I'd been hearing good things about the Master Li and Number Ten Ox series for year, and all I can say is that I wish I'd listened to them sooner. This series is an amazing picaresque novel about a crafty and wizened con-artist/detective and his client, a strong and pure-hearted villager, as they wander through mythic China getting into trouble and setting things to right. The setting, the word-play, the fully-realized cleverness of every aspect of this novel make it as masterpiece of modern fantasy.