The Malazan Book of the Fallen, by Steven Erikson. Ten-brick fantasy series, and the pinnacle of the genre as far as I'm concerned. If you multiplied The Black Company by ASOIAF, you'd be in the right general area. Anyone taken the journey?
Yay! Disclaimers: * Trigger warning: everything. War is not nice. * The prose is very dense and meaty - not so much a popcorn read as a head-sized-brick-of-salami read. You'll need a bit of momentum and headspace. * No infodumps anywhere. Some things will make sense later, others much later. * Emotional fucking rollercoaster. Joy and anguish in equal measure, plus laughing like a goddamn hyena when you least expect it. Given all the above, it's a hell of a sword and sorcery epic, filled with Barney Stinson levels of awesome. While simultaneously being a passionate diatribe against the human condition and a paean to compassion. The first volume can take a couple of attempts to finish, but a little way into the second you won't be able to put it down.
