Need help picking a great fantasy novel

[barsoomcore]

Get The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian. It's great fun.

Get Swords and Deviltry -- the first Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser book. "Ill Met In Lankhmar" still stands as one of the best fantasy stories ever written.

Dunno how fast you read, but those will make you happy, I'm sure.

You'd probably like Zelazny's Amber books, as well.

Elric is quite a different sort of beast, and honestly not Moorcock's best writing anyway. I liked Elric A LOT when I was a teenager, but I haven't read it since then. But DO look for The War Hound And The World's Pain, which for my money is MM's best book, and one of the most interesting and powerful fantasy novels of all time.

Gene Wolfe is REALLY different again. He's an AMAZING writer -- Steven Brust's particular idol, but not to everyone's taste. I think that if you prefer the earlier Vlad books to the later ones then Wolfe may not be your cup of tea. But try everything, see for yourself. I found The Book of the New Sun breathtaking.

 

[Grayhawk]

Thanks for all the replies and recommendations!

Earlier today (before going to see 'Alexander' which premiered in Denmark today) I went to a couple of bookstores. I'm quite surprised at how difficult it is to get books by Leiber, Moorcock, Howard and Vance considering their reputation of being great fantasy authors.

In the end, I managed to get hold of Leiber's 'Ill met in Lankhmar' (in this edition). Judging by Barsoomcore's post above, it seems like a good place to start my relationship with Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.

On the recommendation of the bookshop guy, I also got Robin Hobb's 'Assassin's Apprentice' (in this edition). So it was nice to see it recommended by Pants in the post above, when I came home this evening!

While it's too late for me to get any other books for this particular vacation, feel free to keep the suggestions comming, as I might make good use of them when I get back from Thailand

 

[Undead Pete]

If you want a totally original fantasy that tosses the sword and sorcery carbon copies out the door, you MUST read Perdido Street Station by China Mieville.

He has also written The Scar and King Rat (which is being made into a movie, by the way)

Truly groundbreaking stuff.

Oops...didn't notice that Pants had already recommended it

If you read Gene Wolfe, you should start with his Book of the New Sun series. The 4 original books have been reissued in a 2 volume set: Shadow & Claw and Sword & Citadel