May he rest in peace...
My favorite so far is George R. R. Martin. He was the first to break the barrier and write non cliche fantasy. His work is absolutely amazing and original. By original I mean he does not copy Tolkien's plot formula nor does he use the good vs. evil theme. Fantasy these days sucks because everyone and their uncle writes the same and gets published for paraphrasing!!! Christopher Paolini should be arrested and fined for blatantly taking so many ideas. In college, if I wrote a story like that, they'd want me to changeit because it's the most obvious case of plagiarism I've ever seen.
Anyway, Martin is my favorite.