"The Chronicles of Narnia" by C.S.Lewis was my childhood favorite and I still go back and reread those books periodically. I gave my kids a bound set one year for Christmas and they weren't at all interested. Oh well!!! O, another good one - just finished reading "The Dragonbone Chair" - is Tad Williams. David Eddings has already been mentioned but he is quite entertaining also. The only problem is his plots tend to repeat themselves over and over and over - although the "young hero going on a quest" plot is so universal that I guess it's just a matter of how well the tale is told!