The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie

Having just torn thru all three books in this fantasy story, I can say that I’m really glad I did - I’ve never read a genre book before that so expertly eschewed the hero’s journey archetype, all while retaining great entertainment value and emotional impact, and without seeming forced. 

Mistborn Wax and Wayne series by Brandon Sanderson

If you like Sanderson’s general style, these 4 books are very him, easy entertainment, quite fun tho predictable most of the time, with a major theme of therapeutic personal growth for basically all of the characters. 

Mistborn original trilogy by Brandon Sanderson

Like most of Sanderson’s writing the Mistborn series does a lot of very midbrow storytelling and philosophizing, a lot of “compassion beats cruelty and don’t forget it”, but the thing he does so well is tell a great story with great characters in a great setting that never ceases to entertain. 

The Dagger and the Coin series by Daniel Abraham

Having burned through this entire fantasy epic, my verdict is that it’s enjoyable and light, you could read it on the train or at the beach, it’s written with craft and each book has one or two great moments, but it’s missing something - verve, jazz, poetry… art, I guess. 

the Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson

My overall one sentence media review of the entire 150 hour endeavor that is this series (altho of course it has spawned a dozen other ancillary novels at this point) is that if you have the time and patience for a long series of books where you never really know what the plot is in any useful sense, but an endless succession of characters have deep, extended, metaphorically minded conversations about it, all interspersed fairly frequently with devastating violence, then they will reward you deeply, but if not, you'd have a way better time re-reading Brandon Sanderson.

Reaper's Gale and Toll the Hounds by Steve Erikson

Although there are definitely some emerging criticisms of the latter half of the Malazan series (too many quickly shifting viewpoints, an ever increasing tendancy to philosophize from various characters' viewpoints, sometimes at length), I still can't put down these books, with their incredible and ridiculous spread of lore and pathos and fun, and their huge, bewildering story. 

Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peale

While I can see why this lesser-known 70 year old series of fantasy-adjacent comic castle novels inspired a generation of writers, and while I enjoyed the crazy and completely unique writing style during the first novel, by the middle of the second I was getting bored. 

His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman

This classic hero’s journey fantasy delight is a perfect anti-narnia - difficult, complex, full of conflicted characters and deep investigations into morality and consciousness. 

kage baker’s company series

This series starts off strong and interesting, weird and cool, but just suffers more and more from hacky writing and bad plot choices as it goes on. 

The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson

Though he hasn't finished this series quite yet, I can say with total confidence that Sanderson is a once-in-a-generation storyteller, and if you like epic tales of any kind, you'll love spending hours in his worlds. 

the expanse book series by James S. A. Corey

This super engaging, super extensive series of books is a great way to lose yourself in a sci-fi space opera, if that's your thing.