Don't let mediocre door-stopper fantasies put you off the whole section - check out local writer Robin Hobb. Her "Farseers" series, which starts with Assassin's Apprentice, is a truly worthwhile read. I feel so strongly about it that we are now carrying the whole series again.

This series demonstrates what a truly gifted writer can do with the constraints and conventions of the fantasy genre. It has all the required elements - dragons, quests, magic, etc - but combined in a dark and unsettling way. Hobb's heroes, fated to attempt epic feats, fail and are left prematurely aged, scarred, and bitter; true love goes unrequited; her characters are morally and sexually ambiguous; and both dragons and magic are dirty, unglamorous, and hazardous to your health.

Though all of this is extremely satisfying to anyone who has waded through any of the popular door-stopper fantasies, the books really shine in the characters and settings. Her world feels real, perhaps because, unlike most fantasy writers, she focuses on the lives of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events they can't comprehend - fishermen, beekeepers, farmers, scribes - who only want fate to just leave them alone.