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Here is a partial list off the top of my head.
As someone else said, Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry (although would not necessarily be at the top of my list). His later stuff is not bad either, but could be considered more historical perhaps.
Barbara Hambly seems to be more focused on mysteries now, but wrote several pretty good fantasy series awhile back.
Tad Williams wrote an earlier series: Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. Quite epic. If you like Eddings, you would probably like this. Although it lacks the humor often present in Eddings. btw, I agree with your take on Eddings, but that didn't stop me from reading the Belgariad and the Malloreon series numerous times when I was younger.
The Malazan novels are lengthy and will take up a good portion of your time to finish. I quite liked them, but some people find them too long, too talky, etc.
E. L. Modesitt: The "Recluse" series and the "Corean Chronicles." Currently working on the "Imager" series, but is incomplete. The "Recluse" series is quite long. Many can be read as standalone novels.
Not sure if Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun series would qualify as epic fantasy. Probably not.
Glen Cook's "Black Company" series. It, along with some of the others mentioned are darker. Heroes are not always necessarily "heroic."
Joe Abercrombie's "The First Law" series.
K.J. Parker. Not really pure fantasy in my opinion, but placed in that category by publishers. Some trilogies and some novels. Most are very good in my opinion and feature complex, flawed protagonists. No one really knows anything about the author, which is rather nice I think when so many people seem determined to "share" so many details about themselves, no matter how uninteresting and/or trivial.
Did you read Elizabeth Moon's "Legacy of Gird: series? Not as good as the "Paksenarrion" series in my opinion, but still enjoyable.She has also written some later novels that feature Paks.
Always the "old stuff." Others have mentioned Cabell, Dunsany, Peake and Morris, but there is also E.R. Eddison's Zimiamvia trilogy.
As far as George R.R. Martin goes, don't bother unless he ever finishes. I kind of wonder if he ever will. The series started in 1996 and he is not getting any younger. I stopped reading after the fourth volume.
I've mentioned a lot of series. I think good ones are great, but one of my peeves about fantasy is that it can be difficult to find novels that aren't part of a series. Most everyone writes series, I guess for commercial reasons. I used to dutifully read each novel in a series I liked when it came out, but I stopped doing so awhile back. Now I also wait until they are complete. Martin may be largely responsible for that.
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