Gee, you'd think I'd have opinions on the question, but I really don't know. Where's the person coming from? Are they likely to enjoy sword and sorcery or weird faerie magic?

Some early fantasies for me: Tolkien, Prydain, Blue Sword which lots of girls like though anima and I both found it forgettable, Monkey/Journey to the West. Mercedes Lackey is popular for some though I've never read her. I count Pern as ScF but some would disagree; anyway, I enjoyed Dragonsinger et al. _Damiano_ by MacAvoy -- actually I started with _Raphael_ and picked up the books because of the names.