Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Purple for the Spooky Science

The Glass Scientists vol. 1 by S. H. Cotucino

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Bingo 20: Purple When the public library has a summer reading program that adults can do, and also get prizes, it’s a good time. The past few years, the top reading level prize (defined by minutes read) is you get to take home a new book from a seemingly random selection the library ahs gotten. This year I went with The Glass Scientists volume 1. It was on the YA list, but I tend to keep an eye out for things I can use in […]

Talking Cats are Still Cats

The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher

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My introduction to Jum Butcher was The Aeronaut’s Windlass (Cinder Spires 1) published in 2015 (the publication date will matter in a minute). It’s a sort of steampunk/fantasy/speculative adventure; I really enjoyed the characters (including the talking cats), world, and general story. I checked out his main series, the Dresden Files, but got tired of that after a few volumes. I have limited tolerance for the kind of story where things just keep going from bad to worse, and often the personal drama is avoidable. […]

“It is always best when discussing serious matters to do so around a teapot.”

The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters: A Novel by Gordon Dahlquist

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It begins with a letter of rejection from Miss Celestial “Celeste” Temple’s fiancé, Roger Bascombe, delivered on her maid’s silver tray. But her quest for answers (surely nobody dumps someone by message!) takes her to the forbidding Harschmort Manor, where she finds acts of licentiousness, violence, and hedonism. But there she will also find two allies: Cardinal Chang, a scarred assassin in red, brutal but with the soul of a poet. And Captain-Surgeon Abelard Svenson, at once fumbling and heroic. Both of whom, like her, […]

When the clock doesn’t tick

Hourglass by Barbara Mazzi

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Twenty is just a cog in the wheel of the utopian society in Hourglass by Barbara Mazzi. Or at least for  the privileged.  Twenty is trying for one of the coveted positions on the team of engineers. If you make it to the top the reward is everything. But until then, they help keep the Hour Glass running so the privileged few can reap the reward of immortality. But when a real piece of the machine goes missing, more than the Hour Glass will fall […]

“He wasn’t grateful, he was homicidal. It wasn’t enough that they endanger his friends and servants, they had to attack his most valued enemy as well.”

The Book of Ile-Rien by Martha Wells

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The Book of Ile-Rien collects the first two books in Martha Wells’ Ile-Rien universe, which takes place in a fantasy world with a steampunk flavor. Though I have the much-lauded Murderbot series on my TBR, I have never read any of Wells’ work before. The Element of Fire is her debut, and when this book crossed my dashboard I thought it’d be a decent place to start. The Element of Fire – 3.5 stars The return of the king’s bastard sister to the court of […]

Fond of Zombies, Are You? What about Zombies AND Pirates?

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

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Well now!  Steampunk with zombies and pirates, and a certain amount of historical fact to boot?  Welcome to turn of the century Seattle. IRL, Seattle suffered a devastating fire in the late 1890s which tore through the lumber constructed Pioneer Square, its original downtown.  There was also the issue of frequent rain-induced flooding, due to the steep coastal shoreline.  So the civic leaders swapped out timber construction for masonry, and rebuilt, streets and all, on the top of the original buildings.  The lower levels acted […]



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