Well as a young teen who listened to Led Zeppelin, I had to see what all those LOTR references were about. Sure that's hardly not in the cheesy category, being the original fantasy epic standard, but it led me to try out some of those Dragonlance novels. I mildly enjoyed 2 or 3, but gave up on them...just didn't have enough weight, or just plain quality.
Although I know of that series you mentioned, as I guy I work with was reading one. It was such a huge book, I asked him about it. He also highly recommended the read, but I haven't so far. My latest genre has been Louis L'amour books and stories, though I haven't picked one up in a few months.