Sea of Ghosts

I finished Alan Campbell's Deepgate Codex back in 2010 and thought that it was wondrously strange and fun. Now he's got a new series going called the Gravedigger Chronicles. This first book takes place in a whole new, fascinating world. One of the things that's great about this author is that he doesn't fall back on a faux-medieval world like so many countless other fantasists. He creates a new world from scratch. The main character in this story is Thomas Granger, a colonel in an elite infiltration unit nicknamed the Gravediggers. But when he insults the emperor, he goes underground and becomes a jailor in a backwater place called Ethugra. It's here that he meets a daughter he didn't know he had named Ianthe. Ianthe has unusual psychic powers and as such is coveted by various factions. There are strange characters galore and some inventive action set pieces. I just found the whole book fascinating and cool. Campbell's' imagination is on par with China Mieville's. I've already got Book 2 on tap.