Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“I’m dealing with a lot of scary things. I think you have to react to them. And you either laugh at them or you go insane.”

Death Masks (The Dresden Files #5) by Jim Butcher

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I feel like I’ve probably mentioned this in all of my previous reviews of this series but I’m going to mention it again right out of the gate: this book is read by James Marsters, i.e., Spike from Buffy, and he IS Harry Dresden, a delicious and perfect choice for the browbeaten, sarcastic, hapless, chauvinistic wizard. And that is what Harry is. I’ve scanned some reviews that are like, “ugh, when will Harry learn” and “he’s such a chauvinist” and well yes. But that’s the […]

In the name of the Pizza Lord. Charge!

Summer Knight by Jim Butcher

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Here I am again, another Dresden file closed! And I’m still along for the ride. The gang is all here: the entire wizard White Council, a blast from the past Dresden thought was gone, kooky fairy godmother Leanansidhe, more oodles of fairies, wolfy friends, and head of SI Karrin Murphy. Speaking of, I had NO IDEA he was spelling her first name like that until I started looking up quotes for my post title: the perils of audiobook. That led me to read another review […]

Sloppy editing, battle that just kept going, and an egregious character death: Peace Talks part B

Battle Ground by Jim Butcher

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Jim Butcher said it was a publishing decision to break apart Peace Talks and Battle Ground into two books due to length and the sharp turn between the two halves of the story.  However, I’m not certain this was justified or needed.  Last year I read two books that were longer than the combined length of Peace Talks and Battle Ground.  And I suspect had the two been published together that the overall book would have been smaller, had the story not needed to be padded out to fill two […]

Dresden’s very long list of things to do and the best quote, “Home is where you embrace the present and plan the future.  It’s where the books are.”

Peace Talks by Jim Butcher

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For the first time I’m going to attempt to work on my review while still reading the book.  Let’s see what happens! 2/23 : I haven’t touched a Dresden novel since the release of the previous volume in 2014, so before cracking open Peace Talks had to look up recaps for Skin Game and Cold Days to refresh my memory.  As it’s been several years, I had forgotten how quickly the stakes are introduced and Harry is thrown into the fire but this book seems to have […]

Holy s***,” I breathed, “heckhounds.”

Grave Peril (Dresden Files #3) by Jim Butcher

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I am continuing my Dresden Files journey and so very into it. In fact, I find Jim Butcher to be a perfect fantasy antithesis of my previous read/review, which was the last in the N.K. Jemisin Broken Earth trilogy. Where Jemisin is layered and cerebral, Butcher is spoon-feeding you and a fun romp. In each book of the series, I get hints of the Tru Blood series in that Butcher ploddingly repeats himself with character intros, Harry, tortured wizard Detective; Karrin Murphy tough as nails […]

If Spike is reading, I’m listening

Fool Moon: The Dresden Files, Book 2 by Jim Butcher

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Back for another installment of The Dresden Files, as read to me by the impeccable James Marsters, aka, Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. If listening to him read is wrong than I don’t want to be right. He is so soothing in my airpods, just the perfect pandemic listen. He has just the right gravel in his voice to BE Harry Dresden, wizard detective, and the acting chops to make the other characters distinctive and interesting: all in all, a very solid audio performer. […]



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