - Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

In a very definite order
1) Magician - Raymond E. Feist
2) Chapterhouse:Dune - Frank Herbert
3) The Non-born King - Julian May
4) The Seeress of Kell - David Eddings
5) Witches Abroad - Terry Pratchett

If you'd asked for a top-100 list, Tolkien would still not have got on it. Oh well.

Hmmm... have read a lot over the years. Enjoyed most of them... somehow couldn't really get into the Pern books though. I felt they were lacking in comparison to the others I'd read. In no particular order, some good ones I've read are

- The Harry Potter series <3
- The Darksword Trilogy by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (plus the uber-delicious Legacy of the Darksword followup!)
- The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander (prob my fave childhood author, I think I've read every novel he's ever written )
- the 10 (? I think) books in the Chronicles of Roger Zelazny. Wow... they were awesome.

Terry Pratchett seems to be on a lot of lists. I've picked up some of his stuff over the years but never actually sat down and ready any, I think maybe I'll give it a go soon.

1.The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy ~~~ Douglas Adams
2.The Magician's Guild ~~~~ Trudi Canvan
3.Warlock~~~ Wilbur Smith
4.The Deed of Paksennarion~~~ Elizabeth Moon
5.The Coldfire Trilogy~~~ C.S. Friedman

1. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
2. The Discworld series by Terry Pratchet
3. The Alvin Maker series by Orson Scott Card
4. Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card
5. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

1. The Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan
2. Mordants Need by Stephen Donaldson
3. Thomas Covenant (goes without saying) also by Stephen Donaldson
4. Earthsea Trilogy by Ursula Le Guin
5. The Mists of Avalon (closely followed by The Firebrand) by Marion Zimmer Bradley

How on earth can you narrow it down to just five? There are sooo many books I love to read and re-read. All the Harry Potters, Anne McCaffrey's Pern series as well as 'The Ship Who Sang' and the others in the brainship series, the Belgariad and Malloreon by David Eddings, and more recently Tad Williams' epic 'Otherland' series. I also liked Stephen Donaldson's stuff.

I love reading books, particularly fantasy novels. my top 5 are:
The Fifth elephant-Terry Pratchett (best author ever)
Magician- Raymond E Fiest
Dagger spell-Katherine Kerr
sword in the storm- David Gemmel
dragonflight- Anne McCaffery

I am not competent to participate in this discussion...but Spellsinger was a real hoot!

1. Eldest-Christopher Paolini
2. Eragon-Christopher Paolini
3. Harry Potter Half blood prince-JKR
4. Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix-JKR
5. Harry Potter Goblet of Fire- JKR

As you know I am new so apols for not reading all of this huuuge thread - I didnt think I liked fantasy books but when I think about it thats not strictly true - I love Harry Potter with a passion and someone introduced me to the Thursday Next books by Jasper Fforde which I absolutely love so clever then I moved onto the Weather Warden books and I adore them and you dont get much more fantasy than that, so I guess I do - I cant however read Terry Pratchett although I am aware that that is a failing in me lol

Thankyou I thought I was the only person on the planet that felt that way
hooray a club of at least 2 lol

well Ive read almost all of the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. Just out of interest what makes you two feel that way?
I love TP and enjoy his warped sense of humour and clever jokes.

1. Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card

2. Allana the First Adventure by Tamora Pierce

3. Eragon by Chris Paolini

4. A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin

5. Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith

Top five books??? You've got to be kidding me... how about authors/series?
Okay, I'd have to nominate... Terry Goodkind, Sword of Truth; Mitchell Graham, The Fifth Ring; Garth Nix, Sabriel; Tamora Pierce, (all her books, but especially...) Trickster's Choice; and Christopher Paolini, Inheritance.
And then there are some honorable mentions for J.K. Rowling, Philip Pullman, P.G. Wodehouse, and Eoin Colfer. I think I did rather well at narrowing things down.
Edit: D'oh, I forgot Terry Pratchett! Another honorable mention, since I've only read one of his books... And Douglass Adams. Okay, now I'm done.

I read anything and everything but here are some of my favorite Fantasy authors/series of books.

1. Terry Brooks books
2. John Marco Books
3. J.K. Rowling
4. Inheritance Trilogy
5. D.J.MacHale's Pendragon series (could be classified as Sci-Fi)
5.a) Dragon Lance Books (In case you want to classify DJ MacHale as Sci-Fi)

Philip Pullman ,Eoin Colfer, Emily Rodda, Christopher Rowley and others are very good.
Also liked the Looking Glass Wars.

1.Hitchiker's Guide (I have a Douglas Adams tattoo of the grinning green planet)
2.Meredith Gentry series-Laurell K. Hamilton
3.Xanth series-Piers Anthony
4.His Dark material series-Philip Pullman
5.MYTH inc. series-Robert Asprin
(If graphic Novels count, then I would say Elfquest, though)
I can't pick single books...I am lucky I can pick a specific series...

I will be honest, I only became a true fan of fantasy since Harry Potter got me hooked all those years ago. Since then I have enjoyed Eragon, Ranger's Apprentice, and The Shadow children series, by Margaret Haddix. Just starting to get into Dragonlance now. I am writing down some of your books now so my summer will be filled with reading!!
so, thanks..:)
MM

I'm still new to this so excuse my posting.
But to the main point I guess that my fave 5 Fantasy books would have to be.
(in no particular order, or maybe they are. I can't tell)

1.Robert Jordan's Wheel Of Time Series. (Especially Books Seven-Eleven)(Excluding Book 10)
2.Terry Brooks Heritage of Shannara series.
3.Harry Turtledoves Darkness series.
4.Artemis Fowl Books (Not including 1)
5.Power of 5 by Anthony Horowitz.

I just want to know, is this a Tolkien free zone because he is the best, or because everyone here hates him. Oh, and Douglas Adams rocks my socks off.

1. Song of Ice and Fire (all of it)
1. Dune

3 - 5. Gouging my eyes out as a result of Robert Jordan and Terry Goodkind.

I dearly love really good fantasy, but I am always terrified of starting one because there is so so much atrocious fantasy.