The closest thing to traditional fantasy I have read in a very long time is Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe, and now I am bit broken trying to chase a similar hit. If anyone has any recommends to scratch the post BOTNS itch please do share.
It's a very different setting, but tonally similar in some ways. A lot of ancient cultural and religious stuff is key to the plot but not explained (and often the protagonist is lost too for reasons that will be obvious when you start) so you get that same backstory-detective experience when reading.
It also takes the unreliable narrator trope to weird new lengths even by Wolfe's standards. I won't get into the details for spoiler reasons but the narrator is unwittingly unreliable for reasons outside of his control but is fully aware of this state. While the reader regularly has information that the protagonist should have but no longer does. The prose mechanics of how this is achieved is wonderful.