Tom Shippey is a scholar of medieval literature, but he also does modern fantasy and sci-fi, especially the
Lord of the Rings. He is considered one of the leading academics on Tolkien (source: Wikipedia).
I have a book on fiction recommendations suggested by others, along with him. His recommendations are for fantasy. There are a few pages of his reasons for choosing what he chose, but I'll spare you the details. Here is his list of top-twelve fantasy novels:
- C. S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength (1945)
- J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (1954-5)
- T. H. White, The Once and Future King (1958) [I'm making my way through this now.]
- Avram Davidson, The Phoenix and the Mirror (1969)
- Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane (1977)
- Ursula Le Guin, Earthsea Quartet (1968-90)
- Diana Wynne Jones, Fire and Hemlock (1984)
- Michael Shea, In Yana, the Touch of Undying (1985)
- Jack Vance, Lyonesse II: The Green Pearl (1985)
- Lyon Sprague De Camp and Fletcher Pratt, The Intrepid Enchanter (published in the USA as The Complete Compleat Enchanter) (1989)
- Michael Swanwick, The Iron Dragon's Daughter (1993)
- George R. R. Martin, A Game of Thrones (1996)
Source: The Good Fiction Guide (Oxford)
The problem with a lot of fantasy, as with much genre novels, is that they get trashy: description bogs it down, characters are flat or unbelievable, and the overall story is too sweeping or otherwise exaggerated. They lack the nuances of what makes a good novel. Although I haven't read any of these yet (though as I said I'm working on one of them, and it's going quite well), I will make my way through this list eventually.