Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A cloth mage, a journalist, and some bad guys walk into a bar (this does happen at one point)

Innate Magic by Shannon Fay

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Innate Magic is an alternate history dark fantasy set in 20th century London. “The War” and associated arms races have happened and there’s the threat of some new major conflict on the horizon; this is mostly background though. Paul Gallagher and his best friend/found brother Thomas Dawes have just graduated magic college ready to pursue careers as Cloth Magicians; it seems like there’s basically 2 types of allowed magic: cloth and book. The ‘innate magic’ of the title is technically only allowed to one person, […]

Unfortunately, this one was just meh for me.

Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark

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I actually don’t have too much to say about this one because it didn’t really hit for me. I’m not really sure why, because I’ve liked everything else P. Djèlí Clark has written (Ring Shout was the last thing of his I hadn’t yet read). And I mean, I didn’t not like it, but it’s never really a good sign when your reader is liking your world-building and the alternate history aspects of your story more than your actual story, and more than the characters. […]

Late arrival on the Colson Whitehead Train, but I’m here to stay

The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead

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I’m using this as my #machinery square in Bingo!  I originally bought this book for an undergraduate class, like 15 years ago. And we never got around to reading it. Ever since, it’s been on my “to read” list.  I can’t believe I waited so long!  Colson Whitehead has risen to prominence for his other works – especially The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys and Harlem Shuffle – but this is his first novel. And it’s fantastic.  The Intuitionist takes place in an alternate […]

A mystery on the moon.

The Relentless Moon (Lady Astronaut, #3) by Mary Robinette Kowal

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This is my favorite of these books so far, but I will admit that there is just something about Kowal’s writing that doesn’t perfectly gel with my tastes. I’m curious enough to keep going to see how this series turns out, but I may need to rethink reading any more of her books (I also was pretty unenthused about the first book in her fantasy-Austen-pastiche series). We switch narrators from Elma York (who is on her way to Mars during the course of this book) […]

“The three of them sat there – a Ministry agent, a half-djinn, and a cat (likely), staring out past the balcony to the sleeping city they somehow had to find a way to save.”

A Master of Djinn (Dead Djinn, #3) by P. Djèlí Clark

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Another book in this world, please! I continue to have a really good time with these audiobooks. I loved Suehyla El-Attar’s narration—even though she mispronounces some words, which would normally make me lose it, but that’s how much I love her voice—it’s so melodious it squashes my inner pedant. We’re back with Fatma el-Sha’arawi—agent of the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities—in this first full novel (the first two were novellas) in this alternate-history, fantastical version of 1912 Cairo. Decades previously, a man named […]

Long Love The King

American Royals by Katharine McPhee

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I read this as part of a library reading challenge: genre I don’t read. I don’t read a lot of romance and, while this won’t change my mind on that, I can appreciate why people like this. Being a mystery fan, I expect that there’s a certain amount of cynicism with the genre. Cynicism towards governance, relationships, general human behavior. I feel like the best mysteries and crime novels tell us about ourselves, as if holding up a cracked but clean mirror. Romance has kind […]



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