I'm an avid fantasy reader. I read a lot of fantasy, sci-fi, classic lit, and some non-fiction sciency/space stuff.

I'd give my vote to Dragon Lance, Dragons of Autumn Twilight. From 1,000 feet it looks like your standard "band of unlikely heroes assembles", evil rises in the lands once more, and they embark on a quest to save the world. All of the standard fantasy cliches are there, and from the sound of it and even having read it I feel like I should not love it as much as I do... but I do!

The visuals spelled out are beautiful, the character development is wonderful (It's the first book in what's technically a 4 book series), and it's actually a very well told story, and written in a very drawing way, to the point where it's even a little jaw-dropping at times. It's just a really fun adventure. Read it first when I was 14, read it just a year ago at 31, and many different times in between. It's a really solid read, but normally doesn't make too many "fantasy lists". But it definitely is "The Great Fantasy" novel because it hits all those right cliches and fantasy canon, but it's just extremely well finished.