Books

You say fantasy, but while technically sci fi, I'd like to suggest the galactic milieu series by Julian May. It starts out sci fi and I guess constantly has sci fi elements but leans pretty heavily into bridging the gap to fantasy (elves, dwarves, shapeshifting monsters, magic etc)

The Dragonbone chair it has the politics and war but the world also has quite a few different types of races that are not your typical Human/elf/dwarf.

I am enjoying the first book and it is series.

One for the Morning Glory by John Barnes

The King of Elfland's daughter, by Lord Dunsany

Discword

Discworld is so fun, start with book 4 7 or 11 or 13 to get a feel for the strength of the story (and read one of the best ones), but really its pretty fun from the start if rough because the author is figuring out how to be an author still a bit

11 is probably my favorite, but you should read 4 and then 11 because they're connected.

edit: damn I should read the whole post first...

Mistborn is great, less dragons and more alchemical science. Begins with a satisfying tale of overthrowing the government, and then tackles some of the “okay… now what” with tons more interesting stuff along the way

Reading Wheel of Time and I'm really enjoying it

David Eddings? I read him way back when I was a kid (~35 years ago). Think the series was called The Belgariad or Belgarion. The first 3-6 books were fun in a light yet captivating, magicy, fantasy way.

The Reyira Revelations Is great fun. Five Gods is an outstandingly well-written series.

I'd recommend David Eddungs' Belgariad. Got me into fantasy genre. Then there's Robin Hobb, Trudi Canavan, Raymond, E Feist (brilliant), Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus Trilogy. So many good things out there. If you enjoyed Discworld you'll enjoy these too even though they're not comical like Pratchett novels are.

You should get on goodreads and look up books you loved to see what else is recommended from people who also read that book. I find great ones that way!

Otherwise I absolutely could not put “Forth Wing” down by Rebecca Yarros! The second book (five are expected) comes out in a week or two. A friend recommended it and it was so good I fell into a slump afterwards trying to find something as exciting.

There is a book anthology called Rogues, complied by Phyllis Eisenstein. It is a compilation of short stories from various writers across many disciplines. While there is a lot of different stories, they all come back to a character who is deceitful in character you can't help but root for them a bit.

• The Belgariad and The Malloreon by David Eddings. His books have classic D&D feel, light reading with bits of humor.

• Realm of the Elderlings by Robin Hobb. A massive plotline (all books already written so no need to wait), very dark, superb characters.

I will forever evangelise Practical Guide to Evil. Great high fantasy that does a wonderfull job at using the building block of stories to your advantage.

Doesn't hit your checklist point by point, but I think it's impossible to go wrong with the Recluce books if you haven't read them. (Most recent was published in 2021 which was news to me - guess I have some catching up to do!)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Saga_of_Recluce

Assassin's Apprentice trilogy by Robin Hobbs

It's very polarizing, as in some people love it and some people absolutely hate it, but Stephen Donaldson's "Thomas Covenant" books are among my favorite. Not so keen on the later volumes, but the first two trilogies are amazing.

• Anne McCaffrey's "Pern" series.
• Naomi Novik's "Temeraire" series
• Tamora Pierce's series spanning multiple mini-series: Lioness, Protector, Tricksters and Immortals.