Song of Ice and Fire (aka Game of Thrones) by George R.R. Martin
So I ended up reading the 5,000 or so pages that make up these five books within a couple of months last Summer. I didn't want to read them. I thought I already knew everything that could be done with Fantasy. At first I mockingly read the dialogue out loud to a friend, in a Frodo/Brit accent, and was pretty sure there was no way I'd read beyond the first chapter of the first book (Game of Thrones). But three things kept me going:
1) Each chapter is only around 20-some pages long, and each chapter is told from a different person's viewpoint. And there are over 30 people from whose viewpoint the story is told...so the effect is that every few pages you're done with one bit and moving on to another.
2) The "Good" and "Bad" characters start dying right away. And they keep dying. Yes, Baddies die in Epic Fantasy, but usually not till The End, and Good Guys never die. You definitely don't expect the Main, Primary, Protagonistic folks to be fair game on any given page. In these books, swords or horses or choking on your own vomit kills everyone--Good, Bad, Main, whatever and wherever. A little way into these books you realize that Nobody Is Safe, and the resultant Suspense is extremely fun.
3) These are not Fantasy For Children books. The F-word is used often. The C-word maybe moreso. Violence is graphic and sex is explicit and constant.
I am now in the boat that everyone who started reading these books 15+ years ago has been in: waiting for the next one to come out. There are two left to be written. I am Pessimistic about their ever being done. Why? Because George R. R. Martin is old. And obese. And it took him 6 years to write the last one. And a friend of mine has pics of him hanging out with her at random fan meetups circa 2007...yes, I'm happy he meets up with his fans in their apartments, and yes, I'm jealous of her. But I'm not happy that he's doing anything but finishing the series. Please don't let him smoke your pot. Please don't feed him alcohol. The man should not be exposed to second-hand cigarette smoke, bacon, or real butter until he's finished the goddamn series.
These books gave me a new appreciation for Dark/Middle Ages history. Hence, I recently watched and loved Elizabeth. And I have started listening to and loving BBC History Magazine podcasts such as this one about Queen Matilda.