Un Lun Dun, China Miéville
All of China's glorious invention, applied to a children's book and with the characters subject only to a mercifully light version of his usual authorial sadism. Plus illustrations. No more could be asked for in this world or the other.

Deliverer, C.J. Cherryh
Book nine in the Foreigner universe. The series is sufficiently well-written to remain addictive, but sufficiently shallow and repetitive that news of another three books to come is more cause for despair than celebration.

Fortress of Ice, C.J. Cherryh
I can't help myself. Her books pass the time. The ideas and writing don't insult my intelligence.

His Majesty's Dragon, Naomi Novik.
From the Washington Post: "all hail Naomi Novik for seizing on an entirely different set of literary conventions for her fantasy debut — the dashing Brits-on-ships genre perfected by Patrick O'Brian. In His Majesty's Dragon, Novik plunks her scaly beasts into the Napoleonic Wars, as members of the Aerial Corps, air cover for the beleaguered Royal Navy as it fends off a French invasion." All I can add is that it's the impecabble writing that makes all of the mashed up cliches and conventions work together so perfectly.