Please recommend me a book/author

Raymond Feist is excellent...and Goodkind if you haven't tried. I am doing Martin next so I don't know if it's good yet but my VERY fantasy savvy friend says he is.

I haven't read much fantasy, but I did like Philip Pullman's other books (besides His Dark Materials...the Sally Lockhart series).

I don't know if this qualifies as fantasy, but my mom bought me Chris Adrian's "The Children's Hospital" and several friends have also recommended it.  I haven't read it yet though....maybe next week... 

George Martin's series is very good. I also like David Gemmell, he has some wonderful fantasty series out. Alas he passed away so there will be nothing new from him. If you enjoy fantasty he is worth a read.

Anne McCaffrey is always a favorite of mine and she's written SO many -- probably my favorites would be the original "Dragonriders of Pern" series or her "Ship Who ..." series.  She's not stuck in one particular niche. 

CS Lewis is also not "current" but if you've never read the whole "Chronicles of Narnia" it's a good read, as is his Perlandra series.  (he was a contemporary/close friend of JRR Tolkein, in fact)

 If both of you are animal lovers, and again being 'historical', have you ever read Marshall Saunders (actually a pseudonym for a woman), pub. 1984 "Beautiful Joe" -- it was to the dog world what Anna Sewell's "Black Beauty" was to cruelty to horses.  There's a little blurb about it on my website:

http://www.critturs.com/joe.html

(my website doesn't sell a thing, it's just a little vanity site to help folks with health/behavior issues and talk about my favorite books, etc.)

In fact, if you can find the Guttenberg Project online I believe the entire text of "Beautiful Joe" is on there.  WARNING:  it was written over 100 years ago -- it is a bit explicit in just exactly how badly Joe was abused by his first owner.  It's part of the point of the book -- such cruelty used to be commonplace, and how people began to organize to change that.

I have to second David Gemmell. I had just discovered his works about 2 months before he passed away. I am devastated that there will be no more from him. I have read all of them and added them to my cache of books.

John Ringo's Council Wars series is also a very good read. The first 3 books were fantastic, the Fourth felt a little rushed, and it will be another year before the 5th is released as far as I know. Good read. Starts off in the future and falls back to the past in terms of living conditions.

Michael Stackpoles "Once a hero" is a good read, Feist is good too. For the women I recommend Anne Bishop's Fae series, the first book is "The pillars of the world" she has very strong female characters in her books, her dark jewels series is a not something I would recommend for the faint at heart, the books are disturbing but good.

 I second Anne McCaffrey. Mercedes Lackey is another I heartily recommend.

If you particularly like the comedy/fantasy like Terry Pratchett, Robert Asprin (or Aspirin) and Piers Anthony are both really good authors (if you like  puns and word play).

I also really like the ill-made mute series by Cecilia Dart-Thornton. Madeline L'Engle and Sherryl Jordan have both written some really good books too, although they are aimed for a younger (but not too young) audience.

I third Anne McCaffrey

Piers Antony (old stuff), Barbara Hambly especialy her dragon novel

I like Garth Nix's Abhorsen trilogy: Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen. This is the Nix web site: http://www.garthnix.co.uk/home

I think technically this fantasy series would be considered "young adult" because of the age of the protagonists---but I think they're fabulous.  Nix has a couple of other series out but I haven't read all of them.

If you're choose Barbara Hambly I (personally) would start with her "Time of the Dark" series also called the "Darwarth" books.

 how about Brian Jacques and the Redwall series?

DumDog

 how about Brian Jacques and the Redwall series?

I read a couple of those and I think I liked them LOL. I dunno why I didn't continue....probably some other author's new book came out and I lost track. I do that sometimes.

me too lol

i like books like that. Watership Down, Plague Dogs, and a few others are always on my top ten list....  

Already tried Gemmel and Goodkind, didn't really get on with those too well...

Enjoyed Brian Jacques though!  And I enjoyed the Narnia series when I was a kid, but the religious overtones spoil it for me now.

Thanks for the suggestions  

a few from my bookself,

JV jones, andre norton (sf rather than fantasy), Ursula Le Guin, jack vance (sf), l.e. modesitt jnr, kirsten britain, cecilia dart-thornton, chris wooding, kj parker, tad williams, steven erikson (not for the faint hearted but worth the read).

 there's more but most of my books are in storage :P