Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The Fatal Flaw of a Single Drop

Fauna by Denise Robins

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Fauna is stolen away from her village in Africa and enslaved at twelve – but her mixed blood offers her a greater chance of a happy life in England, even though it comes with its own specific dangers too. This is a bit of a hodgepodge review, because this is the omnibus edition of a trio of books following Fauna and her descendants. Originally published in the 1950s, the books have a for-their-time sympathetic treatment of the mixed-race Fauna and her descendants, even if that […]

“I’ll say it again, ideas are fragile things and sometimes it takes multiple people to pull a good one out of the ether. Just make sure everyone is pulling in the same direction.

Saga (Volume 10) by Brian K Vaughan

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CBR Bingo – Picture This Saga has always been a graphic roller coaster of emotion and violence wherein you’re laughing one minute, gasping the next, grimacing as you turn the page, and tearing up as you finish the volume. That said, the last issue was a coaster that ended with a straight drop into a splash pad of utter misery, leaving you stunned. Thus, it was hard to go on after volume 9 because of (MAJOR SPOILER REDACTED) but I felt I had dragged my […]

“The happiest families I ever met were all frayed…but they were also tighter than a hangman’s noose.”

Saga (Volume 7) by Brian K Vaughan

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I’m still a million years behind in Saga and this will be the last installment I read for 2022, which is quite the note to end on. As it’s the tale end of the holiday season and I still have Christmas on my brain, to sum up my feelings I will steal from the immortal words of Kevin McCallister as he looks at Buzz’s girlfriend’s photograph, “Woof.” This installment of the series is a doozy. Hazel has finally been reunited with her family and they […]

Not a wasted panel, and every bit as good as I’d hoped it would be

Saga (Vol. 1) by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

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As someone on the outside of the comic book world looking in, Saga has always been one of those comics (like Watchmen or Akira) that seems universally loved by fans and respected by critics. So it seems like something I should probably at least give a shot to. And, if this one book is anything to go by, it’s absolutely deserving of that framing. Alana and Marko are from two different, warring, extraterrestrial species. Marko was a prisoner, and Alana was a guard tasked with keeping him […]

What Ever Happened to Baby Darren?

Public Secrets by Nora Roberts

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After being rescued from her abusive mother, Emma goes on to live a charmed life with her father and his wife – at least until a tragedy befalls the whole family. This is an older Nora, and one I picked up because the premise reminded me of those family saga/career girl dramas from the 80s that I love, and indeed I wasn’t disappointed in that regard. In many ways this is a coming-of-age story for Emma, and there was plenty of drama and excess to […]

“You’ll never understand the way the worlds really work until you surround yourself with people from all sorts of weird backgrounds.”

Saga: Volume Four by Brian K. Vaughan (writer), Fiona Staples (artist)

Saga: Volume Five by Brian K. Vaughan (writer), Fiona Staples (artist)

Saga: Volume Six by Brian K. Vaughan (writer), Fiona Staples (artist)

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The Saga re-read continues. I’m still in love with this series. It’s rare to have humor, sorrow, wit, action, adventure, and beautiful drawings married in one text, but this is that text. Volume Four would be my sole four star rated volume, but I am refusing to grade these against themselves, they are collectively some of the best storytelling I have read and will all be given five stars, regardless of swings in execution from volume to volume. That said, while I’m sure that the plot […]



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