Originally Posted by Drunken Chicken
We need to know what sort of riding it's for.
Come on guys. Do we really need to know where and how he's going to be using this? I mean he's new to mountain biking. I doubt highly that he's going to go hucking or freeriding or downhilling. Probably doesn't even know what those are. (No offense if you do dave197878.) Have we become such a facture sport that we can't recommend a bike to a newbie?
Okay Dave197878, here's the skinny. Lurk here for a while and read what people have to say about bikes. The suggestion to go over to MTBR is a good one but take what you read there with a grain of salt. Some of the info is good, some not so good. In the $1000 to $1500 range you are looking at either really good hard tails or mediocre dual suspensions. I do ride Specialized mountain bikes but I have other brands in my garage for my wife and kids.
Look at these lines (In no particular order):
Specialized
Jamis
Cannondale
Trek
Fisher
Giant
Rocky Mountain
I didn't list models because there are so many to chose from. But for any given price point all of the models are going to be similar with minor variations. For instance a Stumpjumper at $1300 is going to be about the same as a Trek 8000. Both are good bikes and they will have about the same component mix.
A dual suspension bike will cost more, weigh more and have a lower component mix than a hard tail. It will also be more forgiving on trails but harder to ride on roads. If you are getting a bike just to begin mountain biking and you don't have a road bike, I'd suggest a hard tail. It's a nice bike for just riding around and it will work well for off-road.
Go pour over the catalogs and have fun. Test ride everything you can get your hands on.
Hope this helps