Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Gripping Conclusion of the Passage Trilogy

The City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin

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Most of The City of Mirrors is set about 20 years after events of The Twelve. Virals haven’t been seen in decades, and citizens from Kerrville, TX, are moving out into settlements in other parts of Texas. They think the threat is gone because they don’t know about Fanning (AKA Zero). We learn a lot about Fanning. A large segment of the novel, about 100 pages’ worth, is dedicated to his first person account of his life prior to being infected. He was roommates with […]

Not As Many People Die as You Would Expect

The Twelve by Justin Cronin

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“Present day” in The Twelve is set about 5 years after events in The Passage. Some of the former cast of characters are tracking down virals, or trying to, at any rate. Others are slaves in Iowa in a settlement of sorts run by “redeyes” – people who are essentially “familiars” to the virals. Their nefarious plan is to have the 11 remaining virals move into something like a bunker in the town so they have a steady supply of food (i.e., people and livestock) […]

Kate’s back, baby!

Magic Tides by Ilona Andrews

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4.5 stars While this book is the start of a new chapter in the lives of Kate Daniels and her family, I suspect this book will work a lot better if you’ve read at least some of the previous thirteen books and various novellas. As always, I would recommend strongly skipping the first book (as do the authors themselves). Start with book 2, Magic Burns. Set seven years after Magic Triumphs (and about two years before the events of Blood Heir), Kate, her former Beast-Lord […]

Quite an Epic

The Passage by Justin Cronin

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Where to start? There so much that happens in this 800-page novel, which almost defies genre. Is it science fiction? Dystopian? Horror? Probably all of those, and more. The novel starts in the near future, or what was probably the near future at the time it was written over a decade ago. Humans have discovered a naturally-existing virus that, when it doesn’t kill them, essentially turns people into vampires: long-lived, strong, easily heal, don’t do well in sunlight, etc. As mankind is wont to do, […]

It’s the biggest and most dangerous dating show in the universe!

Sweep of the Heart by Ilona Andrews

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This is not the place to start The Innkeeper Chronicles, as it’s the sixth installment overall (four full books and a novella come before it). This story has a LOT of callbacks to previous stories, so just start with Clean Sweep if you haven’t tried this yet. Innkeepers Dina DeMille and Sean Evans are still trying to recover from the last cosmic adventure that taxed them when they discover that Wilmos, the aging werewolf who’s pretty much Sean’s surrogate grandfather has been abducted. The traces […]

Hooked on the Alpha & Omega series

Alpha & Omega by Patricia Briggs

Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs

Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs

Fair Game by Patricia Briggs

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The natural progression of reading the Mercy Thompson novels was diving into the Alpha & Omega series. Anna is an omega wolf, which is very rare to find. She mates with Charles, the stoic Native American werewolf enforcer for the entire US territory. He is who you call upon when alpha wolves get out of line. He is the son of Bran, the Marrock. He is the ruler of the US werewolves and helped raise Mercy. Charles is sort of a brother to Mercy in […]



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