Reddit mentions of Black Sun Rising (The Coldfire Trilogy, Book 1)

You should definitely give 'Black Sun Rising' of the Coldfire trilogy a read my friend.

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Rising-Coldfire-Trilogy-Book/dp/0886775272

Gerald Tarrant is one of the most awesome, unscrupulous and down right entertaining bad guys around.

Black Sun Rising

I would suggest C. S. Friedman. She has a lot of the flawed character thing going on in many of her books. She does a bit more sci-fi than fantasy, but honestly either way she's great.

This Alien Shore is good, and a stand-alone:
http://www.amazon.com/This-Alien-Shore-C-S-Friedman/dp/0886777992/ref=la_B000AQ1TUO_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1410005630&sr=1-9

Feast of Souls is the start of a good trilogy:
http://www.amazon.com/Feast-Souls-Magister-Trilogy-Book/dp/0756404630/ref=la_B000AQ1TUO_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1410005630&sr=1-5

And Black Sun Rising is also the start of a good trilogy:
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Rising-Coldfire-Trilogy-Book/dp/0886775272/ref=la_B000AQ1TUO_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1410005630&sr=1-1

In the SciFi/Fantasy realm - try the Coldfire Trilogy by Celia S. Friedman - http://www.amazon.com/Black-Rising-Coldfire-Trilogy-Book/dp/0886775272

The lead character is one of the most ruthlessly amoral characters you'll encounter.

Two things jump to mind for me, both fantasy.

The Coldfire Trilogy is set on a really strange world with a kind of natural force that gives life to people's fears or desires. It's really unique, and a great story with a great antihero.

Brandon Sanderson has also created some pretty unique worlds, his Stormlight Archives is probably his best work so far and the world there is refreshingly different than your typical fantasy fare.

I'd borrow a premise from a CS Friedman series I enjoyed.

In the books, the planet everyone is on is inhabited by a psychic creature that is very sensitive to people's thoughts, but not self-aware. The result is that people's beliefs about things influences reality.

So, if you're worried that an experiment will fail, you'll make it fail.

This has all sorts of interesting consequences, but foremost among these is that the entire reason science works begins to break down. People lose faith in technology and regress to a more savage way of doing business. Really strong willed people are functionally mages.

Imagine what would happen if such a creature came to earth one day?

It's this book series, btw.