Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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“Perhaps being a Light of God is difficult when you’re in a dank box on the ocean.”

When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb

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I am very glad that I read this book: one, it washed the taste of The Maiden and Her Monster out of my mouth; and two, because it was compared to Good Omens and (luckily) it earned that comparison. When the Angels Left the Old Country is about a small Polish shtetl (in fact, it is so small that it is only known as Shtetl) and the angel and the demon who are chevrusas (or Talmud study partners) there. The angel (occasionally called Uriel, usually […]

“A fellow starts doubting the point of fighting for a country who won’t fight for him,”

Angel Down: A Novel by Daniel Kraus

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Private Cyril Bagger has managed to survive the unspeakable horrors of the Great War through making sure he’s as far from the carnage as possible; and if that’s digging the latrine trenches that’s fine by him; at least he’s not possibly getting blown to bits. But his survival instincts also mark him as one of the five most expendable people in his company, and therefore perfect for a suicide mission: venture into the perilous No Man’s Land with the other four to euthanize a wounded […]

Shepherds Watch over Their Flocks. And Angels Watch over Shepherds

The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison

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I’m a bit boggled—how did I miss one of Katherine Addison’s books? Addison is the author of the magnificent The Goblin Emperor and the follow up trilogy, The Cemeteries of Amalo*. Usually her books are an automatic pre-order for me. But somehow, I missed that she had also written an alt-universe take on Sherlock Holmes as well.  The book comes with the following tagline: “This is not the story you think it is. These are not the characters you think they are. This is not […]

“After they were both done, the pile of knives and guns on the coffee table looked like they’d cleaned out an armory. “I think we have a problem, Dmitri.”

Archangel's Blade: A Guild Hunter Novel #4 by Nalini Singh

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I suppose I have to admit that I’m starting to be fine with certain Romance novels (as long as they’re either lesbian Regency-Era, gay Napoleonic Wars-Era, or supernaturally bent), as this series is kind of enjoyable in a light, breezy, and “not taxing my brain to read” kind of way. The big third-act “gasp-worthy” reveal was…pretty obvious from maybe twenty pages in; you could tell it was just going to be that kind of book. It was also so nice (meant only slightly sarcastically) that […]

“No other bosses but mine and my opponents’ can have your soul jerked out of your body and sent to the deepest fiery pits to suffer for eternity. Unless you work for Walmart.”

The Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad Williams

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Not a big fan of this book. It was written like a mashup of the Johnny Dollar radio show (which is where I think Tad Williams got the idea to name the main character “Bobby Dollar”) and the Kolchak tv series. Very Sam Spade, hardboiled detective, old film noir, complete with gangsters, dames, booze, shoot-outs, and double crosses; heck, it even has a golden stand-in for the Maltese Falcon. The big change is that instead of detectives, cops, and gangsters, you have angels and demons, […]

Orphans and them

We Called Them Giants by Kieron Gillen, Stephanie Hans and Clayton Cowles

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I have had We Called Them Giants by Kieron Gillen, Stephanie Hans and Clayton Cowles as an online reader copy for a few months. I have had opportunities to read it, but for the most part I figured it would expire before I had a chance to. Thankfully I was able to find it and read it at lunch today. It was an interesting experience. This graphic novel is an on book. We know the dystopian aspects (a girl wakes up one morning to find […]



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