Really enjoyed The Bone Harp by Victoria Goddard. It diverges a bit from The Lays of the Hearth-Fire series in that it's more abstract and set in a different world. The language is lyrical and free, with a lot of alliteration, pleasant, like a lullaby -- it's definitely a slow burn, if you like that (I do).
I really enjoyed the sprawling sense of imagination and the thoughtful details woven throughout the story.
"There were weavers who learned to capture the sky into impossible fabrics, so the people went garbed in sunsets and moonrises, in the blue of a mountain morning, the starry field of a winter midnight. There were glassblowers who created bells and bellflowers as delicate as Klara’s hoarfrost, gardens of glittering jewels where there had never been aught before but stone."
"Someone caught the winds in jewelled nets, and created symphonies of storms over the mountains. Someone sang the city into hills and towers, plunging pools and hanging gardens, and then spun bridges at dizzying heights between them."
Victoria Goddard has become one of my favorite fantasy authors. The Hands of the Emperor is one of my favorite books (it is about found family, empathy, kindness, being a foreigner/outsider). Her writing is a balm for troubled times and worth returning to time and again for solace.
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