Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The best #Pandemic read I could ask for

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

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Bingo Square: Pandemic This pandemic period, I did a great thing for my happiness: I read Gideon the Ninth. I’m going to eschew a plot description/blurb here and just say what everyone else has been saying: lesbian necromancers in space. Need a little more? Fine. Gideon is not a necromancer (but she is into girls). She hits things with swords so she’s recruited (unwillingly) to go to a big possibly haunted space castle/research facility with her worst enemy, her planet’s only surviving necromancer (who is into bones). […]

A bit of a disappointment from a favourite author #BookClub

A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay

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Bingo square: Book Club I was super excited when my book club (internationals/ex-pats in my city who get together and read fantasy) agreed to read the newest Guy Gavriel Kay book. I’ve been absolutely loving GGK the past year or so (even if I haven’t written reviews of Tigana or A Song for Arbonne yet). Unfortunately, A Brightness Long Ago did not live up to my expectations. Set in Batiara, a world like Renaissance Italy, the story follows Danio Cerra as he saves a young female […]

The economics of fantasy tropes

Orconomics: A Satire by J. Zachary Pike

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Gorm Ingerson is not the hero he used to be. Striped of all ranks and points and titles, Gorm will do anything to get back to the status he once held. That includes being willing (more or less) to go on a quest in service of a mad goddess with a band of other less than stellar heros. This questing group, made up a thief turned bard, a healing potion addicted ranger elf, a goblin squire, two warring mages, a silent weapons master, and a […]

Didn’t pay for this fantasy about economic warfare and rebellion #No Money

The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

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Having reviewed Going Postal and Making Money by Terry Pratchett for the #Money Bingo Square, I’m going to continue the theme by reading a book I paid no money for (thanks, Tor Ebook of the Month club!) that was also largely about money: The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson. Baru is young when her home, the island of Taranoke, is conquered by the Imperial Republic of Falcrest, known as the Masquerade because of the masks their government officials wear. She goes to the imperial school […]

Paging Mary Sue. Paging Mary Sue to the Tarot Academy

Tarot Academy 2: Spells of Breath and Blade by Sarah Piper

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We are still in the midst of a pandemic, so I think we all need some fun, light-hearted reads to keeps spirits high. I figured that the second installment in the Tarot Academy books would be that fun read. It became difficult to finish this book though on account that my eyes were constantly rolled to the back of my head. Where the first book in this series created an interesting and well-explained magical system that was balanced well with the romance parts of the story, […]

2020 Would Be Better with Cookie Golems

A Wizard's Guide To Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher

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I suppose this book is technically YA, since it has a 14-year-old protagonist, and no sex or swearing. However, it has a lot of murder, and politics, and war, and zombie horses, and a semi-sentient carnivorous sourdough starter named Bob. Truly a novel for our times. T. Kingfisher (AKA Ursula Vernon) is a really great author. I cannot emphasize that enough. I have never read a book by her that I didn’t enjoy. Much like Terry Pratchett, she uses fantasy tropes to speak to deeper […]



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