Cannonball Read 15

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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> FAQ Home
> Tag: alternative history

Back from whence you came

The London Seance Society by Sarah Penner

May 14, 2023 by CoffeeShopReader Leave a Comment

This was an airport bookstore grab on my birthday, one of those deals where if you bring it back within six months, you can get 50% of the cover price back. The London Séance Society will indeed be going back. It’s not a bad read or story, just not amazing enough to take up some of my limited shelf space. The alternating back and forth between two perspectives and narrators actually does some pretty cool stuff with unreliability; both narrators are but for very different […]

Filed Under: History, Speculative Fiction Tagged With: alternative history, ghosts, lgbtq characters, sarah penner, spiritualism, The London Seance Society, victorian england

CoffeeShopReader's CBR15 Review No:35 · Genres: History, Speculative Fiction · Tags: alternative history, ghosts, lgbtq characters, sarah penner, spiritualism, The London Seance Society, victorian england ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Old Magic in Not Too Old Times Past

The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix

February 19, 2023 by CoffeeShopReader Leave a Comment

The Left Handed Booksellers of London sounds like an interesting premise, and thankfully one that gets pulled off reasonably well. One thing I will say right off is that it’s a lot more interesting if you know a little bit about British or Celtic folklore; I also think the 1980s setting doesn’t get enough attention and that’s a totally missed opportunity. In a lot of ways the story is pretty standard: country child comes to the big city to pursue an education and find the […]

Filed Under: Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Young Adult Tagged With: #fantasy, alternative history, coming-of-age, folklore, garth nix, supernatural, the left-handed booksellers of london, YA

CoffeeShopReader's CBR15 Review No:14 · Genres: Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Young Adult · Tags: #fantasy, alternative history, coming-of-age, folklore, garth nix, supernatural, the left-handed booksellers of london, YA ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

I don’t want to review this book, Part 2: The Remix

Everfair by Nisi Shawl

July 11, 2018 by Dusty Highway 4 Comments

My appetite for Nisi Shawl’s Everfair has gone up and down since I first heard of it. It came highly recommended by multiple sources and ticked off so many intriguing boxes: a speculative, steampunk alternative history of an African nation by a woman of color. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. After I bought it earlier this spring, I noticed the Goodreads collective rating was on the low-ish side, and I’m not always as immune to popular opinion as I like to think I am. It […]

Filed Under: Fantasy, Fiction Tagged With: #CBR10, Africa, alternative history, everfair, Fiction, nisi shawl, steampunk

Dusty Highway's CBR10 Review No:36 · Genres: Fantasy, Fiction · Tags: #CBR10, Africa, alternative history, everfair, Fiction, nisi shawl, steampunk ·
Rating:
· 4 Comments

Don’t Expect Logical Actions from Racists

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

June 18, 2018 by Jen K 2 Comments

Thank you so much to caitycat! I doubt I would have stumbled across this novel without her review, and I thoroughly enjoyed it despite some minor complaints about potential red herrings or loose threads. The novel is set near Baltimore in 1880.  The North never won the Civil War because of the zombie outbreak that followed the Battle of Gettysburg, leading to a quick reconciliation between the two sides to face the common threat to the survival of humanity.  Slaves were declared free, but, for […]

Filed Under: Fiction, History, Western, Young Adult Tagged With: alternative history, Dread Nation, Justina Ireland, Racism, zombies

Jen K's CBR10 Review No:112 · Genres: Fiction, History, Western, Young Adult · Tags: alternative history, Dread Nation, Justina Ireland, Racism, zombies ·
Rating:
· 2 Comments

Napoleon’s Last Gambit

League of Dragons by Naomi Novik

February 18, 2018 by Jen K Leave a Comment

The concluding volume of the Temeraire series starts where the previous novel ended, with the Russians and their allies in pursuit of Napoleon as he and his armies withdraw back to the safety of France.  While certainly weakened, Napoleon is not done, and still has the ability to wreak havoc, especially by using dragons and politics against his enemies. The whole series has demonstrated the vast differences in the status of dragons in countries, and focused on the inequality of their status in Europe compared […]

Filed Under: Fantasy, Fiction, History Tagged With: alternative history, league of dragons, Naomi novik

Jen K's CBR10 Review No:20 · Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, History · Tags: alternative history, league of dragons, Naomi novik ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

From the East to the West

Blood of Tyrants by Naomi Novik

January 31, 2018 by Jen K Leave a Comment

While the novels are all divided into three parts, in some the breaking points between the parts are much more obvious than others – for example, His Majesty’s Dragon basically divided as the initial time between Laurence and Temeraire, their military training, and their time on active combat duty.  For others, it was less clear and the stories bled over between parts a lot.  This novel almost feels like three novellas united in one book, but in a good way. After the mostly successful mission […]

Filed Under: Fantasy, Fiction, History Tagged With: alternative history, blood of tyrants, Naomi novik, Temeraire

Jen K's CBR10 Review No:19 · Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, History · Tags: alternative history, blood of tyrants, Naomi novik, Temeraire ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments
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