Marion Zimmer Bradley

The Mists of Avalon is one of my favorite books, and the books from which my "handle" came. Mists is the Autherian legend from a female perspective, focusing upon Avalon, the lost, magical isle. Mists begins with Morgaine and Arthur's mother, Igraine and Vivane, the Lady of the Lake, and follows the legends through the eyes of these women, and those that follow. But primarily, the novel focuses upon Morgaine, or more traditionally, Morgan la Fey, sister of Arthur and her rise to Mistress of Avalon, paralleling her brother's rise to the throne.

I also really liked The Firebrand, which is the fall of Troy from the point of view of Cassandra.

I also highly recommend her Sword and Sorceress anthologies, if you can find them. After MZB's death, I was pleasantly surprised to find a new volume on the shelves. These anthologies focus upon fantasy short stories with strong females characters, but as MZB insisted, no rape and revenge stories (she make a couple of memorable exceptions, one being the story that started Mercedes Lackey's Tamra and Kethry series.) If you enjoy short stories, I would highly recommend any of the books in this series.

Books by Marion Zimmer Bradley:

The Mists of Avalon (1982), The Firebrand (1987), The Fall of Atlantis (1987), Sword and Sorceress (Yearly anthology), Marion Zimmer Bradley Fantasy Magazine (after the death of MZB this has ceased publication), Lythande (from the Thieves' World series)
The Darkover Series: Sword of Aldones & The Planet Savers, The Bloody Sun, Star of Danger, The Winds of Darkover, The World Wreckers, Heritage of Hastur, The Shattered Chain, Stormqueen!, The Forbidden Tower, Two to Conquer, Thenedra House, City of Sorcery, Free Amazons of Darkover, The Heirs of Hammerfell, Renunciates of Darkover, Towers of Darkover (Michael likes these, but they are too Science Fiction-y for me)