The wait

[Ravenshire]

I wouldn't say there are any that should necessarily be avoided (almost everything Feist has written is a part of his Riftwar Cycle meta-series and that's like two dozen books). I would start with Magician (it is often sold in paperback split into two books, Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master). If you found Jordan derivative, you should be forewarned that these books start out even more adherent to fantasy conventions and don't tend to stray terribly far.

I'll look up some Feist. My eBook makes finding new stuff sooooo much easier!

If Jordan had contented himself with sticking to conventions, he'd have been a much better writer. It was the constant "King Arthur Legend vs. Tolkien's Orcs" theme he had going on that made me think he was too derivative.

If that doesn't interest you, he and Janny Wurts co-authored the Empire Trilogy, which focuses on political intrigue amongst the initial antagonists of the Riftwar books. They are related to the main series and reference it on occasion, but for the most part, you can enjoy them on their own, and they are a lot less reliant on standard fantasy tropes. It's basically a lighter, softer Game of Thrones.

This sounds very good!

If I was to give Sanderson a try on his own merits, where would you suggest I begin?

Tough call! "Elantris" is the first of his I ever read. Straight up fantasy with epic world building. Then I found the "Mistborn" trilogy. Note: "The Alloy of Law" is a Mistborn book, but not part of the series. I comes much later. Either of these would be good starting points. If you like YA fiction, the "Alcatraz" books are quite good. For epic fantasy, go with "The Stormlight Archives." These are truly epic tales both in style and in scope. The first two in the series are both 1000+ page monsters but well paced and very good reads. If you like super-hero fiction, his "Reckoners" series would be a good starting place. The world has seen the rise of supers (which Sanderson calls "Epics") but it's not all sunshine and rainbows. There are only super-villians. No super-heros. Only the Reckoners. It starts with "Steelheart" and the second, "Firefight," is due out this fall.

Now that I've recommended damn near everything he's written as a good place to start, I guess I'll just have to say "There's no bad place to start."