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I have a few recommendations:
Tad Williams - His Memory Sorrow Thorn and Shadowmarch series are extremely well-written with some great characters. Memory Sorrow Thorn is quite slow at times but that's not a problem if you like his prose and characters. Memory Sorrow Thorn is strongly influenced by Tolkien and the opening section of the first novel is quite similar in pacing and content to the opening of the Lord of the Rings. Shadowmarch is a lot darker almost from the very start and is far more influenced by Mervyn Peake than Tolkien.
Mervyn Peake - His Gormenghast books are rightly regarded very highly even by the mainstream literary establishment. They contain many fascinating and bizarre characters like Steerpike and Mr Flay among many others.
Others worth reading are John Crowley, Elizabeth Bear, China Mieville and Paul Kearney.
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