Love the PERN books too & Carmody

I love my (soft)sci-fi/fantasy - try David Eddings, Tamora Pierce (teen fantasy section of bookstores usually), Mercedes Lackey (Valdemar series / Dragon Jousters series particularly)...

I'll be back later with more if needed (I really should be doing some marking). These are just off the top of my head (I have far too many of these genre books in my bookcases