Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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A favorite that just gets better

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

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Bingo Square: One (first book of the Daevabad trilogy) This was my third time reading this novel (book club picked it), and I swear I enjoy this series more every time I read it (I haven’t actually reread the other two yet). This was one of those series I kept seeing and then hesitating to start because I think we have all been burned by fantasy trilogies not maintaining their quality but then decided to read once the whole trilogy was available and burned through […]

The River of Silver: A nice reward for finishing a wonderful series

The River of Silver: Tales from the Daevabad Trilogy by Shannon Chakraborty

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After taking a brief rest from tearing through Empire of Gold, I took a much more gentle pace through River of Silver. River of Silver is a series of short stories from multiple character points of view that stretches across the whole scope of the original trilogy. The stories are arranged chronologically from decades before we start City of Brass through to just after the ending of Empire of Gold. There are a few stories from the trilogy’s main protagonists, but mostly the stories are […]

The Daevabad Trilogy: “Fencing. Fighting. Torture. Revenge. Giants. Monsters. Chases. Escapes. True love. Miracles.”

The City of Brass by Shannon Chakraborty

The Kingdom of Copper by Shannon Chakraborty

The Empire of Gold by Shannon Chakraborty

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It has been a while since I’ve made such dubious choices regarding reading hours as I did to read this trilogy. I read City of Brass at a decent pace and finished it in about 6 days. Kingdom of Copper lined up with a weekend so I ignored pretty much all of my responsibilities to finish in 2 days. While Empire of Gold technically took 8 days, I read the last 250 pages in about 7 hours – staying up until 2:30 AM to finish. […]

Anti-colonial historical fantasy

Aicha by Soraya Bouazzaoui

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I had such high hopes for Aicha because I love angry women, mythology, and historical fiction, so this sounded like it’d be exactly my jam. Unfortunately all those expectations fell flat. I wouldn’t say this is a bad book, and there were elements I enjoyed, I just don’t know that I’d say I enjoyed the book as a whole. Aicha is about the youngest daughter of a weapons smith, who is also a rebel, and how she also fights for her people’s liberation. But inside […]

Jumping on the bandwagon in the middle

A Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark

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I knew Cannonballers had enjoyed a book about djinn by an author named Clark, but I didn’t pay enough attention and accidentally started at book 2. It was all still easy to follow and I liked it, but I think there are a few parts that would make more sense if I knew the history of Fatma and Siti. Agent Fatma works for a magical Ministry where magic is real and djinns live peacefully alongside humans, after being let out into the world by al-Jahiz. […]

“The three of them sat there – a Ministry agent, a half-djinn, and a cat (likely), staring out past the balcony to the sleeping city they somehow had to find a way to save.”

A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark

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CBR14 Bingo: “Snake” – A character lies to a partner for fear of reprisal.  The same charac ter under goes physical transformation due to heritage and the gifts of a goddess, which includes healing. An alternate 1912 Cairo with lady investigators and magic?  Yes, please!  40 years previous magic was reintroduced to the world and djinn were released by the magician, al’Jahiz.  After a fraught time, djinn were integrated into Egyptian society.  They have since used their abilities to bring wonderous, magical and mechanical inventions […]



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