Growing up reading Tolkien , Terry Brooks and Robert Jordan gave me a huge appreciation of fantasy ( both high and low ). But nothing has really grabbed me like the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin.
More "reality" based than Tolkein , but with an underlying current of fantasy/supernatural that really kept me reading. Also enough political intrigue to choke a Koch brother.
Now HBO has made the first of the series A Game of Thrones into a series , and boy does it look good ! I'm really looking forward to this...
