As Morgeruat said, but I'll give my answer anyway.
I don't know about the BG books, but they're not so great anyhow.
As for other fantasy: I can't stress it enough, Terry Pratchett's Discworld-series comes highly recommended. Not very epic or heart-warming maybe, but you'll never be the same again after one of these. If you haven't read any of 'em, do so IMMEDIATELY!
Furthermore, I can recommend pretty much everything by Raymond E. Feist and Terry Goodkind, the Deathgate Cycle by Weis & Hickman and the Books of Memory, Sorrow and the something-or-other Sword (sorry, but my memory desparately needs fine-tuning) by Tad Williams.
[ 01-17-2002: Message edited by: J'aran ]</p>