folklore – Page 14 – Cannonball Read 17

In which I rant about the heroine

The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden

May 26, 2019 by CoffeeShopReader Leave a Comment

I was about the day I finished The Girl in the Tower-years old when I realized two things: one, this series is YA darkish fantasy romance; and two, I don’t especially care for YA darkish fantasy romance. The problem is that there are a few characters I do want to see what happens to and the setting is interesting, with its mix of Russian folklore and history. I also do like the conflict from the first novel, not so much present here, between the old […]

A promising start to a new series

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

May 12, 2019 by Malin Leave a Comment

Spoiler warning! While this is the start of a new series, it does follow on directly from Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha trilogy and her Six of Crows duology. While you will understand the plot fine if you haven’t read the previous books, you WILL be spoiled for events in both series. Spoilers may also appear in this review. Proceed at your own risk. From Goodreads, because I finished the audiobook two months ago (sigh): Nikolai Lantsov has always had a gift for the impossible. No one knows what he endured in […]

A Little Less Sparkle the Second Time Around

The Ancient Magus Bride The Silver Yarn by Kore Yamazaki et al.

April 14, 2019 by CoffeeShopReader Leave a Comment

The second The Ancient Magus Bride short story collection, The Silver Yarn, had some ups and downs, and in the end I wasn’t quiet as in love with the stories as with the first collection. I think maybe it was partially expectations, and partly the fact that the first collection had more references to the original characters and series. This set was still entertaining, it just didn’t have the same sparkle. Three stories stood out for me this time, and as it turns out, they […]

Great from beginning to end.

The Winter of the Witch (Winternight Trilogy, #3) by Katherine Arden

March 7, 2019 by narfna Leave a Comment

Time to buckle down and once again go at my review backlog. Apologies in advance for the sloppy or haphazard reviews about to spew forth from my keyboard. This trilogy, to sum up, is worth it. It’s a bit of a slow burn in the first book as Arden really sets her stage, with amazingly detailed descriptions of what life was like in medieval Russia, but I think all that set-up is more than worth it for the end product, which was a coming of […]

A wholly satisfying ending to a great fantasy trilogy

The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden

March 4, 2019 by Malin Leave a Comment

Spoiler warning! This is the third and final volume in the trilogy, and the action starts immediately after the second book. This is not the place to start. If you are not caught up, drop everything and start from the beginning with The Bear and the Nightingale. Vasilisa “Vasya” Petrovna managed to defeat one enemy, but at a great cost. Releasing the legendary firebird has caused much of Moscow to catch fire and the citizens, spurred on by the vengeful and jealous Father Konstantin are looking for […]

Everybody please read this so I can have somebody to talk to about it.

Black Leopard, Red Wolf (The Dark Star Trilogy, #1) by Marlon James

February 18, 2019 by narfna 3 Comments

NB: I received a gratis copy of the book from the publisher but that has not affected the content of my review. “You want to know what’s my purpose? To kill the men who killed my brother and father, leaving a grandfather fucking my own mother. To kill the men who killed my brother, because they killed him because he killed one of theirs. Who killed one of his, who killed one of theirs, and on and on while even gods die. My purpose is […]

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