Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Something Skittering Just Out Of Frame

Dead Country by Max Gladstone

by Leave a Comment

Max Gladstone’s Craft Sequence series is one of my favorite examples of fantasy world building. Gladstone took the core idea of ‘what if soul-stuff could be traded?’ and built a magical system—known as The Craft—out of it. He then expanded further and asked ‘So what if a world’s sole currency is well, the soul? What would this mean for the financial system? What kind of corporate world would develop around this? Imagine a metropolis or two arising out of this system? How would they operate?’ […]

Nostalgia. And My Favorite Cat.

Obernewtyn by Isobelle Carmody

by 2 Comments

Obernewtyn, by Australian author Isobelle Carmody, is the first book in what was originally meant to be a five part series. However, this original plan didn’t quite pan out and The Obernewtyn Chronicles ended up pulling the same kind of seam-splitting expansion that would later be codified in popular culture by The Song of Ice and Fire by growing to a total of seven books. Which were published across nearly thirty years*. The series itself is as old as I am.  I’ve always had a […]

A new favorite book that could not fit better into this BINGO square if it tried. CBRBINGO – Bananas

Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell

by 2 Comments

This is a ridiculous book that I loved very much. Also, because I have low spoons at the moment and also because I couldn’t do better, here is the blurb: Shesheshen has made a mistake fatal to all monsters: she’s fallen in love. Shesheshen is a shapeshifter, who happily resides as an amorphous lump at the bottom of a ruined manor. When her rest is interrupted by hunters intent on murdering her, she constructs a body from the remains of past meals: a metal chain […]

Is It Coming Home?

The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman

by 2 Comments

Read as part of CBR16 Bingo: fanfic. This is Lev Grossman’s take on the King Arthur mythos.  I don’t really know how to write this review because I loved it and I really want to give it my full throated endorsement. But there are things I loved about the book itself and things as an Arthur fan that I both loved and hated. Let’s start here: it’s one of the best things I’ve read in 2024. I liked the first Magicians book, less so the other two. […]

“That was what it meant to have power, wasn’t it? You could simply destroy that which didn’t serve you.”

Seven Faceless Saints by M.K. Lobb

by Leave a Comment

CBR16 Bingo: Rage – Roz and her friends rage against the machine, trying to make a change in the very workings of their city-state. In a city-state where there is a sharp class divide between those blessed by the saints and those without magic, ex-lovers Roz and Damian must work together to uncover the identity of a ritual murderer. I don’t read as much fantasy as I used to nowadays – certainly I don’t read much YA fantasy anymore, especially from authors I am unfamiliar […]

“Books were a dirty job, one of the black arts, along with witchcraft and printing.”

The Book of the Most Precious Substance by Sara Gran

by Leave a Comment

This was a fascinating read! I can see why it comes so highly recommended by people whose opinions on books I trust. This is also a genremash book, with a little bit of lot of stuff thrown in, and done very well. We’ve got horror, fantasy (on the dark end), literary fiction, and a bit of a mystery plot as well. I will not be talking hugely about the plot, because watching it unfold is too fun to spoil, but this starts off about a […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo