Robin Hobb - Assassin series, Mad Ship series
C.S. Freidman - Coldfire trilogy
both these series have very realistic character development, something often missing in modern fantasy. it's for that same reason that i dis-recommend the dragonlance/D&D derivative novels (not to piss off those who recommended them
) i feel that it's much more involving to read about a world and characters who seem like they were generated by rolls of dice and a book of fantasy standards.