> Could someone give hints on real gems, other than Tolkien (or Fionavar, which I liked a lot, although Kay uses some of Tolkien's ideas, not to speak of all existing folk stories) or Earthsea series?
>
I just finished reading the Earthsea cycle for the second time. The first time through was years ago, in my late teens I think, and I was able to appreciate LeGuin's style and themes much better this time through.

Particularly as regards the fourth and final (?) book , _Tehanu_, the first time I read it I had no patience whatsoever with the story and wound up practically skimming through the pages just to find the next interesting event. This time, I had a little more love for the characters rather than the action, so I was able to really enjoy LeGuin's probing of their thoughts and frustrations, and didn't mind so much that precious little happens in the way of plot advancement.

I've read enough books of this sort by now that I'm ready to admit a book to be "good" if its vision of the fictional world is deep and engaging, and its style is readable even if it is also complex. Given those good qualities, I find I can often put up with sporadic plot advancement, even though Sam and Dave will both upbraid me for not holding fantasy writing to higher standards of excellence. :-)

I can't think of a particular fantasy series that would meet all the criteria you may be looking for, but one that looks promising to me based on the first entry is Orson Scott Card's _Alvin Maker_ series. It has a fairly original vision (at least, it doesn't call to mind anything I've read before), and _Seventh Son_ (the first book) was a very enjoyable read. Card's ideas about God and the devil are frustrating to me, and his inclusion of a fanatical, quasi-evil preacher (patent: Stephen King) was de rigeur and unconvincing, but these things didn't spoil the story for me. The premise alone is enough to make me want to read more books in the series, and there are other things to commend it besides that.

Iss "currently getting back to Thomas Hardy for some good depressing reading" achar