[horza]

I read Tolkien, Gemmell, Vance and Wolfe when I was younger and can add my own hearty recommendation to those. I pretty much gave up on fantasy until recently though as the sub-Tolkien/D&D market pretty much took over the market, and it all seemed too derivative.

Lately however I've found a couple of authors that are writing completely new stuff. China Mieville writes about Cactus-men and ant headed women plotting Marxist revolutions against Magiocracies. Alan Campbell has a city built on chains above the Abyss in a world abandoned by its creator. And not forgetting that "children's" author Philip Pullman whose world of Dust and Armoured Bears I may have read to a daughter but certainly kept me rapt.