Sarah Monette was recently nominated for the John W Campbell award
for best new writer. The two main characters, Felix the magician
and Mildmay the cat-burglar, are both written in first-person and
their voices are strikingly different and well-characterized, while
the setting, the sprawling city of Melusine, teems with ghosts and
monsters.
Fantasy cover-art mystifies me... I had to take off this book's
jacket while I was reading it because I disliked it so much... but
the book itself was rivetingly dark and labyrinthine.