Went ahead and started with Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen. I recently finished book #1, Gardens of the Moon.
Erikson demands a lot of the reader: the entire first half of the book felt like your usual prologue in that you're thrown right into the middle of a big story with no beginning and have no real grasp on what's going on, who is who, and what everything means. I read that people usually quit before they have read the first third or continue until the end (10 massive volumes). Well, I think I'm going on, because after the initial confusion and overall lack of emotion (see below) I was hooked by the world and happenings.
The Malazan books are considered "Military Fantasy", since they focus on war and the life of soldiers. I have no idea why this series is compared to GRRM's Song of Ice and Fire so often — the only similarities are a huge cast of characters and a "gritty" presentation; otherwise the Malazan world is totally different. GRRMs books are much more character driven — you kind of bond with each of them. Erikson's characters seem more distant, at least so far.
All in all, however, it does start feeling quite epic in a classical sense: You've got High Mages, soldiers, assassins, Gods (Ascended), Elder races, dragons and demons all scheming against each other and battling it out. Looking forward to the next book.