>>22
I don't know if you're trolling or if it's just bad typing. Isaac Asimov did NOT write the Dune series. It was Frank Herbert.
IMO he surpasses that pansy Tolken, and his 3 books about going for a walk.
LOLZOMG qualifier. I've read them, I understand he was first to really give modern fantasy a foot-hold within respectable writing. I just feel that most of the hype and circle jerking is from nostalgia. It's also really obvious that "Paradise Lost", "The Odyssey", and "Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner" are MAJOR influences on how he developed the plot, characters, and crafted his prose.
ALSO
Read the Magic: the gathering series. For being based on a card game, it's goddamn fucking epic. From what I can remember, this are the order of the books worth reading.
The Thran
Brothers War
Planswalker (my personal fav.)
Time Streams
Mercadian Masques
Nemesis
Prophesy
Invasion
Planeshift
Apocalypse