World Creation and Story

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I'm working on a project involving world creation and story structure. I just want to know what I'm missing and if you have any titles to recommend for exploration. It can be fantasy, science fiction, or something else. I'm kind of meh about Star Wars...but open to your views on it. I'm open to young reader stuff too, like The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks (though, I agree with some critics that it feels like a LOTR knock off, I enjoyed it when I was a kid) and  A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L'Engle).

For me the start of "epic" was Tolkien's Middle Earth and The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion. On my list to explore, read, or re-read in no particular order are also:

• The Riftwar Saga (Raymond Feist)
• Dune (Frank Herbert)
• The Book of the New Sun (Gene Wolfe)
• The Wheel of Time (Robert Jordan)
• The VALIS Trilogy (Phillip K. Dick)
• The Dragonriders of Pern (Anne McCaffrey)
• A Game of Thrones (George R. R. Martin)
• The Earthsea Quartet (Ursula Le Guin)

What am I missing? I know I'm missing stuff. Any books that you especially love? Why?

I'm also interested on the depth and complexity of world creation, uniqueness, great characters, etc.