1500 pages sounds about right. I remember when he was on book 8 or 9 hearing that it would go to 13 books, well a 1500 page 12th book is about the same all in all.. hehe. I'm glad that they're continuing it though, that series was awesome, though I'm sure it won't be exactly the same at least there will be an end to it.
Let's see other good authors/series...
Robin Hobb's books. Tawny Man series, Farseeker series and the Liveship series.
Anne McCaffey's Dragonriders of Pern series
And completely unrelated to the others:
Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series
Can't think of any more off the top of my head, but those with the Wheel of Time series are a good couple months worth of good reading.
