Cannonball Read 15

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Stuff happens without much action and I am confused

The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik

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BNGO review 23: Holiday Graduation is an event to celebrate. A holiday is the commemoration of a celebratory event that often includes celebrations. Thus, The Last Graduate and The Golden Enclaves qualify as holiday-themed stories. Confession: I haven’t totally finished The Last Graduate, but I had a chance to get The Golden Enclaves from the library; what my library does with new releases is they are available for shorter check out periods with no renewal option, and that deadline was approaching. Technically this is a […]

Dumb but Strong Gets Boring, or Enough with the Cream Puff Gags, or Why Harry Potter and Black Clover Don’t Mix

Mashle: Magic and Muscles, vols. 4-5 by Hajime Komoto

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Sometimes my curiosity gets the better of me and I pick up subsequent manga volumes from the library just to see if things get any better or interesting; sometimes this works out and sometimes not. With Mashle: Magic and Muscles, the first few volumes were essentially trope overload with a touch of the goof-ball. Volumes 4-5 don’t really get much better. Tropes include the clueless but good-hearted hero who has nothing but physical prowess to get by in a magic world, the girl he saves […]

The Magicless Hero who Muscles His Way Through, and we’ve seen it all before

Mashle: Magic and Muscles, vols. 1-2 by Hajime Komoto

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I think I saw an excerpt of Mashle: Magic and Muscles somewhere and decided it looked dumb. Then I decided to give it another chance when I was shelf-surfing in the library which turned out to have volumes 1-2. The premise of this manga series and most of the key characters so far are pretty recognizable. The hero Mash is a magicless idiot with only ridiculous strength to get by in a world where magic defines your status and prospects. To get his dad out […]

“It’s not because–they don’t want me. They want someone who’s going to cast death spells on their enemies. And if I gave them that, I wouldn’t be me anymore, so I might as well not go live with a bag of dicks.”

The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik

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Picking up immediately after the end of A Deadly Education, The Last Graduate is a gripping read that starts with El holding the cryptic note from her Mum and ends on a terrific cliffhanger.  At one of Novik’s events for the book release she did apologize for both books one and two ending on a cliffhanger.  When she set out to write A Deadly Education she envisioned it ending where The Last Graduate does.  Novik is a writes as she goes author, not a big outliner/planner.  While […]

CBR Bingo: A new Series and a recommendation!

Stealing from Wizards Volume 1: Pickpocketing by R.A.Consell

Stealing From Wizards Volume 2: Burglary by R.A Consell

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I thought this would be one of the hardest categories for me to meet for bingo- but this series was first published in November 2019, so New series it is. I picked this up on the recommendation of Epbot- and am very glad i did. It is about Kuro, a young boy living on the fringes of magical society in Canada. He primarily lives in a magic city that connects with different real world places. He serves a dark magician who has fallen on very […]

It’s kind of like if Harry Potter was destined to destroy the world, crossed with the Hunger Games, and Hogwarts was actively trying to kill you

Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

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Naomi Novik burst on the scene with her Temeraire series but around book 4 or 5 I lost interest.  Then last year I finally read Spinning Silver and was reminded what a good author she is and was excited to find out that a new book was forth coming in the Fall, Deadly Education.  Attending one of her virtual release events whetted my appetite and I have been eagerly waiting for Deadly Education to rise to the top of the TBR, I’m happy to report it lived […]



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