Thanks for the many suggestions everyone! I'll go check how many of those we have when I get to work this afternoon, but it should certainly be enough to build a nice display out of.

Specifically the second book, 'Slaves of the Mastery', would be the one I'd put on display. That thing blew me away as a young adult. It's definitely one of the best modern novels for that genre.

I cannot recommend this series hard enough. It is simply phenomenal.

They used to be pretty popular back in the day (the books I have are relics of of my mom's childhood) and are a must-read for anyone who's a fan of satire, wordplay, and puns. Especially puns. One of my favorite books in the series is called Isle of View. (Don't get it? Say it out loud.)

I wouldn't be surprised if you haven't heard of it. But it's pretty good, a bit on the hard side of sci-fi, but it could qualify for young adult reading.

George Martin's Song of Fire and Ice It is a bit more mature, but it is one of the defining series for contemporary fantasy

But now a list of all possibilities

1. Issac Asimov, I, Robot is probably a good place to start.

2. HG Wells, War of the Worlds

3. Bernard Cornwell, The Warlord Chronicles one of the best examples of Historical Fantasy. Also in my opinion one of the best King Arthur Stories out there

4. Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park

5. Christopher Paolini, Inheritance Cycle Now, hear me out on this one. It is by no means perfect, but for a younger audience, it is a good entry point into the classical Sword and Sorcery Fantasy Novel

6. George Orwell, 1984

7. Haruki Murakami, 1Q84 Alternate Reality, overall entertaining read.

8. Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 Distopian Future Fiction. One of the all time classics.

9. Frank Peretti, Ted Dekker House: The Only Way Out is In Unique fantasy horror novel. Easy read, maybe keep a way from the kiddies.

10. Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

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Some others

1. Gregory Maguire, Wicked, Revisionist story of the Wizard of Oz

2. Andrzej Sapkowski, The Last Wish, Adult Oriented Sword and Sorcery Fantasy novel. The Witcher series provides the base for the game series of the same name.

3. Timothy Zahn, The Thrawn Trilogy , quite possibly the best Star Wars EU material out there. Well written, entertaining, if you like Star Wars, this series is a must.

The Ranger's Apprentice by John Flanagan
Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan (obviously)
The Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz
A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (obviously)
The Artemis Fowl series by Eion Colfer
Divergent by Veronica Roth (obviously)

That's all I have for now.

Hmm, well

Nesh mentioned Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, which I highly recommend, but I also suggest his Codex Alera series! It's very good.

Hmm, Ursula LeGuin is also excellent - The Left Hand of Darkness, the Earthsea books, that sort of thing.

Oh! I also like Max Gladstone's Craft Sequence (Three Parts Dead, Two Serpents Rise, and Full Fathom Five), which is a book series about magic and necromancy. The primary plot-starter of the first book 'the economic crash if instead of banks and money it was gods and magic.' The worldbuilding is quite good, the characters are very varied, and it's fun to read!

Rosemary Sutcliff, if you can find her. I don't know whether historical fiction falls under your broad 'fantasy' remit, but I do know that The Eagle of the Ninth is classed as a YA book. I'd recommend that, plus Sword at Sunset, a realistic Arthurian story.

Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series. Modern urban fantasy with a similar sense of humour to the PPC. ;)

I'd also recommend anything by Ken Macleod; the best standalone is probably Learning the World. He writes near-future scifi with a tendency towards Scotland and socialism; The Star Fraction was the first one I read, and it's stuck with me ever since. In fact, if you read it, you might run across a certain little-marked denizen of HQ...

I would also heartily second... virtually all of Neshomeh's recommendations. ;) Especially Tolkien, McCaffrey, and Young Wizards.

hS

Well, just off the top of my head...

- J.R.R. Tolkien (of course)

- J.K. Rowling (duh)

- C.S. Lewis (obviously)

- Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series

- Diane Duane's Young Wizards series

- Madeleine L'Engle, especially the Wrinkle in Time series

- Anne McCaffrey, esp. the Dragonriders of Pern and Freedom's Landing seriesesesez

- Charles de Lint, lovely urban fantasy

- Sherri S. Tepper, hard to define, always amazing

- Neal Stephenson, cyberpunk

- Isaac Asimov, esp. the Foundation series and anything to do with robots

- Greg Bear, esp. Darwin's Radio but really anything with his name on it

- Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land (a classic)

- Naomi Novik's Temeraire series (the Napoleonic wars, but with dragons)

... And if you get through all that and what everyone else comes up with, I'm sure I can think of some more. {= )

~Neshomeh

The ultimate classic sci-fi writer par excellence. I recommend 20000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Mysterious Island (it is critical that they be read in that order), and Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Bonus points if you can read the original French; the translations I've seen don't do justice to Verne's work.

Also featuring his fabulous beard and kind grandfatherly face: