Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About GentleRain

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Your jack of all trades eccentric. Knows a little about a lot and a lot about a little. Tends to mainly read non-fiction (history, true crime, old gossip, etc), SF/F, horror, graphic novels, "genre" books. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: GentleRain's Quick Questions interview.)

GentleRain's Reviews:

Great SF/F in the Tradition of LeGuin

Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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This was such a satisfying read! It was a perfect blend of fantasy and sci-fi, and packed a lot of plot into a relatively short book. This reminded me what reading a good book could be like and why I do love to read after struggling through my last pick. The book (which I think is being sold as a novella, but it’s 198 pages, so a long novella) uses alternating viewpoint chapters to good effect. Lynesse Fourth Daughter is a princess in a medieval […]

Don’t Read This Novel, Even If Cults Interest You

The Children of Red Peak by Craig DiLouie

by 6 Comments

I should be the perfect audience for this book (cults! horror!) but it was a disappointing and frustrating read. Spoilers follow throughout my review. The book follows the five survivors of a cult who all vanished in what the world believes to be a mass suicide. But some of the survivors have memories that suggest that other forces were at work. As the fifteen-year anniversary of the tragedy approaches, one of the survivors kills herself and the remaining four have to face what they’ve been […]

Middle-Grade Fantasy That Disappoints

The Goblin Wood by Hilari Bell

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I think if I’d read this when I was 10, I would have enjoyed it more. I felt that the characters suddenly changed their motivations so quickly near the end of this book that it was clear she was trying to wrap the book up and get them all out the door. I enjoyed the nuanced look the author was trying to take at right and wrong, and the issue with flattening complex issues, but the ending pages made it all fall apart for me. […]

A Pleasant Space Interlude

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers

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If you’ve read the other two in the trilogy, you’ll enjoy this one as well. It’s been a few years since I picked up the other two, but I remembered that they’re all loosely linked standalones, so I was able to read this with no issues as to remembering who anyone was. I’m sure I missed some hints to the previous books, but that didn’t seem to take away from following anything. This book follows three strangers of different species who get stranded at the […]

“The best worldbuilding doesn’t show the seams.”

Finder: Chase the Lady by Carla Speed McNeil

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Carla Speed McNeil’s Finder series is one of those series where I bring it up to people and they stare at me blankly. It is one of the best pieces of near-future alternate universe science fiction worldbuilding and storytelling out there and it feels like a precious secret, which is frustrating considering how amazing these books are, and how long they’ve been coming out (26 years). It feels like these should be as critically well-regarded as Bone, which came out around the same time and is similarly […]

A Masterpiece of Graphic Storytelling

Bone by Jeff Smith

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What can even be said about Bone that scholars and fans already haven’t said? It helped pave the way for the current middle-grade/YA graphic novel boom, it’s a beautiful masterpiece of long-form storytelling, it was completely self-published, it’s won every award….Bone is a testament to artistic effort and cartooning on the highest level. Personally I love it and have a long history with it. We had this same one-volume edition when I was younger and I reread it several times when I was in the most intense stage […]



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