ElCicco – Page 48 – Cannonball Read 17

Steampunk Cairo!

A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djeli Clark

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djeli Clark

January 31, 2021 by ElCicco 1 Comment

I only recently became aware of award-winning author P. Djeli Clark, although he has been writing sci-fi/fantasy novellas and novels for at least 5 years. Novels that involve djinn are especially interesting to me, and when a couple of different folks (including our own Emmalita) mentioned Clark within days of each other, I decided to check him out and I downloaded EVERYTHING!! These first two offerings feature not just djinn and magical entities but also Cairene investigators whose backstories and interactions will, I hope, be […]

I’ve got the music in me!

Soul Music: A Novel of Discworld by Terry Pratchett

January 24, 2021 by ElCicco 1 Comment

Soul Music is the third novel in Pratchett’s Discworld “Death” series, and as in the previous two novels, we see Death abruptly abandon his duties and behave, or try to behave anyway, as a human would in his attempt to deal with an unexpected problem. Unlike the previous novels though, Death this time has an able replacement — his granddaughter Susan. This does not mean, however, that there won’t be trouble, and in Soul Music, the trouble has to do with a young musician and […]

“…it’s a wonderful afterlife.”

Reaper Man: A Novel of Discworld by Terry Pratchett

January 17, 2021 by ElCicco 2 Comments

If we knew when we were going to die, people would lead better lives. IF PEOPLE KNEW WHEN THEY WERE GOING TO DIE, I THINK THEY PROBABLY WOULDN’T LIVE AT ALL. In which I continue with my reading of Terry Pratchett, focusing on the Death novels. Reaper Man is the second Death novel, i.e., a Discworld novel featuring Death as a main character. In Mort, Death took on an apprentice so that he could go off and try to experience human emotion for himself. In […]

Death takes a holiday

Mort: A Novel of Discworld by Terry Pratchett

January 10, 2021 by ElCicco Leave a Comment

After reading Hogfather and Good Omens for CBR10, (and thank you, Malin, for gifting them to me way back when) I meant to read more Pratchett. Those two books were enormously entertaining reads and Pratchett has written dozens of novels. The problem is knowing where to begin, since a number of the them form their own series within the Discworld. I consulted one of the many tables out there called “How to Read Pratchett” and opted to begin with the Death novels, the first of […]

It’s like “Oklahoma!” But for Texas

Simon the Fiddler: A Novel by Paulette Jiles

January 3, 2021 by ElCicco 2 Comments

In one of the many end-of-year best books lists that came out in December, I saw this novel mentioned. The reviewer said that it was set at the end of the Civil War and its immediate aftermath in Texas and featured an itinerant fiddler and an Irish servant who fall in love but are separated. I do enjoy historical fiction and this is a time period about which I know very little, so it seemed like an entertaining way to get a sense of the […]

A novel of grief

Hamnet: A Novel of the Plague by Maggie O’Farrell

January 1, 2021 by ElCicco 6 Comments

This could very well end up as one of my favorites for 2021. O’Farrell’s novel imagines the death of William Shakespeare’s young son Hamnet and the grief the envelops the family as a result. I could not put this book down, it is so beautifully written and heart wrenching. While Shakespeare is a character in the novel (never named but obviously him), the main character is Agnes, his wife and mother to Hamnet, Hamnet’s twin Judith and Susannah. It is mainly through her eyes that […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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