Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Questions on the Nature of All Good Things and Ending

All Good Things by Emma Newman

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Why is Cathy suddenly a potentially powerful Sorcerer? Who/What/How is Beatrice? And what’s up with her rather pointless ending? Why is Lucy suddenly back with a big part in the story? There must have been a better way to give Lucy purpose or explaining her besides using the otherwise pointless Edwin, right? Why do we need to hear so much from William, and what’s up with his sudden need for total power? Was that scene with him and Amelia necessary? Why is there so little […]

Not my kind of horror

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I just don’t see how the person who wrote the pretty darn good The Secrets of Drearcliff-Grange School could write this mess. I only half read Anno Dracula. At page 152, I realized I was starting to hate all the characters, started skimming to see if/when things might improve. They do not; I got to the end, and never took a liking to anyone or anything going on. It’s kinda too bad, since the premise isn’t bad. Basically, most of the crew of Stoker’s original […]

Fun Junk with a Hint of Handmaiden

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God Save the Queen is junk, but it’s fun junk. 3.5 stars really. It reads sort of like a Janet Evanovich novel, not terribly well-written but entertaining because of some interesting characters and narrative possibilities. In a world where vampires and werewolves are in charge (Queen Victoria is one of said vampires), goblins run the underworld (literally), and humans are viewed with suspicion (because they hate the monsters and half-breeds), of course Xandra the half-breed daughter of an aristocrat would discover something unusual about herself […]

If the mysteries of Iris and Lavandula are not revealed, we have a problem

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This is a good series. I like the world set up and I like most of the characters. And there’s one more, soon to be released volume to complete (I hope) the various narrative threads. The Split Worlds series is set in world where everyday normalcy exists, and is called Mundanus. But there’s 2 further dimensions; Exilium, where the Fey have been exiled to (get it?), and the Nether, where humans live who interact with the Fey and are stuck in time, literally and socially. […]

Not Enough Industrial Magic

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3.5 stars really. I was expecting a full novel but this is either a novella or a short YA book. The set up is pretty intriguing. In 1850 London, magic exists and those who have the talent are highly sought after. So much so that if/when talent is reported the Royal Society of Esoteric Arts shows up to check things out. IF the report is false, the maker is punished. If it’s accurate, the talented person is taken from their family for training. Once educated […]

Ending on A Good Note

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I was getting really worried for this series. I did not like the last 2 volumes I read; I kinda hated book 5 which I read just before book 3 which wasn’t much better. The Rise of the Automated Aristocrats, Book 6, went back to what this series does right: Burton and Swinburne together with pals taking on weirdness, and the final conclusion is pretty satisfying, even though it end up feeling a little like the whole series was designed around the question of why […]



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