The dreaded N again.
Night Watch
Sergei Lukyanenko, on EdeN
This is the first of a trilogy (now 4) by a Russian sci-fi/fantasy writer, in which he manages to reduce the conflict between good and evil to a rule-ridden bureaucracy. It's contemporary, but there is a background of myth and legend, vampires and shape-shifters, and sordid life in modern-day Moscow. If you happen to have a taste for this sort of thing, it's excellent.