you could give trudy canavan's "black magician" series a try
Magician’s Apprentice (prequel) -> Black Magician Trilogy -> Traitor Spy Trilogy (sequel)
and you definitely want to read Leibers "Fafhrd & Grey Mouser" books being THE pillars of "sword and sorcery" as a fantasy subgenere
the latter ones are even avail as a nice
drm-free ebook bundle:
http://www.webscription.net/p-1213-f...ollection.aspx