Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Space Chasers V01 by Leland Melvin, Joe Caramagna, and Alison Acton

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The graphic novel Space Chasers V01 by Leland Melvin, Joe Caramagna, and Alison Acton (illustrator) is probably one of the most unbelievable books I have recently read. Oh sure, ages strong 8 and 9 to aged 13 readers are going to LOVE it, because it is about kids and the cool thing they get to do: save the world by screwing up and going to space! Yeah I would have loved this too at that age. I mean, we are kids! I mean we’re awesome! […]

“We consider it cruel,” Maia said. “And we do not think that cruelty is ever just.”

The Goblin Emperor (The Chronicles of Osreth #1) by Katherine Addison

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It was the first time in his life Maia had been surrounded by people who were like him instead of only snow-white elves with their pale eyes, and he missed several names in the effort not to faint or hyperventilate or burst into tears. ― Katherine Addison, The Goblin Emperor The memories of a thousand separate cruelties mocked him, but no one save Maia himself had ever counted those as wrongs, and it was unjust to have them declared wrongs now, merely because he could. […]

“Christ,” said Peter. “Hell is a campus.”

Katabasis: A Novel by R. F Kuang

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Katabasis, noun, Ancient Greek: The story of a hero’s descent to the underworld Alice Law has but one goal: to become one of the greatest in the field of Magick; to make all the sacrifices (her pride, her health, her love life, her self-respect, and most of all her sanity) worthwhile. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world. (And one of the worst humans; but what does a vicious personality and a tendency to drive others to […]

“All Shesheshen could do for Homily was be patient with her, and make space for her, and eventually, one day behind her back, eat her mother.”

Someone You Can Build A Nest In by John Wiswell

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Shesheshen is an amorphous lump who lives at the bottom of a pool in an abandoned house, hibernates during the winter, and occasionally shapeshifts into something vaguely  humanoid, wanders down to the village, and eats people. Only apparently bad people, but I guess you can’t make the carnivorous monster who is the lead of your book unsympathetic by having them eat an orphan or an old lady or a kitten or a puppy or something like that. All goes well until the day hunters come […]

“Love was seeing the truth of a person. Love was keeping faith that the best version you saw was the truest.”

Better in Black: Ten Stories of Shadowhunter Romance by Cassandra Clare

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Basically what it says on the tin: ten short stories set in the Shadowhunter Universe, each centered on one couple (or throuple, in one case.) They are as follows: The Good Storm (Will Herondale/Tessa Grey, set during their honeymoon.): So trite, so overblown. Cassie, if you can’t write sex scenes that don’t read like they’re from a bodice-ripper, don’t have them at all. Also, maybe keep track of the ages of your characters; why did you write a fifteen year old sounding more like a […]

Where Lovecraft Meets Spycraft

The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross

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I’m still making my way through the Laundry Files books, in hope that I’ll be reviewing the final one before the year is out. In my revere of the Atrocity Archives I did mention that while the premise was good, the book was quite episodic and disjointed. To expand on that a little: re-reading it, it seems clear that the author was exploring two distinct ideas — mixing the public sector with eldritch horrors, and mixing espionage with eldritch horrors. Some of the later books […]



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