A few recent epic fantasies - Rebecca Levene's Smiler's Fair, Katherine Addison's Goblin Emperor, and E.L. Tettensor's The Bloodbound.
Addison also writes as Sarah Monette, so if you like her, there's plenty more where that came from...
Pretty much anything by Frances Hardinge. It is all classified as YA, but don't let that put you off (not that I think it would) - specially Fly By Night and its sequel, The Twilight Robbery, which are both fantasy-y.
While you're hitting up the classics - the Deryni saga, by Katherine Kurtz? (Again, not a huge fan, but it is at least sort of historically interesting and fits in the Hobb/Weis mold).
Sophia McDougall's Romanitas is alt-history SF, in a world where Rome never fell. Great trilogy.
I think Lauren Beukes was suggested already, Sarah Lotz is also great for near-apocalytic SF and thrillers. Both on her own (The Three) and as part of a team with Louis Greenberg (a whole trilogy of horror creepiness as S.L. Grey).
Claire North - The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August and The Touch - two of the best contemporary SF titles of recent years. Plus her work as Kate Griffin (the Matthew Swift and Magical Anonymous series of UF) and Catherine Webb (all sorts of glorious YA titles).
Nnedi Okorafor - Lagoon and Who Fears Death - both brilliant.
If you're browsing short stories, Terra Incognita, edited by Nerine Dorman just came out, and it includes almost twenty stories by African writers.
Becky Chambers' The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is straight-up space opera and one of my favouritest books in the history of favourites and books. And I don't even like space opera. But it is just one of those lovely books that makes you feel really good about things - all without being worthy or heavy-handed.
On the scarier side, Cecilia Ekback's Wolf Winter is a debut - a medieval Scandinavian murder mystery. Definitely some magical realism elements. It is very slow and very very cold (like, literally - you'll want a hot drink), but good mix of politics and suspicion and small town horror.
Hermione Eyre's Viper Wine is a twisty time travel (kind of?!) sort of literary SF thing. It is hard to describe.
Maggie Stiefvater's The Raven Boys and Sally Green's Half Wild will also be found on the YA shelves, and are also terrific fantasies. They're both contemporary, both about wizardry sneaking about in the real world, in various forms. Half Wild is a bit more hard-hitting and brutal. The Raven Boys is extremely clever and crafty.
Dia Reeves is like Neil Gaiman with a triple row of shark teeth. Her two books in the town of Portero are both ... urban fantasies with alternate worlds bleeding over... but also unpredictable, wild and with very disturbing stories to them. They're brilliantly well-done. Bleeding Violet is first, then Slice of Cherry.
Oh, and... Katie Coyle's Vivian Versus The Apocalypse. When the Rapture comes, Vivian is left behind. It spawns a sort of conspiracy-laden, post-apocalyptic (?!) road trip. Really good fun, but not without depth.
I think the reading challenge is cool, by the way. I kind of think all reading challenges are cool - it always surprisingly hard to break out of a rut and try new things, and sometimes it helps to have the excuse...