I read the first book in the Red Queen trilogy earlier this year. The second book in a series is usually the poorest- you need to advance the plot to a point where you can deliver a knock out ending (hopefully) and new characters are introduced to get to the point where the finale can start. It often ends on a cliffhanger. Glass Sword introduces a lot of new characters. Some of them got very little introduction before they were killed. It was hard to […]
Help Me Save Myself
Brazen is the final book in the Gilded series. It combines Korean mythology, fantasy, and thriller. I thought the third book had some horror thrown in too. The heroine, Jae Hwa, does some really smart things, does some really stupid things, and in general handles her very difficult circumstances very well. At the start of the story, she has placed herself in the hands of Kud, the god of darkness, in order to protect her loved ones. Her situation looks pretty bleak, and she needs […]
AI with Feelings
4.5 stars My goal this Cannonball is to read a bunch of sci-fi fantasy and books in general not written by white dudes. I saw that Ancillary Justice had won many awards including the Hugo and Nebula awards. It was also highly recommended by NPR Books. It tells the story of Breq, formerly the Justice of Torren, a ship that is part of the Radch Empire. The ship is controlled by a sentient AI with physical bodies called ancillaries. The story alternates between the present […]
I’m on a Horse!
I picked up this book because I saw it on a list of books you should read despite the terrible cover. This cover is terrible, there’s a woman kneeling at the feet of a man on a horse doing his best “I am a noble hero pose” and she’s reaching up to polish his boots with a look that says “Tada!, here’s this douche.” I found this book…meh, I guess. I suppose it is a sign that I bought it and read it in January […]
Killing them with Kindness
The Goblin Emperor won the Locus Award for Best Fantasy novel. It is a novel that I will definitely go back and listen to the audio narration of since there are a lot of names and places that do not roll of the tongue. The writing is really beautiful, and I enjoyed the court setting with a touch of steampunk thrown in the story. Maia is the fourth son of the King of the Elflands, born to a Goblin mother and banished from court with […]
World Building for Dummies
This is not meant to be a criticism of this book, which I enjoyed, but to say that world building, especially for dystopian future worlds, is very challenging. Red Queen won the 2015 Goodreads Choice Award for Debut Goodreads Author. I read the book description and although I am leery of YA dystopian series, I decided to give it a shot. I’ve read a few of these book series post Hunger Games, and this one I’ve found is the best at fleshing out both the […]