Also, Charles Finney’s The Circus of Dr. Lao. Brilliant.
The Garrett P.I. series by Glen Cook. Fantasy and film noir/detective fiction mixed (with a little SF in one volume). 14 books so far.
A big second for Discworld, if you’ve never tried it. It’s massive, varied, complex, rewarding, funny, endlessly entertaining, and densely peopled with characters you will care uncommonly deeply about. I’ve never been emotionally moved as much by pretty much any other author.
The Dresden Files books might be worth a look if you’re interested in something that’s dark-ish but doesn’t push the buttons you don’t like. One the surface, it seems like it should be dark, gritty fantasy, but it’s mostly not. Dresden is a fake antihero – gruff exterior but sweetness underneath. There’s certainly some violence, but it’s not excessive. Very little that couldn’t sneak into a PG-13 movie. The stories rarely inflict arbitrary punishment on sympathetic characters. Pretty easy reading, but some decent world-building, especially as the series goes on and the faerie elements come more to the fore. I’m actually not a huge fan because I prefer darker, grittier, and/or more realistic fiction, but I mention it because, based on the covers, one would probably assume the books are much darker than they are. Really, it’s pretty similar in tone to a show like Angel or Supernatural.
Have you read the 2nd book, “The Wise Man’s Fear”? Very good!
The Name of The Wind is on Kindle for $4.99, a per-word bargain.
StG
Not yet. I mean to, but it’s dauntingly long enough that I’m waiting until I’ll have some time available.
I just had the joy of re-reading Dr. Eszterhazy! Wonderful!
I’d never heard of the Vergil Magus series; I’ll get right on it! Thank you!
jsgoddess: Have you had the joy of reading Murder and Magic by Randall Garrett? Okay, yeah, stories, not a novel, although it sets you up for the novel Too Many Magicians. When Garrett passed away, Michael Kurland received the rights, and wrote Ten Little Wizards and A Study in Sorcery, which are quite good. They aren’t absolutely up to Garrett’s standards – who the heck is? – but they work very well.
Yay! They’re all available directly from Baen in a variety of formats, including Kindle.
Except Dresden himself, who seems always to be nursing physical injuries. For all his power, he does not appear to know any healing spells.
I’m going to be looking many of these up myself, because it sounds like we like a similar style of fantasy.
If you don’t mind slipping into Young Adult, there’s a great little series from Megan Whalen Turner called The Queen’s Thief. Four books with complex, but likable characters, strong female figures, good plot lines with twits that aren’t cliche, and a good fantasy setting. I enjoy them thoroughly. It doesn’t feel that YA. There’s no love triangles anywhere, some angst but well deserved and short lived (with characters telling the angsty one to get over themselves). The plot even involves some political machinations that are more complex than I would expect in a YA book.
This thread has been an interesting mix of books I’ve been meaning to try, new books, books I kinda hated, and books I loved. I consider that a win!
silenus, sorry for skipping your suggestion earlier. I’m putting it ON THE LIST!
I’ve read Tolkien. I’ve read Dresden (actually, I haven’t read the latest because I’m a little tired of the “Let’s ramp up the powers and the misery for this character in a never-ending escalation”). And I’ve read some Discworld. I don’t tend to be a huge fan of humorous books. That always strikes people as strange, but it’s true. I have to be in exactly the right mood to read them.
I have Three Parts Dead on hold at the library.
Those are the ones I had an immediate reaction to. I’ll happily check out the others.
ETA: I’ve read the Megan Whalen Turner books, too. I read a lot! 
The Guardians of the Flame series might fit your criteria. It has much better characterization than most fantasy, heroically intentioned but realistically empowered protagonists.
To an almost comical degree, sometimes. I’m not quite caught up on the series, but I wouldn’t be surprised one bit if one of the later books features Harry fighting vampires while in a full-body cast.
If you like The Far Kingdoms after reading, be aware that there are two more books in the main sequence and a side trilogy on the same world. That should keep you busy for awhile.
Review comment on the first sequel: “What might have been a standard nautical fantasy patterned on the Odyssey reveals itself to be a charmingly subversive lesbian feminist romp about a group of women warriors who battle wizards, demons, pirates and sexism on land and at sea.”
It’s only a Novella but The Man Who Bridged the Mists by Kij Johnson is one of the most satisfying fantasies I’ve read recently.
You can download it free from Kij Johnson’s website: http://www.kijjohnson.com/read.html#shortstory
Have a look at The Iron Druid series by Kevin Hearne.
Hounded is the first in the series. Fun books and the main character’s wolfhound Oberon is extremely funny at times.
Strongly seconded. Along with the sequel series “A Handful Of Men”
Also Lawrence Hardy’s “Master of the Five Magics” is good (There are two sequels, each progressively less good, but still decent)
The Belgariad series by Eddings is fun–he basically sticks thinly disguised versions of every major character into a big ol’ plot-coupon quest novel. So…if you’ve ever wondered what it would be like if Mary Poppins (the book version, not the Disney version) met Lancelot, Fahfard and the Grey Mouser, etc, this is for you. It’s not great literature…it’s pleasant, fun fluff. But it’s unabashedly good fluff.
I’m a big fan of his Black Company series (which, given the OP’s criteria, is right out as a “recommend” for fantasy material), but the Garrett series didn’t pique my interest the one time I tried it; but that was almost two decades ago, so I might give it another go.
Absolutely try Jack Vance, who wrote a ton of books in both fantasy and science fiction. Start with the Lyonesse Trilogy: Suldrun’s Garden, The Green Pearl, and Madouc. It’s an amazingly dense and complex plot set on the “Elder Isles”, supposedly existing in the mid-Atlantic in medieval times. Lots of strange interactions between human characters who inhabit the seacoasts and the fairy tale-type beings in the center of the main island. Also hilarious comedy. I love it.
How about the Darkover series by Marion Zimmer Bradley? 
More seriously, though - how do you feel about mixed fantasy/alternate history? Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series about Napoleonic-era dragons is quite nice.
Janny Wurts’s and Raymond Feist’s Empire series (a spin-off from Feist’s Riftwar series) was quite nice.
Smart aleck! 
I’ve read the Novik, Hearne, and Butcher books, tried Jack Vance, Eddings, and Rosenberg.
Not really a fan of the latter three. I thought Guardians of the Flame was one of the worst books I’ve ever read, which isn’t a slight on wolfman for suggesting it (it’s hard work suggesting books for people, and I appreciate all efforts!), but just another data point.