Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“What did that make me? The one without any visibly useful skills. The Bard, obviously.”

Questland by Carrie Vaughn

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What if the world you play in at your DnD table could be made real, and you could go on vacation and hang out there? Shut up and take my money, eccentric billionaire! Plot: Harris Lang, eccentric billionaire, has a problem. He has invested untold sums in a Jurassic Park-esque private island that would allow visitors to live out their fantasies riding unicorns and fighting dragons. Which makes sense, because who WOULDN’T pay to go there? Only problem is that the employees on site have […]

Dragonopolis Sounds like Every Fantasy Nerd’s Idea of Heaven

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I could almost swear that I’ve read this book before, except that I haven’t according to Goodreads. It is entirely possible that I read a hardcover copy of the book and simply forgot to mark that down, but I’m still not really sure. Even though the book feels very familiar, as if I’ve read it before, nothing in it really triggered the certainty that I actually have and so I’m left with this uncomfortable feeling of uncertain déjà vu. The book, and its follow up, […]

Vampires Get Mid-life Ennui Too

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Paranormal Bromance is a novella set in the same world as Vaughn’s Kitty Norville novels. However, I don’t think you need to have read those to appreciate this story, though of course reading that series will give you a deeper appreciation for some of what is going on in the story. I really enjoyed it, as it skewers a lot of vampire tropes while looking at what it might be like to stay young while your mind ages. I believe this story is set right […]

We All March To The Empire’s Drum

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The question is can I get 250 words out about this short story? I think so, I definitely think it’s worth reading and I want to talk about it, plus I’ve been thinking about it ever since I finished so there’s something here. Carrie Vaughn is one of my favorite writers, but she’s one I forget is one of my favorite writers if that makes sense. She’s not flashy or showy, but she reliably writes some of the most enjoyable stories. I really ought to […]

An epic fantasy anthology, cherry-picked from other sources.

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This was a pretty great anthology. I was probably destined to like it because it’s pretty hard for me to dislike most kinds of fantasy. This is also different than some anthologies because the editor didn’t commission pieces for this book, but collected them from other already published sources. I sampled a lot of authors I’ve been meaning to try for some time, although I’m annoyed that some of the stories occur halfway through a series or something like that. If you like Epic fantasy […]

I’m a nice man.

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Rogues was my second George R.R. Martin/Gardner Dozois themed anthology in less than six months, and I’m happy to say I enjoyed it more overall than their previous effort, Dangerous Women. (I will pick up Warriors eventually. Maybe next year. I’m soooo done with anthologies for now.) And I’m sad to say, especially for how good Martin is at writing lady characters, I really think the main difference is that a lot of genre writers (including women!) just could not fathom how to write a […]



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