Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Supernatural Education Lite

Posthumous Education by Drew Hayes

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I saw on the author’s social media somewhere that Drew Hayes’ Fred the Vampire Accountant series has one final volume due out after the one I had on my shelf, making Posthumous Education (Fred #8) the penultimate installation. It definitely shows; there is a lot of set up. Fred is called on a favor picked up about 5 volumes ago to a Fey queen, and all she wants him to do is take a temporary teaching job at the local parahuman institution of higher education, […]

Keeping some hope alive

Hooky, vols. 1-2 by Miriam Bonastre Tur

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One of the cardinal sins of any kind of story for me is to be misleading in terms of the general tone and approach it takes. For example, there’s this one anime series I watched years ago (I don’t even remember the title now) that was mostly a lighthearted cute series about the relationship between a boy and this mysterious robot girl he finds. Then suddenly, two episodes from the end it turned completely dystopic, dark, and tragic and pointless. I hated that and it […]

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 […]



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