David Eddings: When it comes to fantasy, I started with J.R.R. Tolkein's Middle Earth and C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia but despite a brief flirtation with Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain, the world of The Belgariad is what made me fall in love with the genre. What makes The Belgariad so good? If I had to put my finger on it, I'd say it's more grounded and it's characters delightfully human- with vices and virtues alike. You can't really beat The Belgariad, I don't think. It's successor series, The Mallorean is good, but doesn't match the original.
Eddings wrote a lot of other stuff as well, two more fantasy trilogies The Elenium and The Tamuli (both of which are excellent as well) but if there's a mark against Eddings, it's that you can move through these wonderful fantasy epics and enjoy them, but they're all a bit similar, plot-wise and even character wise sometimes if you're totally honest about it. He's a lot like Aaron Sorkin in that way... his writing is excellent and you can enjoy watching his television shows, but at the end of the day, they're all a little similar. One striking exception to that is a stand alone fantasy novel that he wrote later in his career, The Redemption of Althalus.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Of course, I've read One Hundred Years Of Solitude. Of course, I've read Love In The Time Of Cholera... but the book that really imploded my mind, one that I think everyone should buckle their seatbelts, sit down and read is Autumn of The Patriarch. Don't get me wrong: this is not an easy read, but if you push through it to the end, it's absolutely stunning. The story of a dictator in his last, dying dies, Autumn of The Patriarch is written in one long stream of consciousness, shifting seamlessly from one character to another. It about drove me up the wall the first time I tried to read it (yes, it took me a couple of times) but if you persevere, the scope and power of Marquez's narrative is breathtaking. This was one of the most challenging books I've ever read but also one of the most worthwhile.
Terry Pratchett: I don't think you can really describe Terry Pratchett in one word very well. His stuff is fantasy, satire, parody, drama, comedy and tragedy all rolled into one. Don't take fantasy seriously as a genre? This guy busts boundaries and elevates fantasy to great, excellent literature. You know the old saw about how science fiction is at it's best when it's saying something about the world we live in today? Pratchett and his Discworld are a lot like that. The thing with the Discworld series though, is that it's not so much one, overarching series, but several different series that can interact with each other from time to time. It's closing in on 40 novels at this point, so again, hard to recommend just one, but I'll try: I'd say, Wyrd Sisters, Night Watch and probably Maskerade rank as some of the best. But really, they're all good. This is a universe worth getting lost in. So what are you waiting for?
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