The Inheritance Cycle

I'll start with a basic piece of fiction--The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini. 
      This is a four part series about a fictional country, Agalasia, in a fictional world.  There are elves, dragons, dwarves, humans, 'urgals' (brutes akin to trolls and the like), and a combined race of humans, elves, and dragons known as 'dragon riders' (humans and elves who ride dragons).  If it was a historical fiction piece the setting would be the middle ages.
      Agalasia is being ruled by an evil dragon rider who is supposed to be the only one who can use magic, but a rebellion has been growing.  Our young hero finds himself in possesion of an illegal dragon, the power, and duty, to defeat the evil king, and the influence of a thousand coffers of gold. Aided by an old man, an outlaw, the leader of the rebels, the princess of the elves, the king of dwarves, an herbalist who might be insane, his cousin, and his dragon Eragon holds the fate of the realm in his hand.
      
It is basically a less complicated version of the Lord of the Rings.  No, there is only one ring, but with the vast quantity of magical swords, lances, and belts you have to keep track of it doesn't really make much of a difference.  At least with the rings several had the same purpose and only one had a specific name. If you read these books be prepared to have to put up with names such as 'The Belt of Beloth the Wise' and 'Zar'roc.' But, to continue my comparison, Urgals are the Orcs replacement, and instead of sightless beasts on horses you have the Ra'zac riding on letherblanka -- duck-like things riding on other duck-like things.
        Thankfully, though, you can get past the complicated and similar names to some degree.  And though the covers aren't stuffed full of action when you do get sword- and fist- fights they are coherant and are there for a reason.  Another bonus for those unwilling to suspend their disbelief is that the 'magic' in this books comes with a well defined limit.  So, while you might see hovering rocks those rocks aren't going to sprout wings and fly away. 
        The books in this series are as follows:  Eragon, Eldest, Brisinger, Inheritance.  Please, do yourself a favor and do not read them out of order.  The latter three have a preface of what happened in the previous three, but in my opinion, they just confuse you even more. 

The books' website--they have a few games on here and some trivia stuff.  http://www.alagaesia.com/