Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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“All Bette’s stories have happy endings. That’s because she knows where to stop. She’s realized the real problem with stories—if you keep them going long enough, they always end in death.”

Preludes & Nocturnes (The Sandman, #1) by Neil Gaiman

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This is one of those books that come heavy with the weight of other people’s expectations. I genuinely had almost no idea what it was about, only that the people who love it LOVE IT, and I had a general idea that it was pretty weird. The only thing I knew for sure was that Death was a character, because Gaiman spun her off into her own comic at one point. I added it to my TBR when it became apparent that I would probably like it if […]

A strong finish to this series about magical oppression.

Ptolemy's Gate (The Bartimaeus Trilogy, #3) by Jonathan Stroud

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Worth slogging through book two just to get to this one. (And I’m still not convinced my reaction to that book wasn’t just me trying to read it at the wrong time.) This is the third and final book in the original Bartimaeus Trilogy (he wrote a prequel in 2010 but I think I’m going to pass on that one). It takes place three years after the events of The Golem’s Eye. Nathaniel/John Mandrake is high up in government now, in charge of what is […]

Who Published This Book Half-Finished?

Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children) by Seanan McGuire

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Coming off the heels of the stupendous Dread Nation, I was pumped for this YA novel. The setup: children travel through magical portals to alternate worlds, only to become distraught upon their return to their tedious old lives. (Postmodern Wonderland or Narnia!) Though this book won all the awards—Hugo, Alex, Locus Nebula—it utterly failed to enchant me. I suppose my heart is a closed door. Or maybe an inky void. Nancy (the sixth most interesting character, maybe) lands at Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children […]

We go from military campaign to political intrigue in book two

The Shadow Throne: Book Two of the Shadow Campaign by Django Wexler

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At the end of last year I finally got around to reading The Thousand Names: Book One of the Shadow Campaigns and thoroughly enjoyed it.  The Thousand Names is primarily about a Vordanai military campaign, in the foreign desert land of Khandar, told through a couple of perspectives.  The Shadow Throne completely switches gears and setting.  It keeps Winter Inhernglass (Lieutenant and female in disguise) and Marcus d’Ivoire’s (Senior Captain) narratives and adds two new ones; Raesinia Orboan (heir to the throne) and Duke Orlanko (Ministry of Information, spy […]

GRRM procrastinates again

Fire and Blood by George R.R. Martin

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I should have realized what I was getting into. I started reading Game Of Thrones just before the HBO series began. I’ve read each of the books in the series at least twice. My husband bought me Fire and Blood for Christmas and it had been a long time since I had read anything by GRRM, so I dove right in. Firstly, let me say that I am always impressed by the world-building that is done by fantasy authors. I can’t fathom the amount of time […]

Middle book syndrome? Or just me?

The Golem's Eye (The Bartimaeus Trilogy, #2) by Jonathan Stroud

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I read the first book in this series a couple of years ago and liked it, but I never got around to finishing the series. Probably should have read it closer together . . . This was a perfectly serviceable follow up to The Amulet of Samarkand, and honestly I think my ‘meh’ reaction to it is mostly on me. The only real criticism I have of the book is that it was too long. This is supposed to be children’s/middle grade book, and it’s […]



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