Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Maybe It’s the Timing

The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life (Vol. 3) by Usata Nonhara, Ox (illustrator)

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I’m torn: I like the general premise and a lot of the potential in the various story threads, but I’m starting to get annoyed with some of the main characters and perspectives. The basic idea of The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life (Vol. 3) is that Mariela, an alchemist puts herself in suspended animation to escape a monster attack and wakes up 200 years later alone in a changed world where her skills are highly valuable and rare. There’s an […]

When the word story is better than the graphic version

The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life, Vol. 2 (manga) by Guru Mizoguchi, Usata Nonhara, Ox

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I have decided that I like the light novelization of this story better, and this is unusual for me. Usually I run into the manga or anime first, then check out the light novels which tend to seem repetitive by comparison even if they actually came first. This is a warning that this will be as much exploration of why that is as it will be review. So, The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life has, besides a long unwieldly title, […]

Alice in Wonderland meets The Wizard of Oz with Alchemists

Middlegame by Seanan McGuire

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I’ve had Middlegame on my TBR shelf about since it came out and I’m just now getting to it. I think it really did help me to have read several other things by Seanan McGuire, and also to know that she considers this her most technical work to date. There are several parallel stories set up as well as some time bending woven into the story, and for me it mostly works. The main plotline is that of Roger and Dodger, twins created by mostly […]

In which side characters are the real ones

The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life, Vol. 2 (light novel) by Usata Nonhora

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  Light novel 2 in The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life really develops the world and some of the characters. Some darkness is introduced and more history about the status of alchemy and alchemists, and the Labyrinth, is really the focus of the volume. This means both more story and more world building. The biggest problem from book 1 gets a little worse in book 2 though, and that’s Mariela. She’s supposed to be the main heroine, but she’s totally […]

The Book with a Long Title but Not Much Depth

The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life by Usata Nonohara, Ox (illustrator), Guru Mizoguchi (manga)

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I don’t always agree with the reviewers in Otaku USA magazine in fact I often don’t, at least on some big point or another. This time however, they nailed it. I saw a review for The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life, which decided that this was unremarkable, but cute, more about the characters than the story. Then I was off on a business trip and had some time to spare on my way to the hotel and wandered into a […]

Mystery of the Book Smell

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I really enjoyed volume one of this series (The Accidental Alchemist), and I was looking forward to volume 2. The Masquerading Magician keeps up a lot of the things I liked about the first book, adds some good new stuff, but in the end loses some of the intrigue the novelty of the first book had. Two additions make this book almost as good as the first: Dorian’s backstory and Zoe’s fellow alchemist Tobias. The recurring subplot of trying to save Dorian from turning fully […]



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