I'll echo Nixie about Erikon's
Malazan Book of the Fallen. The last book in that series is due out next year. Feist is also good, but after the first 6 or 7 books, he really starts milking Midkemia for anything he can. You might want to check out Katherine Kerr's Deverry books, or Katherine Kurtz's Deryni books. I second The Paladin's recommendation of
The Deed of Paksennarion, though Elizabeth Moon has moved entirely to SF since the Paks trilogy (now in omnibus) and its two prequels.
One should not overlook Guy Gavriel Kay. Easily one of the most lyrical and poetic writers in fantasy, his
Tigana,
The Lions of Al-Rassan, The Sarantine Mosaic, A Song for Arbonne and
Last Light of the Sun are among the most beautiful books that I have ever read, and
Tigana and
The Lions of Al-Rassan in particular were very moving. I did not care for his last book,
Ysabel,nearly as much, and he has one that is forthcoming (the title escapes me at the moment). His fantasy relates very closely to our own world.
The Fionavar Tapestry was his first major publication, and it is a trilogy that explores a lot of fantasy tropes. He did some very important work with Christopher Tolkien on the final stages of JRRT's
The Silmarillion.
For my main recommendation, since you appear to like series that are epic and big, aside from Jordan, there are two other great ongoing and huge epics (by huge I refer to multiple volumes of big, fat, complex books), that happen to be my favourites, are:
1. Janny Wurts'
The Wars of Light and Shadow (starts with
Curse of the Mistwraith), 8 of eleven books published, the ninth is in the last stages of her first draft (likely release late 2010, is my guess). Great series with the best characterization you will find. Like Erikson and Martin, very complex plots. Not as bloody or dark as either Martin or Erikson, but more of a balanced approach. Tragedy and Hope co-exist, as opposed to the at times incredible bleakness of Martin and Erikson. She also does not have the massive number of POVs (points of view from which the author tells the story) that Martin and Erikson tend to have, which makes for a more focussed story (though the multiple POV approach seems to work in Martin and Erikson, less so with Robert Jordan) Before starting this series, I suggest you try her one-shot novel
To Ride Hell's Chasm in order to see if her style is to your liking. She is very favourably reviewed by several reviewers on
Fantasy Literature's Fantasy Book Reviews, with the re-release of her series in North America this past year. This series is my personal favourite of modern fantasy.
2. George R.R. Martin's
A Song of Ice and Fire (starts with
A Game of Thrones). Fantastic series (at the Bran II chapter in AGoT, I knew it was something very, very different, and very, very good), and a huge commerical success. Four of seven books published, but, and it is a big but (Boaz likes big buts), he is a notoriously slow writer, and each successive novel in the series is taking longer to come out (the last one,
A Feast For Crows, was five years ago, and the draft for the fifth novel,
A Dance with Dragons, is still in progress), and Martin himself is notorious for blogging about football (American) games and his gaming activities as opposed to actually writing. He has a lot of side-activities that are making him some serious dough, and
A Game of Thrones is being made into an HBO pilot, so he does not focus on his writing like Erikson does (one novel a year) or Wurts (one novel every second year or so). Martin is certainly no Stephen King. But this series is fantastic. If you are the type that cannot stand waiting, I suggest you wait until the series is done. However, at his current pace, the seven volume series will be finished no earlier than 2020.
There. That's my several cents worth. Whatever you do, stay away from Terry Goodkind's
Sword of Truth. It is hopelessly trite, and one of the worst series that I have ever read six books of (to my shame). The guy has been a huge commercial success due to massive publisher support at the beginning of his series, but there is so much better stuff out there, don't waste your time, unless you like getting hammered over the head with preachy objectivist philosophy and you like straw-men bad guys.
