TheShitWizard – Page 2 – Cannonball Read 17

What’s the plural of apocalypse?

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

February 15, 2021 by TheShitWizard Leave a Comment

So insanely readable that I devoured it in a day, The Fifth Season is the fantastic opener to a really interesting trilogy that’s a dystopian mix of sci fi and fantasy – I am ridiculously excited to get my hands on the next part. In a world where the apocalypse has already happened – quite a few times, actually – and is littered the ruins of the dead civilisations that came before them, those that remain know that each geological incident could preface the next […]

Questions, questions, questions

Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA and the Secret History of the Sixties by Tom O'Neill

February 11, 2021 by TheShitWizard Leave a Comment

The Manson Family murders loom large in the annals of crime history, with prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi’s book Helter Skelter laying out the official story that’s long been accepted as fact by the general public. This book basically kicks Helter Skelter into a fire, but while the cover of mine says it reveals the truth behind the murders, what it actually does is raise lots and lots of questions. Chaos isn’t really even about the murders. Instead, it’s the story of Tom O’Neill’s decades long obsession […]

Lady Trent takes another trip

The Tropic of Serpents by Marie Brennan

February 5, 2021 by TheShitWizard Leave a Comment

The second book in The Memoirs of Lady Trent series, while The Tropic of Serpents didn’t quite reach the same giddy heights of adoration as A Natural History of Dragons had, that was mostly down to me having had no expectations with the first, and stratospheric ones with the second. The now widowed Isabella Trent is mother to a young son, but still possessing a naturalist’s thirst for more knowledge about dragons. Flying in the face of what polite Scirling society thinks she ought to […]

Pass me ALL the tissues

Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier

January 28, 2021 by TheShitWizard Leave a Comment

A retelling of The Six Swans, Daughter of the Forest pulled me fully into its story, often leaving me trying (and failing) to look like I hadn’t been weeping during my lunch break. Set in 10th century Ireland, Sorcha is the seventh child of a mother who died in childbirth and a distant father. With dad usually off protecting the borders of his land – Sevenwaters – against the Picts, Britons and Vikings, Sorcha has spent most of her childhood roaming the forests of her […]

Weird and wonderful

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

January 20, 2021 by TheShitWizard 6 Comments

Piranesi is an odd and engrossing little book that feels both similar and entirely different to Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (especially in terms of page numbers). Our titular character (although he’s not sure that’s really his name) lives in the House, a labyrinthine structure with waves thundering through its statue filled halls. Piranesi spends his time exploring, fishing, foraging and calculating the tides while recording everything that happens in his journals, ready for his meetings with the Other. The Other is the only other […]

It’s the little things…

Bill Bailey's Remarkable Guide to Happiness by Bill Bailey

January 17, 2021 by TheShitWizard 7 Comments

Bill Bailey was apparently much more productive than most of us have been during this pandemic, having used our first UK lockdown to write this Remarkable Guide to Happiness. Despite the title, this isn’t exactly a self-help book and Bailey hasn’t swallowed the Little Book of Calm (aah, Black Books. I am definitely due a re-watch) This is a very good thing, as I think I’m actually allergic to that genre, so was glad to find this is actually a gently lovely tour through the […]

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.

About TheShitWizard