Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Why I can’t finish action manga series most of the time

Jujutsu Kaisen vols 13-15 by Gege Akutami

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Something that annoys me is when action-based stories spend many pages, episodes, or volumes telling a bunch of different sides, parts, or experiences of a fight; it gets boring and I lose track, get bored, or both. Jujustsu Kaisen has gone there. It started a volume or two ago, and volumes 13, 14, and 15 continue the fighting for the same fight. Volume 15 at least contains a hint maybe actual plot or character might be impending. Really the only thing that makes these sequences […]

Jules Verne for the Zoomers.

Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan

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30 Books in 30 Days, Vol. 2 Book 27/30 So I read another Rick Riordan book after I said I was going to stop, but I just get so curious! And this is the first Middle Grade book he’s written in FOREVER that isn’t about demigods, and it’s a play on 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which I used to love when I was a kid. And it was good! I didn’t love it, because it’s not for me, but I did like it, and […]

An interesting ending to a trilogy

Soulstar by C.L. Polk

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Sigh this novel was, if possible, even more disheartening than the prior Stormsong. Again, I think your mileage might very much vary–and as before I will attempt to give a non-spoiler review before diving into some of the plot specifics from the prior novels (no specifics per se about this novel, though). If the first book, Witchmark, was 50% mystery 25% magic 25% romance, and the second was about 25% mystery 25% romance 50% politics, with this third novel we’ve moved to 75% politics, 15% magic, 10% […]

A bit of a step down from book one for me, but ymmv

Stormsong by C.L. Polk

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I had really high hopes for this series, but as it turns out the enthusiasm I felt for the first novel wasn’t truly sustained throughout this one (or, for that matter, the third and final novel). I think it’s more of a ymmv type situation, though, so I’ll try my best to frame out my take. First note: I have found a word for these novels along with a whole Wikipedia article! They are apparently called gaslamp fantasy/gaslight fantasy, to distinguish from using steampunk (which […]

Allergic to an audiobook.

Fevered Star (Between Earth and Sky, #2) by Rebecca Roanhorse

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30 Books in 30 Days, Vol. 2 Book 26/30 I’m sad that I’m rating this three stars, but it’s representative of my experience listening to the audiobook. If/when I re-read, I think I will like it better. Also, when I see where the story is going in book three. Sad face. My biggest takeaway from this book is that I found it extremely difficult to make everything that was happening cohere into a story in my mind. Everything felt so disconnected, and so I was […]

The world is a constant compromise, a greeting of the other and of yourself.

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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There is something about Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s writing that just speaks to me. I haven’t read enough of her books to make definitive statements about her writing, but in the works I have read, it feels like she writes with one middle finger raised. It speaks to me. I don’t delude myself, as a white American whose ancestors definitely fucked around in places they should not have been, I am part of the group she is raising that middle finger at, and I am fine with […]



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