Fantasy addicts looking for their next fix of sword and sorcery should check out Robert Jordon's modern classic The Eye of the World.

Published in 1990, the novel is the first in a saga called The Wheel of Time. It opens in the tiny village of Edmond's Field, where stubborn shepherds raise sheep and equally strong-willed farmers wrestle with their crops. It's been a hard year for the Edmond's Fielders -- the winter was long and grueling, and spring couldn't kill it.