Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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CoffeeShopReader's Reviews:

Dumb but Strong Gets Boring, or Enough with the Cream Puff Gags, or Why Harry Potter and Black Clover Don’t Mix

Mashle: Magic and Muscles, vols. 4-5 by Hajime Komoto

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Sometimes my curiosity gets the better of me and I pick up subsequent manga volumes from the library just to see if things get any better or interesting; sometimes this works out and sometimes not. With Mashle: Magic and Muscles, the first few volumes were essentially trope overload with a touch of the goof-ball. Volumes 4-5 don’t really get much better. Tropes include the clueless but good-hearted hero who has nothing but physical prowess to get by in a magic world, the girl he saves […]

Some interesting bits but overall kind of meh fantasy

Iyanu: Child of Wonder, vol. 1 by Roye Okupe, Godwin Akpan

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It may not be the best sign when the summary of a book on the back cover is more informative about plot and character than what’s in-between the covers. Iyanu has an interesting premise in that it’s based on Yoruba culture and lore; thankfully the story involves some local language (translated), and a small section of notes addressing the historical and mythological basis. Without these, this is a bland fantasy coming of age story. The orphan develops mysterious powers (chosen one, anybody?), a mentor who […]

All Style No Substance

Beautiful Platters & Delicious Boards by Cedar Mill Press

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Beautiful Platters & Delicious Boards looks really pretty, as in it has many attractive and colorful picture. I had a good time with my New Year’s experiment with this trend (using a different cookbook), and I was hoping for some more ideas as March is not just birthday month, but also this year, it’s a decade-change. This requires more extensive food-fun. That said, it turns out, this was not the book for that. It’s all a big lie. This book has quite a few recipes […]

Elves and a Magic Ring are Reasonably Dull

Vox Machina: Kith & Kin by Marieke Nijkamp

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I picked up Vox MIachina: Kith & Kin on a whim because it looked interesting; I didn’t realize at the time that this was actually a close up for a couple of characters who were part of a bigger D&D related franchise with a new Amazon animated show. I haven’t seen any of the stuff this novel is apparently based on, and as it turns out that’s not necessary. Kith & Kin is pretty standard fantasy is nearly every way; the main characters are two […]

A teenage wizard girl and her somewhat sentient cookie and sourdough do big stuff

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher

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I was a little late to the A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, but I’m glad I finally got it; this one is both fun and a little inventive. The basic story is plucky heroine with limited resources faces off against unknown and then known end-of-the-world kind of badness, and triumphs with the help of some friends. Said heroine is 14-year-old Mona, who lives as a magic user in a world mostly suspicious of magic. Mona’s magic only works on baked goods, which is just […]

Murder at the Opera and maybe a few other places too

The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison

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The Witness for the Dead almost feels like The Goblin Emperor was written more as a prequel, and not as something of a branch off sequel. The character Thara Celehar is not a major presence in the initial novel, but he’s got a full personality and sense of self and history in the follow-up novella. My only real complaint is that it feels kind of like you need to have recently read the first novel or have a pretty good memory of some of the […]



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