One book I just read that I really really loved that seems to fit most of your criteria is Stephen King's Eye of the Dragon. It's NOT about a dragon. And it does NOT read like a Stephen King book. It reads like a fairy tale. And the characters are really complex in my opinion. I had a friend recommend it to me, and I loved it, and my madre loved it (and she hates Stephen King).
I would recommend Tad Williams' Otherworld, but there are so many characters to keep track of and so many things going on at once... It's really confusing the first time you read it through. I had to read it twice to really understand everything, and still, the first book is really slow... But towards the end of the book, it really makes it worth the read.
L.E. Modesitt's The Spellsong Cycle is one of my favorite series, where singing is the equivalent of magic in the world. There's a lot to do with politics and stuff, but that doesn't make up the majority of the books. They're really good until the third one. Then the fourth one kills the series with the first paragraph. I read the first page of the fourth book and then traded it in at a used book store.
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I would recommend Tad Williams' Otherworld, but there are so many characters to keep track of and so many things going on at once... It's really confusing the first time you read it through. I had to read it twice to really understand everything, and still, the first book is really slow... But towards the end of the book, it really makes it worth the read.
L.E. Modesitt's The Spellsong Cycle is one of my favorite series, where singing is the equivalent of magic in the world. There's a lot to do with politics and stuff, but that doesn't make up the majority of the books. They're really good until the third one. Then the fourth one kills the series with the first paragraph. I read the first page of the fourth book and then traded it in at a used book store.