Loosely organized by author:

• Louise Cooper, The Initiate, The Outcast, The Master (The Time Master Trilogy)
The Time Master Trilogy is about Tarod, who becomes a seventh-rank sorcerer at the isolated Castle on the Star Peninsula, serving the gods of Order.  The gods of Chaos have been banished from the world, along with their influence.  It is prophesied that one day the gods of Chaos will return to challenge Order.

As the main character, Tarod is dark, sometimes downright sinister.  He came to the castle mysteriously, transported by a Warp storm.  No one can doubt that his powers are great, yet they are almost frightening to the other sorcerers because he can perform acts that are far beyond their scope.  Tarod is plagued with nightmares, which are slowly driving him insane.  In an effort to stop the nightmares, he finds himself an unwilling pawn of Chaos, and a key participant in the battle between Chaos and Order.

I can't tell you more of the story for fear of giving away Tarod's secrets, but I found the trilogy to be a fascinating story of the battle between Chaos and Order, where Order is not necessarily Good.  All three books were fast paced, and I'd recommend buying all three at once, because The Initiate and The Outcast have cliffhanger endings that will stick in the back of your mind until you start the next book.

Star Ascendant
Though this book is a prequel to the Time Master Trilogy, I'd strongly suggest reading it afterwards, because if you read it first it will give away many of the secrets of the Trilogy.

Star Ascendant takes place quite a bit before the Trilogy, when Chaos held sway over the world and Order was the power imprisoned.

Benetan is the captain of the Chaos riders, pledged to Chaos and his master, the First Magus.  When the Chaos riders are sent to collect a human harvest to serve as servants and sacrifices to the power of Chaos, they snatch newly wed Iselia, who knew Benetan as a child.  Iselia confides in him that she and her husband are heratics, serving Aeoris, Lord of Order.  Benetan is torn by a desire to protect Iselia from the horrors of the Star Penninsula, and so he gives her into the questionable protection of the historian, Savrinor.  In order to reunite Iselia with her husband, Benetan will unwillingly aid in Order's overthrow of Chaos.

Star Ascendant is the first of a series, but I have yet to find the others.
 

• Louise Cooper, Nemesis: Book One of Indigo, Inferno: Book Two of Indigo
There are seven books about Indigo, and I've read the first three or four, but I only have the first two.  I'll track them all down eventually.

Indigo was Princess Anghara Kalingsdaughter, before she broke an ancient law and entered The Tower of Regrets.  She released demons into the world, and now she is compelled by the Earth Mother to track the demons down and banish them.  Though her family was slaughtered by the demons she released, her love, Fenran, is alive in the demon realms.  Once she has hunted down all the demons, he will be free.

Book 1 is basically setting up the plot and introducing her to her companion on her quest, a wolf named Grimya, who can speak and is telepathic.  Book 2 is focused on Indigo's quest - and by the way, a must read for pyros.  It'll warm you up on a cold winter night.  I avoided the microwave after I read it, though.  :-P
 

• Barbara Hambly, Dragonsbane
I love the style this book is written in.  It's almost hauntingly poetic, yet the characters are down to earth and the opposite of what you would expect.  Barbara Hambly's unique interpretation of dragons is fascinating and well thought out.  By the way, the cover art on the paperback is kind of lame, I think.  Don't judge this book by its cover.  Ha ha.

The story revolves around Jenny Waynest, a mediocre sorceress, and her love, John Aversin, who is the only living man ever to slay a dragon.  It is set in something akin to Elizabethan times, with court intrigue and elaborate hairstyles and dresses.  A young man named Gareth arrives in the Winterlands looking for Lord Aversin, to slay a mighty dragon that has destroyed the gnome's city and has taken up residence in the mines.  Gareth, Jenny and John travel to the King's court, to unravel the mystery of the King's mistress and to battle the black dragon, Morkeleb.

Egad this book is good!  If nothing else, it's worth reading for the last few chapters of the book - trust me trust me trust me.

Also cool by Barbara Hambly: The Ladies of Mandrigyn
 

• Laurell K. Hamilton, Guilty Pleasures, The Laughing Corpse, Circus of the Damned, The Lunatic Cafe, Bloody Bones, The Killing Dance, Burnt Offerings, Blue Moon (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter)
No kidding, I bought Guilty Pleasures because I wanted something to read in the mall when I ate lunch and I thought it looked cheesy and I could laugh at it.  It didn't take long before I was hooked.  Anita Blake is a spiffy heroine, short, tough and with a twisted sense of humor.  The series is set in an alternate earth in St. Louis, where vampires most definitely DO exist, and they've just been given citizenship.  Anita is an animator - she raises zombies from the dead for a living, and in her spare time she's one of the few vampire executioners in the U.S.  Basically, if a vampire starts getting out of hand and killing people, she gets a court order to find it and kill it.

If you liked the TV series Forever Knight, or if you're just into vampires, you should hunt down this series.  It's got all kinds of cool stuff in it, from vampires (obviously) to all kinds of lycanthropes and faeries and zombies.  Lots of vampires and lots of lycanthropes, mostly.  Most definitely read this series in order.  Guilty Pleasures, Circus of the Damned, The Lunatic Cafe and The Killing Dance are the strong points of the series, but you'll need to read all of them.

On a side note, this series can be gory (but with such cool descriptions!) and the last couple of books contain some pretty sadistic stuff.  Let's put it this way:  the bad guys are REALLY nasty.  Just avoid eating anything meaty or red while you're reading it.
 

• Tanya Huff, Child of the Grove, The Last Wizard (The Wizard Crystal duo)
I found a copy of The Last Wizard somewhere, and I liked it so much that I was really bummed that I hadn't read the first book.  But when I finally found Child of the Grove I discovered it wasn't nearly as good as The Last Wizard.  If I'd read Child of the Grove first, I might not have read The Last Wizard.  OK, Child of the Grove isn't crappy.  It's pretty good, actually.  It's just a bit slow in the beginning, and you have to read half the book before you get to the good stuff.  If you read The Last Wizard without reading the Child of the Grove first, you'll wonder what you missed and it will drive you crazy.

Child of the Grove is all about how the wizard Crystal came to be born and her struggle against Kraydak, the last wizard existing, and the most powerful.  Crystal is not mortal, but the fused essence of seven goddesses, and her purpose is to destroy Kraydak.

The very best thing about this series is the way Tanya Huff weaves the mythology of her world into her characters.  I love the story in the very beginning, and I love the way the gods, wizards, and immortals are structured.  Tres cool.

In the second book, Crystal is the last wizard alive.  (Explains the title, doesn't it?) She's already fulfilled her purpose and knocked off Kraydak, and now she's wandering around, trying to find something to give her life meaning.  Her companion is Lord Death.  Yup, Death.  Plus, the seven goddesses that combined to create her are splintering, giving her a case of multiple personality syndrome, only with deities.  *shudder*  This book had a great ending.  :-)  Death is a very interesting character concept - it's worth reading the book for him alone.

Also cool by Tanya Huff: Gate of Darkness, Circle of Light
 

• Tanya Huff, Blood Price, Blood Trail, Blood Lines, Blood Pact, Blood Debt
This series is similar to the Anita Blake series (above), but it isn't quite as dramatic.  I didn't buy this one for the cheese factor.  In this world vampires are still officially nonexistent, except the occasional bastard son of King Henry VIII who writes romance novels.

Vicki Nelson, cop turned private eye, teams up with Henry Fitzroy to solve various supernatural mischief.

I like Tanya Huff's take on vampires (much different than Laurell Hamilton's) and her descriptions of were-wolf life in Blood Trail are terrific.
 

• Anne Logston, Guardian's Key
This is a charming book about Dara, who journeys to the Crystal Keep so that the Guardian within will grant her wish, and allow her to marry her love, Cav.  The guardian informs her of the rule of the Crystal Keep: Nothing comes without a price.  She must first find the Oracle hidden somewhere within the Keep, and ask it what her wish is worth.  Then she can give it to the Guardian, who will grant her wish.  The Crystal Keep is a magical place, within it is an almost endless hallway lined with doors that lead to different worlds.  Dara is given a key that will allow her to leave the Crystal Keep.  Once she leaves, she cannot come back, and if she looses the key she is doomed to stay in the Keep forever.

Along the way Dara encounters the many inhabitants of the Keep and learns the story behind its creator.  She also has run ins with the Guardian, Lord Vanian.  The Crystal Keep is a place where anything can happen, which Dara soon finds as she learns unexpected things about herself.

I thought the ending of this book was fairly predictable, but it's a quick, entertaining read and I liked the main character, Dara.  All the while I was reading it I was thinking, "Gee, this would make a great campaign idea."

Also good by Anne Logston: Shadow, Dagger's Edge, Dagger's Point, Firewalk
 

• Andre Norton, The Crystal Gryphon
This book is fairly thin, under 200 pages, but it certainly makes good use of those pages.  It's a story told from two different viewpoints, from Lord Kerovan, half human and half Old One, with yellow eyes and cloven hooves, and from Lady Joisan, who is betrothed to Kerovan yet has never met him.

Woven around a background of war, dark magic and the mysterious relics of the Old Ones, Joisan and Kerovan meet, but Kerovan assumes another identity to guide Joisan and her people to safety after her home is sacked.  Sure, there's some nasty demon raising and battles going on, but what you really want to know is if Joisan will figure out that 'Lord Amber' is her betrothed husband, and if she does will she be able to handle the goat's foot package?

Joisan and Kerovan are both engaging, believable characters, and since the story is told from their point of view it's pretty important that you can identify and like them.  Two thumbs up!
 

• Tamora Pierce, Alanna: The First Adventure, In the Hand of the Goddess, The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, Lioness Rampant (Song of the Lioness Quartet)
These books are written for kids, but they are still damn cool!

Alanna switches places with her twin brother, disguises herself as a boy, and trains to be a knight.  The first two books cover her life from age 10 to 18, as she makes friends with Prince Jonathan, the King of Thieves, a cat named Faithful, and an enemy of the powerful sorcerer Duke Roger.  She wins her shield at the end of In the Hand of the Goddess, and the next two books are about her adventures as she wanders the land as a Knight Errant.

Lioness Rampant, I must say, is awesome and will always be one of my very very favorite books.  Alanna is a terrific character.  Don't be shy about going into the juvenile section to find this series - it's worth it.

Also cool by Tamora Pierce: Wild Magic, Wolf-Speaker, Emperor Mage, and The Realms of the Gods (The Immortals series)
 

Things to add:
The Fire Sword, The Sea Sword
That book I loaned to Becca about the housewife
Birth of the Firebringer
Uppity women of Medieval times
Mossflower series
Support your local wizard
Andrew Lang's fairy books