I know I prefer sci-fi and fantasy as well, and these two series are the ones I always love coming back to:

"Raven's Shadow" and the sequel "Raven's Strike" by Patricia Briggs. Very good. I didn't even know there was a sequel for a long time, but I just kept reading the first one over and over again.

"First Truth", "Hidden Truth", "Forgotten Truth", and "Lost Truth" by Dawn Cook. I read the last one first, and while it was wonderful, I needed to read the other three to explain stuff. It's still one of my favorite series ever. It's not really heavy, but it's interesting and touching. Same with Briggs' two.

These both have tons of magic in them. Definitely good fantasy works. You should really look them up. =) Hope I helped.

~*P Raven

Probably one of my all-time favorites is a book by Barry Hughart, called Bridge of Birds. It's a novel "of an ancient China that never was", and feels like a fairy tale and a myth and a mystery all rolled into one neat, clever package. The plot is beautifully woven together; I can't think of a single throwaway mention off the top of my head. Further, no matter how many times I read it, it's one of the books that never fails to make me emote. Be emotional. Something.

Might be hard to find, though. I think it was published in the 80s and every bookstore I go to has no copies. :/ Only drawback.

Hmm. Read Kris Longknife books at all? By Mike Shepherd. Basically, daughter of a politician announces 'well, this is fun and all, but I'm joining the space Navy, seeya Dad.' Intrigue and action ensues. Remarkable because I usually dislike the books have a military focus, because I've experienced that they tend to go gunsgunsguns military is awesome guns solve all problems check out how amazing our guns are aren't they fab, but somehow either these books just straight up don't go for the technobabble and guns route or I missed it somewhere in the characters and plot. First book's called Mutineer.

The Song of Ice and Fire series by George RR Martin of course a great series if you haven't already dabbled in it. Magic is very subtle and rare, and mostly lends itself to political intrigue and world building. Four books so far with the fifth promised to come out soon. It's recently been recreated as an HBO series which just started airing.

I've been reading Steven Erickson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series. It's a high magic setting with tons of characters, and every single one of those characters is a fantastic badass in one way or another. Plots get layered thicker and thicker and Xanatos Gambits abound. Each book is huge and there's like ten of them so it'd keep you busy for awhile.

SRS BSNS is a no go? There goes my blanket recommendation of 1984.

What else? Hm, if you have time, Stephen King's /The Dark Tower/ series is an interesting Sci-fi/fantasy combo. It's really long, but if you have time, it is pretty good, especially the earlier books.

On top of that, I can recommend pretty much anything he has written as at least okay ish. His non-horror is better than his horror in my opinion. Specifically, I'd recommend /The Green Mile/ and /Four Seasons./ The second one is a collection of four novellas, including my favorite thing he has ever written, "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption."

I'd also recommend /Lord of the Rings/ but I'm assuming you have already done that.

Oh, and how does one do italics on this board?

The Orphan's Tales duology by Catherynne M Valente. The prose is kinda heavy, but it's really good. It's about this girl with stories tattooed on her eyes telling a boy who might be the heir to the Sultanate stories in the garden. The stories are really complicated, because a character in a story will start telling a story about a character who tells a story and so on and so forth, but it's basically about *deep breath* sea-faring saints, dead stars, firebirds, tree-girls, dead cities of artists, dead cities of detritus populated by ghosts who kidnap children to mint bones into coins, seventh-seventh sons, huldras, manticores, a glaistig eunuch, a girl made of tea, and a lot more. (Also, if you don't mind a certain amount, of, um, sex scenes, try her stand-alone Palimpsest, which is about a sexually transmitted city.)
And if you like sci-fi, Cyteen is really good too. And the Morgaine series, although it's a little bit of both there.

He writes the Gentleman Bastard Sequence. It has a lot of swearing and violence, so if you're easily squicked or offended it's probably not for you, but it's got ludicrously complex plotting, beautiful description, and some awesome one-liners.

I personally like the Leviathan series, but it's less sci-fi and more steampunk/alternate history. It takes place in World War I, and the first book actually starts shortly after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The story follows his (made-up) son Aleksander Ferdinand, and a member of the British Royal Air Force, Dylan Sharp. The thing about Dylan, and don't worry this isn't a spoiler to anyone at all, is that his real name is Deryn Sharp, and he is a she. It also has some real world parallels, explained at the back of both books, and the unique thing about the story is that instead of Allies Vs. Central Powers, it's Darwinists Vs. Clankers. Darwinists are those who use genetically engineered animals for warfare and everyday things, like a flying whale or dogs that can sniff out hydrogen leaks, while Clankers are countries that use machines for warfare and everyday things, like Walkers for transportation or a giant mechanical spider with cannons on top of it. The Unites States use a combination of the two, in case you were wondering.

Here are a few sci-fi/fantasy stories that not very many people seem to have stumbled across and which I think are pretty good. Not particularly deep reading, but fun.
Tanith Lee's Silver Metal Lover and Metallic Love are sci-fi romances involving an alternate earth, future technology, and humanoid robots.
Eric Flint and David Freer's duology (?) of Pyramid Scheme and Pyramid Power are fun, if not particularly accurate, romps through Greek, Egyptian, and Norse mythology. If you want, the first one can be read free online here.
Also, if you don't mind wandering over to the young adult section, the Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede and Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising sequence are pretty good.

Read The Moon Moth by Jack Vance. I'm not a huge Vancian but I do like this short story of his... I should read more of his stuff. >_>;

...then try "The Chronicles of Amber" by Roger Zelazny. It's kind of an old series, but it's pretty good. Basically, the one true world is Amber and all the other worlds in in the multiverse are just 'shadows' of it, except for Chaos, but that's a whole 'nother can of worms. Anyway, the first book starts with the main character waking up in a hospital with amnesia. (Yeah, it's a used beginning, but it works quite well.)
It can get kind of- well, quite a bit- squicky at times, though. If you don't mind a spoiler, I could tell you the squickiest part and then you could decide if you want to read it or not.

The Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan - Not for everyone. I like it but some don't. It slows down after the first three books, which turns a lot of people off.

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson - This one has a lot of SRS BSNS and really gets pretty dark at times, especially in the First Chronicles. It is still an excellent series and I highly recommend it.

The Deathgate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman - Quite good. The ending is a little flat, but the rest is very enjoyable.