Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A Worthy Prequel to Bone

Rose by Jeff Smith and Charles Vess

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Wrapping up my Bone series re-read with the prequel graphic novel, Rose. This is written by Jeff Smith but illustrated by Charles Vess, so you’re not getting Jeff Smith’s cartoony style here, despite the misleading cover. Instead, you get Vess’s beautiful full-painted art, which is unfortunately a little squashed and hard to make out the fine details in the edition I got. I think it would have been better served by a full trade binding, but I ended up with a library edition with a “Kidproof Cover,” […]

“His skin neatly tailored over his bones:” A Great YA SF/F Novel

Dragon's Blood by Jane Yolen

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I’m unable to be objective about this book since I’ve been reading it since childhood. I love it, it really is a perfect book to start a person onto sf/f. Dragon’s Blood follows Jakkin, who is an indentured servant at a dragon fighting stable. He’s an orphan whose father was killed when he was trying to train a feral dragon and whose mother died after they went into indentured servitude. The book blends science fiction and fantasy, as the dragon fighting happens on an alien planet […]

I would like to join the Tea Dragon Society

The Tea Dragon Society by Kay O'Neill

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Dome’Loki introduced me to Kay O’Neill’s The Tea Dragon Society through her Cannonball Read review. The adorable cover won me over immediately. I was so taken with it that I impulsively supported the Chamomile plush Kickstarter campaign without ever reading the books. I couldn’t decide which dragon I wanted, so I simply ordered all of them with the first book. After several months, they finally arrived and made my day! This children’s book is the first in a series. It introduces us to Greta who […]

A trope to get rid of and maybe some more worldbuilding to add

Burn the Witch vol. 1 by Tite Kubo

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I already knew the story going into Burn the Witch (vol.1); the graphic novel is an adaptation of a limited episode series, and they match pretty closely. What I don’t quite get is the title; there aren’t really any witches. There are people with special powers but it’s not really magic exactly in that there is no real system explained and those who are licensed aren’t vilified. The concept is partially familiar: there is a mirror world to our own in which dragons are real, […]

Get your Dragon on

City of Dragons V01 The Awakening Storm by Jaimal Yogis

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I read City of Dragons V01 The Awakening Storm by Jaimal Yogis right after finishing Messy Roots. I was afraid that they would be too similar and ruin the experience of this second title. Thankfully, their differences made both a delightful reading experience. Now, Yogis does write for the younger crowd (at least 8-9 but probably more 10 to 14), but that older reader of Messy Roots could get lost in the excitement, magical, and even the silly adventures. In City of Dragons, we have […]

“Whichever story you believe, my mother, Chang’e, became immortal. As did I.”

Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

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A child of the Moon Goddess, and an immortal herself,  Xingyin grows up on the moon, with just her mother & their family servant/long time companion. For the most part, the three of them are happy, if isolated. Xingyin senses a grief in her mother that she can’t quite explain, and within herself she feels a growing sense to reach out … for something more. She can’t label it, and her mother has warned her against reaching for it, but the pull towards that other […]



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