Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Revisiting old faves/comfort food

The Spirit Ring by Lois McMaster Bujold

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I like to re-read and review at least one Lois book per year, even though it’s always hard for me to think of much to say besides “I love this!” It’s been a while since I revisited Fiametta, so I chose one of Lois’s rare (only?) standalone books, the fantasy Spirit Ring. Also rarely, this book takes place in the real(ish) world, in Renaissance-y Italy. Except that there’s magic. Fiametta Beneforte is a bright, headstrong daughter of a wealthy sorcerer and metalworker. Her father creates […]

I finally tackle the Temeraire series (four months ago). #CBRBingo – And So It Begins

His Majesty's Dragon (Temeraire, #1) by Naomi Novik

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This is why I never DNF books. Well, that and the OCD (legit, not just using it facetiously). I had a hard time getting into this (I’ve had a hard time getting into several books the last couple of months–my brain is not wanting to cooperate with me). It took me what felt like weeks to get past the first thirty pages. And it’s not like what was there was bad, I just couldn’t engage myself in it for some reason. Novik styles the book […]

Redemption for the Great Library

Smoke and Iron by Rachel Caine

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Bingo 12 (Youths!) I have to admit I’d really gotten close to giving up on The Great Library Series. The last volume was pretty bad; it had little action, and a lot of the characters started to look bad or empty. Thankfully, many of those issues were resolved in Smoke and Iron (Great Library #4). Smoke and Iron begins where Ash and Quill left off. Jess and his twin Brandon have switched places, and “Brendan” goes to the Great Library to hand over Morgan (beloved […]

“I want a man who stays out of my way.”

Waistcoats & Weaponry (Finishing School, #3) by Gail Carriger

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All right, I liked this one quite a bit. I’m invested in the series now. But I’m still only giving this 3.5 stars, rounded up, because it shouldn’t take you two books to be emotionally invested. I should have been in like Flynn after book one. Anyway, I finished this book in a frenzy and immediately wanted the next one (which I’m not getting to until next month, sadface), so that’s a great sign. Sophronia and Co. are halfway through their second year at Madame Geraldine’s Finishing […]

Overall an amazing alternate history but what I really appreciated was the portrayal of the main character’s anxiety

The Calculating Stars: A Lady Astronaut Novel by Mary Robinette Kowal

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Mary Robinette Kowal seems to lean towards alternate history in her speculative fiction writing.  The Glamourist Histories re-imagines the regency era with illusion magic.  Ghost Talkers creates a WWII in which spiritual mediums talk to recently dead soldiers to get information on battles.  In The Lady Astronaut novels, Kowal has dreamed up an alternate timeline where a gigantic meteorite strikes the Atlantic just off the East coast of the United States in 1952, destroying much of the Eastern seaboard and annihilating most of the US government.  Recovering from […]

I hate me some damn rebs.

How Few Remain by Harry Turtledove

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I’ve been an avid reader of history for most of my life, and I’ve long been fascinated by alternate history. It’s almost impossible to read history without wondering how much of the world would be different with a minor change or two. For all that, I’ve only ever read The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick (years ago). I thought it was okay, but not really what I wanted. How Few Remain takes place in the early 1880s, during the presidency of […]



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