Guy Gavriel Kay
So, as my flist know very well, I am a huge fan of the Harry Potter series. I am also a big fan of the fantasy genre more generally. A favorite writer of mine is Guy Gavriel Kay, who writes really amazing fantasy novels (he also helped to edit "The Silmarillion", for the Tolkien fans among you). His strengths are writing a large cast of interesting characters, avoiding trite "happy endings", and creating a detailed sense of a world in a way that reminds me of well-written historical fiction.
I have recently comverted a couple of HP friends to this author, and we plan to embark on a reading of his novel "Tigana", a wonderful book set in a place similar to medieval Italy. (Here, to tempt you, is a review of the book from the Toronto Star: http://www.brightweavings.com/reviews/revtigana.htm ). We've started up a Yahoo! group for this activity, and would love to have others join us if this sounds like fun. Just post here if you are interested, and I can send you an invitation.