Need a Book Group Book - Sci-Fi/Fantasy?!

Ooh, Ann's suggestion is very good. Magician is definitely traditionalist, without being Tolkein. And it stands alone. Read that. It's quite long, but a good example of "pure" fantasy without being forumlaic. Amd I think there's not a lot of "traditioal" fantasy that does stand alone, it tends to need the full set.

I love Jasper Fforde too - Ann, what else do you like? We seem to have similar tastes? I tend to go back to Eddings for light fantasy when I want the fantasy equivalent of a trashy romance novel... and love all Wyndham (which I would class as sci fi, not fantasy). Patricia Briggs - the Mercey Thomson series - is a relatively new urban fantasy series I've been enjoying and quite like some of Kelley Armstrong (some of them irritate me and the random sex scenes add no value in my opinion). Just finished the Abhorsen series and enjoyed it - the first book was the worst though which was weird.

Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavare trilogy is very good, and for fantasy quite short!

for slightly different fantasy you could try Feist's magician (it is close to traditional, but I enjoyed it) or slightly bizarre try Jasper Fforde. Agree about Abhorsen trilogy as well. i personally love Erikson's Malazan book of the Fallen series, but that's quite hardcore, even if it is original and well written.
i definitely would not recommend Modesitt YIKES his stuff is bad.

S Tepper - Grass (she writes sci/fi and fantasy this is more sci/fi)
Banks - Player of Games - brill...
Le Guin - Left Hand of Darkness or her Earthsea stuff
Richard Morgan - Altered Carbon (quite hardcore sci/fi)
Philip K Dick - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Blade Runner)
Tom Holt - expecting Someone Taller (very funny)

Could go on....

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson is very good, and its a one off, not part of a series so you can find closure and discuss the end properly.

Robin McKinley wrote two books that for fantasy are quite short, but both remain great favourites with me; The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword.

Another single volume is JV Jones' The Barbed Coil.

Sheri Tepper writes amazing far-seeing feminist fiction.

Gibbons Decline and Fall

Family tree

Mmmm. Peroni - yum. Am just about to crack open the Pimms.

Duchess - I love your descriptions! 'Full-on robed affair' - great!

By him? By Holt was what i meant

I would say go with a comic one then.

My mum enjoyed The Portable Door by him, and she doesn't do things like that. Think she enjoyed Open Sesame too.

The second Eragon one went much quicker, the first was a slog.

Sabriel I loved though (well, I loved the set - Abhorsen was the best of the 3, but seems mean suggesting the third in a trilogy )

EragOn even.

Pullman good. I didn't like Sabriel or Eragin at all!

Sunshine was good in the urban vampire type thing.

Or you could go for an easy read child type fantasy like Eragon (if you have seen the film, then be assured, it seems to just share the title ), or Spooks books.

ooh or Sabriel - that is fabulous. Read Sabriel.

How about some Ursula Le Guin - contemporary feminist. The Dispossed is interesting...

Or you could go with wonderful Phillip Pullman if everyone hasn't already read it?

Well you get the pure type fantasy all wizards and magic and stuff - lots of quests and fire wood, or there is the more urban fantasy, or comic fantasy.

Pratchett and Holt would be your comic kind.

Tolkien, Robin Hobb etc the more pure kind.

Modern vampires in the big city etc would be the urban kind.

Yes, Chrysalids very good, and very readable too; although all of Wyndham is a little dated now (in terms of gender dynamics and so on).

Other suggestions: "The Sparrow", Mary Doria Russell - a wonderful book, much enjoyed by lots of people who don't otherwise like sci-fi stuff, though quite long.

I love Banks but a lot of his sci-fi novels are quite hard-core - very dense and long (though amazing!). A good one to start with would be "The Player of Games" which is quite short and more accessible than some of the others.

I don't read much fantasy, but I really enjoyed Diana Wynne Jones' adult books - there are two I think, one's called "A Sudden Wild Magic".

I find Pratchett v. irritating, but he is loved by millions so would probably be a safe bet too.

For something completely random you could go with Tom Holt - Open Sesame is all about fairy tale world and real world combining. A tooth fairy named Fang... what is there not to like?

Chrysalids or Midwich Cuckoos good too. Handmaid's tale also good!

I would go for a classic, such as War Of Tne Worlds or Day Of The Triffids, or some good modern fantasy (ie not the really badly written, totally plot driven stuff that is all around) such as Neil Gaiman or one of Pratchett's better ones - eg Reaper Man.

If going for Wyndham I would say choose The Chrysalids. Much prefer it to triffids.