Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

Clariel by Garth Nix

This was one of those books that I like more the more I think about it. Reading it was enjoyable, but there is a lot in and behind the narrative that I can chew on for hours. But even on the surface, there's some lovely stuff about music and how it can move people, and how doing the best for those we love makes us into better people. It's moving, and thought-provoking, and often lovely. Katrina's pov is upsetting at times because she has a real bad time and the book doesn't shy away from how those experiences shape her... But she gets a clear voice and a hopeful story. And there are three other interesting povs to fill out the narrative. I also particularly loved that this book has sci-fi and supernatural elements woven together without making any concession or apology. Yes spaceships and aliens are real. Yes demons are also real. Right to the end both elements coexist and supernatural problems sometimes have sci-fi solutions. I love it. 

I adored the Abhorsen trilogy when I was a teenager, and it was a lot of fun to return to the Old Kingdom. Also, without spoiling, I appreciated that this book took a rather different turn with a YA protagonist than I've usually read (not that I've read a tonne of YA recently, but still). That said, I wasn't completely sold on it. Maybe I wasn't so keen on Clariel as a protagonist as I had been on Sabriel and Lirael, or maybe I'm just too old for them now... Either way, it was good but didn't enrapture me the way they did when I was 16. Which is perhaps not surprising.

Translation State by Ann Leckie

I loved the ancillary trilogy in the Imperial Raadch universe, and this is a worthy successor! The plot started intriguing and kept getting to places faster than I expected so I was left guessing as to what the rest of the book was going to be about. I loved finding out about the Presger Translators, a fascinatingly weird and unsettling alien race, and a bit more about the workings of the Treaty... The last segment had a couple of things that didn't 100% work for me, but overall it's a fascinating and engrossing read, and a wonderful way to spend my sick days. 

I'm also working my way through:

The Silver Chair by CS Lewis

Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson 

He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker Chan (going very slowly cos I mostly read ebooks at the office and I haven't been in much)