I wasted my youth not reading this beautiful series by Ursula K. LeGuin and I thought it deserved to be the first post here. Having read so much fantasy over the years, I can see so much of it in the books that have come out more recently. It’s the type of book that is written so that every single word has a purpose, and doesn’t languish in one place or another. I highly recommend the audiobook version as well.
This is my all time favourite series. I read the original trilogy back in the early 80s. The relatively recent illustrated hardback is amazing, and includes a couple of short stories that were very hard to find.