Most of the classics have been well covered at this point. One of the best books (and authors) I’ve read lately and would argue is a modern classic already is M.L. Wang’s Sword of Kaigen. It is a stand alone fantasy novel set in a world similar to Avatar (the last airbender) where magic is elemental and controlled nationally. It covers the story of a young man and his mother and father, defending their village against overwhelming invading forces.

Wang’s strength is in her character building: everyone is highly complex, multifaceted, and nuanced. Despite the tropey premise, the story manages to completely subvert the standard clichés and covers themes of nationalism, propaganda, grief, forgiveness, patriarchy, and identity. It also has literally the best redemption arc of any book I’ve ever read. Please go read it if you haven’t already!

Wheel of Time is an incredible experience, if you ever get to it and like it (especially the last few books) I’d also recommend Brandon Sanderson’s first era of Mistborn books! The second era gets a bit too convoluted imo

Since you like D&D, my rec goes to Erin M Evans’ Brimstone Angels series. It’s set in the Forgotten Realms, the default setting for 5th edition and the setting used in both the recent D&D movie and the Baldur’s Gate video game series. Brimstone Angels stars two tiefling twins and their dragonborn adoptive father. One of the twins accidentally stumbles into a warlock pact with a devil, and the series is largely about dealing with the consequences of that.

It’s so well written with excellent characters. And when the final two books (five and six) go to the dragonborn kingdom of Tymanther, an area and culture comparatively unexplored by FR canon, Evans gets to really bust out her worldbuilding chops and put her background in anthropology background to good use.

The good thing is, IMO you don’t need a very big investment to decide if it’s right for you. If you get through the prologue of book one and aren’t interested, it’s not for you. Evans does an amazing job of condensing her style, tone, and themes into the prologue of her books specifically for that reason (and because the first few actual chapters are often slightly different in tone).

If you’ve read the 2014 PHB, you’ve already read some of it. The quotes in the tiefling section and dragonborn section come from the prologue to the first book and from the 4th book, respectively.

Brimstone Angels is a lot tighter than some of the sprawling epic fantasy recommended elsewhere. It’s comparatively easy reading compared to some of the great recommendations others have made like Wheel of Time, A Song of Ice and Fire, or Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere. It could make a good palatte cleanser between books like those, if you’re so inclined. Though I found myself wanting to binge the whole thing.

Only downside is, last time I looked, you literally cannot get the first book in paper. It’s ebook or audiobook only, since it’s been out of print for a long time and second-hand copies go for instance amounts. When I looked, the rest of the series was easy, but that may have changed; it’s been like 8 years.

Earthsea.

Red Rising by Pierce Brown is really popular. I’m only just started the 4th book so nobody spoil it for me. So far so good.

Some that I didn’t see listed

Tad Williams Memory Sorrow Thorn trilogy. It starts really show, but if you make it through the first fifty pages it gets really good.

Tad Williams Otherland series is also really good, but kind of blends sci fi and fantasy.

Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley.

The Awakeners by Sherri S Tepper. All of her books are good, but again some of them mix sci fi and fantasy, but The Awakeners is straight fantasy.

If you’re into early 20th century pulp fantasy, I highly recommend Edgar Rice Burroughs’s John Carter of Mars and Robert E. Howard’s Conan.

Terry Brooks, Shannara series (wiki/goodreads)

It’s a rather extensive fantasy series and covers a prolific amount of time instead of focusing on a few characters and events (over 40 books and thousands of years basically).

There is an unfortunate lack of female authors in this thread so I will post two recommendations:

• I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
• The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

Chronicles of the Black Company

The Black Company by Glen Cook. It’s like what if a mercenary chronicled the Vietnam war but with wizards. The next two books in the trilogy are good, too, but don’t quite live up to that first. The follow up trilogy is fine, but didn’t really do it for me.

Robin hobb farseer books are great

Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials books. Hyperion (first 2 are best buy i love all 4 in the series). Read some of the classics like Philip k dick “do androids dream of electric sheep” and robert heinland’s “stranger in a strange land” isaac asimov’s “i robot” books and foundation series are excellent too.

DISCWORLD

The mote in gods eye

A really cool story about first contact. It was written in the 70’s, and it shows in the gender and societal norms presented in the novel. If you can power through that, you’re in for a treat!

Dresden Files

A novel series about a wizard detective in chicago.