Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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An intricately woven tale

The Light of All That Falls by James Islington

An Echo of Things to Come by James Islington

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While I read the entire trilogy rather closely together, I reviewed the first novel much earlier in the year. These are large books so it seemed like they each deserved their own review rather than a series review but it was harder for me to articulate my thoughts about the second and third novel. And now, I’m having a hard time entirely distinguishing which parts happened in book 2 vs 3. I had seen some tag lines for this series that compared it to The […]

Are All of Robin Hobb’s Books a Masterclass in Writing?

Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb

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While I don’t mind multiple POV books, I generally prefer single POV. This book, though, masterfully demonstrates just how useful multiple POV can be. It was so different from the Farseer trilogy in which we’re always in Fitz’s head, and the emotions are unrelenting. In Ship of Magic, when you need a break from the drama with one character, there’s a different character whose drama you can jump into! It’s written in the 3rd person, but don’t expect that to spare you from the author’s toying with your […]

what happens when you impulse murder a monarch

Anji Kills a King (The Rising Tide, #1) by Evan Leikam

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Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the audio ARC. It hasn’t affected the contents of my review. This was a really interesting debut fantasy, but it didn’t quiiiite do it for me. I thought it was more intellectually interesting than emotionally, but I am going to read the rest of the series because I’m super curious to see where this is going. We start out strong with the titular Anji killing the king and then going on the run. We don’t know who she […]

An impressive example of a first novel

The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington

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I have had this on my TBR for a while but had ended up reading The Will of the Many, the first and only one in the author’s newer trilogy first because I didn’t want to get sucked into binging a trilogy. That’s always the question – go with something that will leave me waiting year to year for the next book, or something that will end up dictating my next few reads. I really enjoyed this one as well (and predictably got sucked into […]

Hash and Rehash

Cassiel's Servant by Jacqueline Carey

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After years of training, Joscelin Verrail joins the ranks of the Cassiline Brotherhood as a celibate warrior-priest. As such, he’s displeased to find himself assigned to protect the young courtesan Phèdre, never anticipating how it’ll sweep him up into a world of danger and political intrigue. I should say off the bat that I love the Kushiel’s Legacy series, and the first book, Kushiel’s Dart, is one of my favorite books of all time. While I didn’t exactly like Joscelin when he was first introduced, […]

I’m the Prophecy

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

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Oh, how I inhaled this. What a great start to this year’s Cannonball. Black Sun is the first book in a trilogy inspired by Pre-Columbian civilizations with magic, priests, clans and Gods. Serapio is the reincarnated (maybe just returned to the land, it’s a little fuzzy) Crow God. A merchant hires Xiala, a Teek, to get him to the city of Tova. The city is preparing for the solstice, where a ceremony will be lead by the Sun Priest, Naranpa. Tova is a city of […]



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