Jacqueline Carey's two "The Sundering" books are pretty compelling since it's classic epic fantasy, but it's written almost entirely from the point of view of the 'bad guys'. Her Kushiel trilogy is pretty fine too.
I now prefer authors that write fantasy sagas of at most two or three books. An author like Guy Gavriel Kay uses as much political intrigue, epic struggle, romances & character introspection as any of the multivolume writers but he manages to masterfully fit it all in one book. Oh, and really bad things usually happen to the main characters too.
Sci fi: I found Dan Simmons' "Hyperion" very enjoyable. More recently he wrote "Ilium" & "Olympos" which is pretty unique as it mixes sci fi & the Troyan war of Greek Mythology.