Good FR novel

[humble minion]

I'll second (or third) Azure Bonds. It did become part of a trilogy, but it works just fine by itself. There's a mystery, there's pyrotechnics and battle scenes, there's politics, and there's interesting characters. It's probably my favourite FR novel by a fair way (Elaine Cunningham's stuff is pretty good too, especially Elfshadow, but she likes a LOT more elves in her stories than I do.

 

[BadMojo]

Another vote for anything by Paul Kemp. I absolutely love the Erevis Cale books, and I usually don't find anything to suit my tastes in the WotC line of novels.

Although it would help to read the Cale short story in "The Halls of Stormweather", I read "Shadow's Witness" without reading the first volume. These books by the way are numbers one and two in the "Sembia" series.

 

[Mystery Man]

The City of Splendors:

Seconded. Hands down, and without a doubt.

One of my presents from Santy Claus was a 25 dollar gift card to Barney's and Noble, I'll be heading out there today to get it.

 

[Shazman]

I would highly recommend the Alabaster Staff or The Black Boquet. These are the best two FR novels, I've read yet. I'm almost through reading Whisper of the Waves. It's the first in a new trilogy with no ties whatsoever to other FR books. It's pretty good and markedly different from other FR novels. The characters are so deep and tortured that it has a feel of classic literature despite the presence of dragons, magic, etc.