No, you're not too picky. I didn't get past the second book in the Wheel of Time. *sweatdrop*
Hmm...Okay, for you, I'd recommend His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman and The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud. HDM has lots of religion/soul analysis, cool battle/suspense scenes, and you can't always be sure whom you can trust. The first one is The Golden Compass, which was made into a film, so you might have heard of it.
In Bartimaeus, neither of the heroes are very "heroic." They're both arrogant, powerful, and self-serving. Their relationship and character development is very interesting. Also, Barty's sarcasm made me laugh really hard! Amulet of Samarkand is the first in the series.