I have loved the Johannes Cabal series so far. Each installment is modeled on a different author-style, including Ray Bradbury, steam punk, Lovecraft, and a monster apocalypse. This latest looks like it will be modeled on Poe, just based on the title The Fall of the House Cabal, but it’s not. This one breaks from the trend, and does its own thing, which in a way is in keeping with traditions of the series. The author says so directly in the Preface. Some of the […]
Well that was unexpected….
Tranquil Star by Primo Levi
I know Primo Levi primarily from his personal narratives. He is an Auschwitz survivor, and many of his most famous writings relate his various experiences during that time. Some of his other writings discuss his work as a chemist or his brief stint in the Italian army before the war. This collection of short stories began in a similar vein. The very first story is about a captured Italian partisan who has the opportunity to set of a opportunistically positioned German grenade. As I was […]
The sort of book I would have liked more had I read it 20 years ago
I’m giving this book 3 stars, and I feel guilty about it. I feel guilty because I know it’s a classic, because it’s 50 years old and still going strong, because the writing is really beautiful, and because I KNOW that if I had read this 15-20 years ago, I would have adored it. 8-13 year old me, who reread books about Narnia and Prydain and various retellings of King Arthur legends year after year (and read a crapload of mediocre Catholic historical fiction in the […]
Yer a Wizard Harry!
Excluding one or two books over the last three years I have been exclusively reading New-to-Me books since joining CBR. This year I wanted to reread some books I hadn’t read in a few years and while I really want to tackle some of the books from my high school English classes I started with Harry Potter. I am a huge fan of the movie series (despite owning all the dvds I will still drop everything if Freeform is running a marathon) but I have only […]
Run far, run fast, keep the wind in your hair
Memories of Ash picks up about a year after the conclusion of Intisar Khanani’s Sunbolt. Hitomi, now using the name Hikaru, has been under the tutelage of Brigit Stormwind, learning to perform healing magic and attempting to regain her lost memories. This interlude comes to an end with the visit from representatives of the High Council of Mages. Stormwind has been called to the council to answer charges of treason. Hitomi must emerge from hiding to confront her enemy Arch Mage Blackflame in order to save her […]
Cleaning up Cthulu
The Laundry Files had been recommended to me as a series before, and this time it was a book shop employee pushing them, so I picked it up. The book took me about two weeks to read. I carried it to and from work, and always found a reason to read something else. (Though the news these days is very distracting..) Normally I read much faster than that! The book is a mix of an old school spy novel (he describes his influences as Len […]