Steven Erikson's
Malazan Book of the Fallen series. Best I've read in a long, long, long, long, long time. Maybe ever. Massive scope, superlative writing style, great characterization and an amazingly complex world history.
It's not available in the US yet, but order it (first four books out in the UK/Canada) online, you won't be disappointed. Each book runs about a thousand pages, and you will not be able to stop reading until it's done!
God I can't wait for book five........
EDIT: The day I post this I get an e-mail from Amazon to tell me they've shipped it. Yay!