Dread Lörd Kaolian wrote:
are we doing sci fi reccomendations too? I have a whole fleet of those as well...
Well, Dune was in the op's post, so SF was slightly implied, no?
Fantasywise, I'ld like to add Jack Vance as a suggestion. The Lyonesse trilogy is (for me anyway) Vance at his best. As with more of his stories, the ending is rushed, but everything before that is most enjoyable. It's more in line with your examples than his older (and perhaps more popular): 'Tales of a Dying Earth'.
'Sovereign Stone' trilogy by Weiss & Hickman. My personal favourite of theirs. The first part reads as a fairly standard and cliché story, but it's done well and remains interesting. It really picks up at book two.
'The Birthgrave' trilogy by Tanith Lee. Dark stuff though, not sure if she's ever written anything 'happy'. (mostly good books though, don't get me wrong, but often pretty depressing)
I can't advice any series longer than a trilogy myself that haven't been mentioned already (definitely Discworld, the first fifteen books or so are brilliant), I tend to lose interest after the third or fourth book. (Jordan and Martin for instance)