Jacqueline Carey
I picked up the second book in Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series at the airport and got about a chapter into it before I realized that I needed to read the first one in order to experience this lush, incredibly detailed world from the beginning.
It's a bit...alternative lifestyle based, and if you're squicked by BSDM then you probably won't like these -- but the characters are fabulous, the plots are intricate and well-thought-out, and the writing style is fluid and very readable.
She's started a new series, the Sundering, but I haven't started them yet. I don't know that she's got anything else planned -- I keep an email notification open at Amazon for anything that she writes.
Book list
- Kushiel's Dart, Tor Books (March 1, 2002)
- Kushiel's Chosen, Tor Fantasy (March 14, 2003)
- Kushiel's Avatar, Tor Fantasy; (March 13, 2004)
- Banewreaker, The Sundering, Tor Books (November 1, 2004)