I'm talking like proper ass pulp shit with some Frank Frazetta ass shit on the cover, like a big Barbarian dude throwing an axe at a sorcerer with a pet giant snake.
I've never actually read any of that stuff but I'm curious what that genres Citizen Kane is.
Bard, by some australian dude
The Drenai Saga, which is just Conan with 3% less racism
Fafrd and the Grey Mouser, which I haven't read but is apparently a classic and/or satire of the genre
The Books of the New Sun by Gene Wolf
The Dying Earth series by Jack Vance.
Most everything in the genre is full of content warning stuff, so exercise caution. There's probably recent writing that's better but I stopped learning new things in 1978.
You're not kidding, suggesting an older fantasy novel sometimes requires a CW list longer than the book itself.
I recently, in the last year, got into Tanith Lee, and read the first three of her Tales from Flat Earth novels.
She was writing in the '70s, and in some ways the books feel much more forward-thinking than you would expect from something that old. There are strong female protagonists, characters of a variety of ethnicities (well, the first book notwithstanding), several prominent LGBT characters including the hero of the second book who is gender fluid. At the same time I'd probably list the top ten CWs I could think of if I tried to recommend the books and still miss something notable.
Hey I've actually read that one!
Now that I think of it, it was a lot hornier than i initially recalled
It was probably not appropriate for my parents to let me read Litany of the Long Sun and encounter Hyacinth at age 7
yeah Dying Earth is key
I love the Book of the New Sun, but goofy pulp fantasy it is not