I’m new to the fantasy community, but I’m glad to see it here on Lemmy as well! I would say my favorite novel/series so far has been Mistborn, but it’s kind of the only one I’ve read so far (although it was fantastic). I’d like to gauge all of your responses too!
Wheel of Time is by far my favorite book series.
Since the series takes place over so many books, character growth is fantastically more organic than typical. Characters change as people and grow (or shrink) in power and it just works so much better than in a shorter series. The foreshadowing the best done in any story I’ve experienced yet: there’s so many little details hidden away, little winks or nods to people that know are just buried everywhere. It’s the only book series that I liked more on a re-read than on my first read; I liked read #3 more than the one before it, and the 4th (and most recent) was my favorite yet…
It’s not without it’s flaws, many of which I (and most fans) will acknowledge. But damn if it’s not my favorite by a mile.
I don’t know what your “reading stamina” is but if you can handle a lot of books and a lot of words, it’s not a bad series for newer readers. The early books take care to ease the reader into the setting and even fantasy books in general. Book 1 in particular is written to intentionally evocative of LOTR before letting the series fully become it’s own thing shortly afterwards. Sanderson was heavily influenced by WoT as well, and Mistborn is the book that got him the job of finishing WoT after RJ’s premature death.