Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

‘The Idea Is, Even if I Do Explode, I’m Only Going to Be a Risk to Sheep’

Stone and Sky by Ben Aaronovitch

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Been a while! I can’t believe that we are at now ten books into the Rivers of London series. This is another one of those urban fantasy-slash-detective series that I’ve been enjoying over the years. And like some of the others, Rivers of London has 1) experienced a bit of a gap between novels (three years) and 2) reached a bit of a pivotal point in the over-reaching narrative.  Let’s get the biggest thing out of the way first: Stone and Sky is a Rivers […]

An Urban Fantasy Featuring Slavic Folklore

When Among Crows by Veronica Roth

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cbr17bingo: diaspora—a lot of the non-human creatures settled in the U.S. after fleeing the Holy Order in Europe, especially Poland. Who knew Veronica Roth had written so many books? I kind of lost sight of her after the Divergence trilogy, but she has a number of other publications to her name now, and I’m glad I decided to start exploring them. This novella is an urban fantasy set in Chicago. It follows Dymitr, who makes a deal with Ala, a zmora—a fear-eating creature—to help him […]

“I was getting tired of being in an endless succession of things called “the fight of a lifetime.” Just once, I’d like to have the fight of a Tuesday afternoon.”

One Salt Sea by Seanan McGuire

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The night-haunts never lie. They could, if they wanted to, but they don’t really see the point. The truth is so much more dangerous than a lie. Life is starting to look up for Toby; she’s dating again, she’s taken on Quentin as her squire, she’s discovered she’s something called a Dochas Sidhe (more on that in a later book), May has moved in, and no one has tried to kill her in a while. Of course, because this is October Daye we’re talking about, […]

“Toby, please stop punching Etienne in the head. It’s not helping.”

Late Eclipses by Seanan McGuire

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Ah, the continuing saga of Toby Daye getting kicked in the teeth. After the events of last book, Toby now has to deal with her friends being poisoned, her death getting ever closer, the Luidheag not talking to her, four of five people who just need a fresh one across the face, and the possibility she’s slowly going insane; just another day in San Francisco. Rereading the series, I’ve started noticing how many books have Toby behind the eight ball for most of the plot. […]

“We have to burn brightly. We can’t burn forever”

Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire

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Hidden amongst mortals, the Fae carve out lives in the human world and small pockets of alternate space they’ve carved out called Knowes. When one of them decides to play “Faerie Bride” and take a human to their bed, a Changeling; half-human half-fae is born. Given the choice between their human side (and death) or their fae side (and never seeing their human parent again), most choose Fae. October “Toby” Daye was one of these. Barely tolerated by the fae for her halfblood status, she […]

“Once upon a time, there was a human girl stolen away by faeries, and because of that, she swore to destroy them.”

The Wicked King by Holly Black

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And the hits keep coming and they don’t stop coming. Jude has succeeded in her plans; her brother Oak, heir to the throne of Faerie is safe; Cardan sits on the throne in his stead, with Jude as the power behind the throne. If only Cardan wasn’t trying to thwart her at every turn, enemies weren’t behind every corner, someone close to her wasn’t planning to betray her, and Jude hadn’t accidentally caught the feels for Cardan. As the promised year of Cardan’s semi-obedience to […]



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