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For good fantasy with engaging characters, George R.R. Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire" series is extremely good, and probably right up your street if you like Robin Hobb. The first volume is "A Game of Thrones", and there are three more written with a final one on the way. I'm just re-reading the first three before reading the fourth for the first time and finding them completely absorbing. (They're also much easier on the arm muscles on an e-book reader!)
In SF you might well enjoy Iain M. Banks (not to be confused with Iain Banks -- the same author when he's not writing science fiction) and Ken MacLeod. I'd also recommend C.J. Cherryh, though her SF isn't actually any more cheery than the Morgaine books :-) I'd also second the recommendation for Neal Stephenson's "Anathem".
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