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Before the revival of the series, Neil Gaiman wrote an essay about the viral nature of Doctor Who. I could pretty much say the same thing about Sarah Monette's Doctrine of Labyrinths Series. cow basically pressed Melusine into my hands and said "You're going to enjoy this," after lending a copy to a friend in Japan. I sent a copy to starstealingirl and I am now apparently responsible for delaying completion of a masters thesis. But back to my original purpose, which was to tell you about the review Jo Walton did of Melusine:

There are books that are like a Greek temple, direct in the sunlight, all columns and stillness. These are like a gothic cathedral, embellished with detail on detail, magic and betrayal and ghosts and gargoyles and voodoo and madness—Felix spends most of the book mad—and heresy and squabbling schools of magic and the Mirador and the Bastion and two different calendars. And there’s Mildmay, who thinks “fuck me sideways” is a reasonable sort of expresssion, and Felix, who worries about being caught out saying “okay.” It’s the kind of book where you want to read fast to find out what happens and you want to read slowly because you don’t want to get to the end yet. This is my fourth reading of it, as I’ve re-read it as each of the subsequent volumes have come out, and I found myself looking forward to the re-reading as much as to the new volume.

TL;DR: Fantastic writing, strong characterization, and detailed world-building.

I submit this series specifically to the attention of the Supernatural fans on the friends and reading lists because Felix and Mildmay have that same sort of dynamic that Sam and Dean do (interpret that as you see fit). One of the real joys of the series is that you actually see Felix and Mildmay grow as characters, and the payoff at the end of the series after seeing them fight and interact with each other is incredibly satisfying. This is how much I love this series: I am linking to Worldcat results (I despise Worldcat, for reasons that I will not get into here because I don't have the space) so you can find out where to borrow Melusine. Seriously, it's amazing. You really should read it.