pilfered_words

Hmmm… no one seems to have mentioned Bujold’s Curse of Chalion yet, that’s one of my favorites. She’s more famous for the Vorkosigan books, which are sci-fi, but Chalion is straight-up fantasy.

 

Shannon Hale - the Goose Girl and its sequels are great, and so are the rest of her books. Definitely Young Adult, though, if that matters.

 

Crown Duel, by Sherwood Smith, is pretty awesome. I’m not as fond of her other books, she gets a little preachy, but I think Crown Duel doesn’t really have this problem.

 

The Lumatere Chronicles are good. Too tropey, if anything, but I like them. :)

 

I’d like to enthusiastically second the recommendations of Megan Whalen Turner (The Thief books), Patricia Wrede in general and the Kate and Cecelia books specifically, Martha Wells (everything, though my favorite is Death of the Necromancer), and Diana Wynne Jones (everything, read everything, I haven’t yet, but you should).