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[gimlet]

DAMMIT and I just bought a book of his yesterday, of course it's the one name I didn't doublecheck :p

[silverskull39]

Posting mainly so I can pick through these for my own reading later, but here's my recommendations. Count them as a +1 if they've already been mentioned.

Basically anything by Brandon Sanderson, but in particular the mistborn trilogy.

Dresden files by Jim Butcher -wizard in chicago.

The Black Company Series by Glen Cook
For some lighter stuff, the Garret P.I. series by Glen Cook -private detective in fantasy world

I saved the best for last, IMO. The Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss. The third book is still being written/revised, but the first two are phenomenal. Seriously, I can't recommend these books enough. The first one is The Name of the Wind, and the second is The Wise Man's Fear.

[Spectrelight]

For sci-fi, I highly recommend the "Revelation Space" novels by Alastair Reynolds. The writer is a former astronomer, and most of the science is plausible, but he's also very good at making his works entertaining.

For fantasy, I recommend "The Scar" by China Mieville. It's only one of the novels set in his world, but it's the best one.

For a mix of both, I recommend "The Book of the New Sun" by Gene Wolfe. It's set in what is presumably South America in the distant future, but uses a lot of fantasy tropes - there's some very advanced technology still around, but it's basically magic. The series can be hard to get into, because it's kind of a weird setting and uses a lot of archaic words, but it is very much worth it.

Lately I've been reading Joe Abercrombie's "The First Law" trilogy, and am very close to the end. The characters aren't very likable, and the plot takes a while to get going, but Abercrombie is an amazingly talented writer, and around halfway through the first book I became incapable of putting it down.

[Dalkar]

In The First Law the characters aren't meant to be likable, that's the beauty of that particular trilogy. They're very well crafted and almost seem, well, real, which can be quite rare in most fantasy series (though not all, obviously).
I highly recommend it, and Abercrombie's other books.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Some of the characters are likable. It's grimdark, but not 100% grimdark.

[ScriptWolf]

Never mind misread that

Black prism one of the best series of books I have ever read ( fantasy )

As well as the name of the wind ( fantasy )

And dune

[MrWiggles]

I could never get into Dune.

Having to keep referencing the dictionary in the back was a real barrier for me, and really prevented me  getting into the book.

[DJ]

If you like your SciFi a little bit philosophical, check out Stanislaw Lem. The Invincible and His Master's Voice are pretty dang good.

[Tellemurius]

I could never get into Dune.

Having to keep referencing the dictionary in the back was a real barrier for me, and really prevented me  getting into the book.

why? most of the dune terms were explained out in the story anyways.

[nenjin]

He does have a point though. In the later books I feel like it's much worse, where shit comes out of left field frequently. (Gholam, J-bomb, ect...) Some authors try to introduce content gradually, Herbert just kind of throws it at you.

[Flying Dice]

Anything by Vernor Vinge. All of his work is absolutely brilliant and quite original, as such things go, dealing with far-future communication, interspecies relations, transhumanism, transcedence, the nature of personhood and reality, and similar topics. For the Zones of Thought novels, here's the chronological order:
A Deepness in the Sky
A Fire Upon the Deep
The Children of the Sky

[Maldevious]

Anything by Vernor Vinge. All of his work is absolutely brilliant and quite original, as such things go, dealing with far-future communication, interspecies relations, transhumanism, transcedence, the nature of personhood and reality, and similar topics. For the Zones of Thought novels, here's the chronological order:
A Deepness in the Sky
A Fire Upon the Deep
The Children of the Sky

+1 to this, excellent series

[nenjin]

I just started reading Black Company because I've seen it recommended many places...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Not sure what to make of the guy's style. He cuts scene/chapters in odd ways. He'll condense a month of action into two sentences, then spend an entire chapter on characters playing cards. He doesn't write about combat, even though the whole series revolves around violence and battles. He sets things up in the world without explaining them. Vampire-Were-Leopard? Sure, why not. Everyone, even non-Company characters, are identified by nicknames. Seriously, count the number of characters whose names end in "er". Limper. Shifter. Croaker. Soulcatcher. And on. Every character's style seems to be "bad ass" or "jerk." I mean, I like that it's grim but it almost reads like a parody of grimdark fantasy at times.

Honestly his bad guys seem way more interesting than the characters of the company. I have a hard time telling many of them apart by any characteristics except their names. Elmo? Angry jerk. The Captain? Angry jerk. One-eye? Angry jerk who is also a wizard. Raven? He's the prototypical "silent mysterious bad ass." Who is a jerk with a heart of gold.

I'll keep reading, because I enjoy that his fantasy is stylistically different from a lot of stuff out there. But some parts of it kind of bug me.

[LARD]

Another vote for Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card) But I also love the sequels. The series gets metaphysical and much more philosophical.

[Remuthra]

I find the first one is really the best, following pretty much in descending order the sequels. Honestly they're a completely different thing though.