standalone – Cannonball Read 17

“This is nothing but a tower, and I am nothing but a scientist of sufficiently advanced technology, which is to say a magician”

Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky

March 13, 2025 by faintingviolet Leave a Comment

I do not remember what part of our conversation in the end of year Cannonball Read Book Chat was that inspired me to put Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky onto my to read for the year. But I did add this science fiction novella to my list that day and then put it on my holds request list in January, proving that I was excited/interested enough to prioritize it to the early part of the year. But March me cannot remember specifically why December/January me did […]

We Thought We Knew Ye

Endless Night by Agatha Christie

October 24, 2021 by Jake Leave a Comment

Read as part of cbr13bingo: fauna. There’s a raven on the cover. Endless Night is the rare Agatha Christie standalone and I’m finding that between this, A Pale Horse, and And Then There Were None, I’m finding that I may enjoy her standalone works more than those that feature her superstar heroes Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. (A Crooked House may be the exception to this rule. That’s one I liked a lot less than I thought I would.) I think without the need to shoehorn the large personality and abrasive, […]

Standalone fantasy novels are rare and precious. This one was not bad.

December 27, 2018 by Malin 1 Comment

Khai was destined from birth to become the Shadow of the Sun-blessed princess Zaryia. Both born during the same eclipse, Khai was the child who caught the hawk’s feather thrown by the selected priestess, thus confirming that he was the chosen one. Raised by warrior priests deep in the desert, Khai is trained in all the deadly arts of stealth and fighting, and gets his first chance to kill a man at age nine. He hones all his abilities to become the very best Shadow […]

Family Matters

October 27, 2018 by Jake Leave a Comment

As much as I loved the ending, I came away thinking this should have been much better than it was. Aside from a few standalone works, the most famous being And Then There Were None (still my favorite of hers), Agatha Christie is mostly known for her two famous detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. I imagine she probably got bored of writing for them (I almost certainly know this was true of Poirot) so on this one, she decided to venture out on her own. […]

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