hi there!
My reading interests lie along the lines of Tolkein and Terry Brooks (one of my all time favorites). I have lots and lots of books but don't always remember the authors. I just finished The War of Souls Trilogy by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. This series helped finally inspire me to write my own fiction book. Not because it's great, but because it WASN'T! I thought the books were a mess, and twice as long as they needed to be (and I LOVE long books). I thought "hey, if this can get published, certainly I can get a book published". Also, I recently read Eragon and The Eldest and was blown away. I know many people have panned The Eldest, but if you enjoy deep character development, as in gobs and gobs of time spent in minor details of people, scenery, emotions, etc., then I think it's a fantastic book! When I heard the age of the author when he wrote Eragon, I was further spurred to try my hand.
I like anything with elves, magic, dragons, dwarfs, AD&D, etc. The first fantasy I read was LLoyd Alexander (The Chronicals of Prydain) and I've been hooked ever since. Last night I had an important breakthru in my book, uncovering the principles for a my own magic system - something that won't be derivitive of everything that came before it. Continuity is important to me, and I can't stand a book (or movie) that breaks continuity. I'm extra picky about these things, so I'm spending lots of time on details. For example, I needed a group of people to travel great distance through a portal - like a teleportation spell. But, if I make that possible, what's to prevent people from using it all of the time? I needed this to be a one shot type deal. So I devised an elaborate ritual requiring a huge blood sacrifice and the alter of a 1000 year old temple, which gets destroyed during use.
Anyway, I'm digressing, but I guess I want to say that I enjoy books that create a believable environment all the way through, and perhaps base things on something new and fresh but tight, like a believable magic system. Terry Brooks does this. Not all of his books are knockouts (though many are), but they all deliver a consistent story in a believable word, so he's my favorite fantasy author.
No short answer here...
