Tamora Pierce is great. She's still one of my guilty pleasures. Pratchett I didn't discover until later, and to be honest I think I get his sense of humour better now than I would have done when I was younger.

I'm not sure about Polgara. On one hand, it was great to see a female powerful character, and I liked the early scenes where she's a rebellious teenager but then it all goes wrong and she becomes this stereotypical mothering character who has her occasional strops. I found the attitude of 'let the little lady have her quirks, she's not a tough man rarr' annoying.