Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“When gods dance, humanity trembles”

The Merciless Ones by Namina Forna

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Completely separate from the book, but can we just talk about what a disappointment the cover is? The cover for The Gilded Ones was fire, but this? I mean, it’s not bad, but it’s nowhere near as great. This was one of my most anticipated sequels of the year, and it didn’t disappoint. Since this is the second book in a trilogy, this review will contain spoilers for the first book. Deka has taken her place as the Nuru, the chosen one of the Gilded […]

Dark and Light and Lots of Greys

Spontaneous Human Combustion by Richard Thomas

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In this collection, Thomas presents fourteen short works of speculative fiction which blend science fiction, fantasy, and horror together in intriguing ways. It’s hard to write this review because of the diversity of the tales. The stories touch upon a plethora of genres and themes, including familial relationships, transformation, and atonement. A common device the author uses is cyclical time loops, which often lends a dream-like quality to the story that is enhanced by his deft prose. One thing I really liked about the collection […]

A Well Drawn Fantasy World

A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos

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A Winter’s Promise by Christelle Dabos is the first in a quartet of of fantasy YA novels called The Mirror Visitor Series.  Thankfully, somebody decided this book was good enough to be translated from the French for us American readers. The story is set in a future world where people live on different Arks. Family members on each Ark share a special power. Ophelia lives on Anima and is gifted with the power to travel through mirrors and to “read” objects. This ability allows her […]

I can’t tell if this is a good or bad thing.

House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas

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So many thoughts. First and most important? Please get a new editor, Ms. Maas. A brutal editor or team of brutal editors is imperative for the next book. Your literary garden needs some serious weeding, lady. The blooms are there but they are choked under the kudzu. The weight of these books pushes me closer to carpal tunnel syndrome unnecessarily. End of rant. Well, maybe not…This book is another doorstop. Took me over a month to finish it. I nearly stopped reading it several times […]

Charm and irreverance happen to be my two favorite traits.

House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas

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Yep. Still riding the Maas train all the way to the station, I guess. This is the first book in the Crescent City series and it has all of the crazy world-building, will they won’t they, and wing-ed love interests that make a Maas book a Maas book. Whew. I really, really thought I was going to give up on this one until about 1/4 of the way in. Since this is an 800 page doorstop of a book, that was a good 200 pages of me […]

Night of the Living Hello Kitty Princess Demon-Deity

Escape From Yokai Land by Charles Stross

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I’ve had Charles Stross’ Laundry Files series in my TBR for a while; got the first one on Kindle sale a while back; it was pretty good. Grabbed 3 more from the library, although not quite in sequence. It turns out that you can read this series out of order and it will still mostly make sense. There may be references to someone dies or got married or is in another job or a certain probably evil who knows what is back, but how that […]



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