The Traitor Baru Cormorant is an epic geopolitical fantasy about one woman's mission to tear down an empire by learning how to rule it. Recommended by, well, everybody. It was brought up repeatedly at ConFusion, and some may never have forgiven me if I hadn't read it. I loved it. :D It was exactly what I want out of a stand-alone, too; I loved the writing style and it had me thinking about it for the better part of a week.