Some fantasy books (stand-alone or first books in series) that you should read when you feel you're fed up with the typical sword & sorcery stuff set in a medieval based world.

From the post-apocalyptic Earth's of Prince of Thorns and Wolf in Shadow to the gunpowder age of Promise of Blood via the near-contemporary analogue Jade City and the ever evolving world of the Mistborn saga, you'll also find fantastical imaginings of our own world in the past and the present when you meet Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and Chicago's Wizard PI Harry Dresden.

These are ten books that prove that fantasy is more than The Lord of the Rings template. 

This challenge was originally published by me under the same title to the website List Challenges.