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 […]

Three by three

The Strength of the Few by James Islington

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The Will of the Many was one of my favorite reads earlier this year and led to me reading Islington’s Licanius trilogy. Since I had waited a bit to read The Will of the Many, it meant my wait for the second novel was relatively short, with it being out in November. I don’t want to get too deep into the details – there is a lot going on! Overall, I quite enjoyed it but don’t think it was quite as strong as the first […]

Stronger Together

The Strength of the Few by James Islington

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When I read James Islington’s The Will of the Many back in 2023, I loved it and immediately wanted to read the next book in the series (The Strength of the Few, released last month). That anticipation dropped somewhat when I read one of his other books The Shadow of What was Lost, earlier this year, and found it pretty mediocre. Had the author improved, or had my tastes just changed? I decided to re-read The Will of the Many a few weeks ago, just […]

The title was the coolest thing about this book

The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington

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CBR Bingo: Border (characters have to sneak over several country borders, and there is also a threat of invasion due to the weakening of a magical barrier) I really enjoyed James Islington’s The Will of the Many when I read it a few years ago, and I have been eagerly awaiting the follow-up The Strength of the Few. I’ve had the author’s first series The Licanius Trilogy, which starts with The Shadow of What Was Lost, on my TBR for some time now (it’s been on my […]

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 […]

What makes a good leader? A just society?

The Will of the Many by James Islington

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Going in, I was expecting to like this but I don’t think I realized how much and how well it would hit themes that I generally tend to enjoy in fiction. Layers upon layers of intrigue and deceptions? A competitive academic setting? A detailed and intricately thought out magic/power system that is very logic based but doesn’t expect me to do the math behind it to get the gist? In some ways, the easiest comparison might be Red Rising but that’s also lazy and only […]



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