Personally, I love (most of) Robin Hobb's books because of her superb storytelling and the books' huge "awwww-ing potential". I can see that the slowish everyday life and emotional zigzag of the main character could annoy somebody but I like it - maybe because I feel for the main character and can sympathise with him. Maybe it's an age thing? I first read the books as a teenager and I have had a soft spot for them ever since although I don't relate with Fitz so much anymore. I also like the way Hobb picks the most ridiculous clichés and turns them into something captivating, and I find the characters very likable. Some of them seem a little flat, yes, but I'm blaming it on the narrator's subjectivity as it's just the main character speaking. Maybe that's one more reason I like the Farseer series and the subsequent Tawny Man trilogy so much - they have a likeable and complicated enough first person narrator which is (a little sadly) quite rare in epic fantasy.
Nerwen and others - if you're bored of fantasy literature just recycling the same old ideas, I would suggest authors like Neil Gaiman and China Miéville, or maybe even the crazy Hal Duncan. None of it is traditional "high fantasy" though.
Last year I didn't read maybe as much fantasy as I normally do, but I did for example finally read some stuff I had been meaning to read for years, such as Lord Dunsany's
King of the Elf-land's Daughter, Frank Herbert's
Dune (which I would classify as science fiction, though) and
The Princess Bride by S. Morgenstern/ William Goldman. They were all definitely worth reading, but had their weak points too. I also acquainted myself with aforementioned China Miéville and Kage Baker, a humoristic fantasy author, whose style left me a little confused. Of course, I also read more of one of my definite favourites, Guy Gavriel Kay, and was amazed again (just how can someone write in such a beautiful and epic manner?), and reread George R.R. Martin's
A Song of Ice and Fire series. He's now been promoted to be included in the list of my favourite authors.
Lastly, I read two collections of "short" stories by supposed masters of the fantasy genre, named
Legends and
Legends II and edited by Robert Silverberg. Based on what I read there, I'd like to ask a question: are Orson Scott Card and Terry Goodkind worth a closer acquaintance? I quite liked their stories in these collections.