Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

My first encounter with the source material

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

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Cbr17bingo Green I never read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a kid. Like many, my acquaintance with the story was from the 1939 film, which I always enjoyed watching even though the flying monkeys and Wicked Witch scared me. Later, in high school or college, I remember hearing that the original story was an allegory about turn-of-the-century American populism and the argument over whether or not the gold standard should be abandoned. You can read a bit about that theory here. Whether or not […]

Hic sunt dracones

The Keeper's Six by Kate Elliott

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CBR Bingo: Rec’d (this recommendation actually comes courtesy of Emmalita, when I asked for recommendations for more fantasy books with main characters that are older women). I’ve read a couple of Kate Elliott’s books before, but not very recently. Before picking up The Keeper’s Six, I’d sort of forgotten about her work. I remember enjoying her previous books, but nothing much actually about their contents. This is a pretty short novel, that follows Esther, a 60-ish-year-old. Early one morning, she receives a brief, fearful phone call […]

“I am the sea witch. I am the tide you fear and the turning you can’t deny. I am the sound of the waves running over your bones on the beach, little man, and I am not amused at finding you on my doorstep.”

Chimes At Midnight (Toby Daye #7) by Seanan McGuire

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Is there any time in your life when you do not feel the need for caffeine? Sure. Sometimes I’m asleep. I think Seanan McGuire has this need to balance a book where Toby’s life goes reasonably well for most of it with a book where she gets kicked in the teeth for a large chunk; last book was happy, so now here comes the steel-toed boot. What happened? she breathed, staring at me. I got hit in the face with a pie, I said. Mags […]

“I did not consent to your presence,” she said peevishly. “Please depart, and attempt your political assassination on someone else’s property.”

Ashes of Honor (Toby Daye #6) by Seanan McGuire

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It’s been a year since the events of One Salt Sea, Toby Daye is throwing herself into danger and figuring out an exit plan as she goes, and her friends and allies are worried that she’s going to get herself killed one of these days; so honestly, nothing has really changed from the first five books. So when Etienne, her liege’s seneschal, shows up asking for her help, Toby figures this is one more cliff to throw herself off of, and (unfortunately, quoting Cassandra Clare […]

hot take exactly the book I needed, despite having literally no context or appreciation for the in-universe joke

Tusk Love by Thea Guanzon

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BINGO: Red, what a fantastic dress our female hero’s got on What a funny book, I knew it was something something but I didn’t bother to look too closely before picking it up — while I’ve found her Hurricane Wars series a bit uneven, Guanzon’s earlier fannish work remains some of my all time faves. I’ve grown out of the descriptions of clothes for sure, but she’s got a deft touch for dialogue and scene setting…and a very good touch when it comes to frick […]

hot take the vibe was good, but the magic system (or witchcraft, or what have you) suffered from some floppiness that ruins the tension

Weyward by Emilia Hart

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BINGO: “Green” — so much of the book is about the Weyward relationship t to nature, and while it’s more about animals than trees it still feels green to me It’s a classic issue: if there’s magic, there needs to be flaws which prevent our characters from just MacGuffin-ing their way to a happy resolution. Call it the Kryptonite Conundrum, wherein Superman is required to have a rather odd, easily transported weakness lest he turn up at every fight, punchy punchy stare-y stare-y and everyone […]



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