Friend of mine recommended this oop fantasy novel, and while I am only two chapters in, I have to say, it may well be the best fantasy novel of the last two decades of my fantasy reading.

Literate, inventive, stunningly readable -- and for the first time in years, I do not find myself fighting to make myself read the narrative descriptions of the setting....

He also specifically links himself to a pre-Tolkien fantasy tradition, by citing Lin Carter's early seventies publishing project, which put back into print nineteenth and early twentieth century fantasy.

There is one sequel, "The False House" -- and then no more. Apparently, the sales beast ate this immensely talented and promising author; he has published a few short stories since, but no novels.