I finished Tim Powers'
Three Days to Never... and of course it didn't let me down. It won't knock any of my Powers favorites from their perches, but still very, very enjoyable. Very few writers could have me thinking that a crack squad of paranormal operatives monitoring psychic channels in the US was perfectly normal and acceptable behavior... in two chapters or less.
I used part of a Christmas gift-certificate to purchase my first ever K.J. Parker novel—
The Hammer—so I currently have that going. A few things to note about
The Hammer so far for me:
1) it's a stand-alone, it has a tight focus (setting-wise and the number of main characters), and it's very character-driven. All of those can be tallied in my personal plus column for fantasy.
2) there's no doubt in my mind whatsoever that K.J. Parker is a woman.
3) I couldn't care any less about that ^^^ (except in a
"huh... wonder why the big deal/mystery surrounding that fact?" kind of way).