Robin Hobb writes characters
Halfway through the Fool's Quest, the second book of Robin Hobb's (as of right now) final trilogy in the Elderling series.
I feel it speaks to her elaborate style of storytelling that, upon considering how the plot will play out, I find myself thinking ‘a book and a half is nowhere near long enough to develop that storyline‘. The depth of her characters is second to none that I've ever read. Admittedly, that's a fairly small base of comparison. Nevertheless.
A particular aspect that sets her writing apart, is the wealth of social and cultural context she provides to give the reader an understanding of why they are who they are and do what they do.