Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About Monty

CBR15 Participant

Your local landscaper who absolutely needs to be outside less.

Monty's Reviews:

Review #12: I miss the “lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space!”

The Unwanted Guest by Tamsyn Muir

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I have some concerns! Publisher’s short description: “Featuring Ianthe Tridentarius and Palamedes Sextus, this story was originally published in the trade paperback edition of Nona the Ninth.“ The Unwanted Guest by Tamsyn Muir is short story (#3.5), built around being a play, meant to flesh out two main characters in the Locked Tomb series. I guess it’s time for a small rant, but I’m becoming more and more suspicious that the upcoming fourth book, Alecto the Ninth (#4), while be nigh indecipherable. I was already […]

Review #11: “Boy, I was daid”

Neuromancer by William Gibson

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A re-read, but one I do every year or two because of just how much I love this book. Publisher’s description: “The Matrix is a world within the world, a global consensus-hallucination, the representation of every byte of data in cyberspace… Henry Dorsett Case was the sharpest data-thief in the business, until vengeful former employees crippled his nervous system. But now a new and very mysterious employer recruits him for a last-chance run. The target: an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence orbiting Earth in service of […]

Review #10: If anybody has recommendations for a good fantasy romance, please let me know, because this ain’t it

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

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I read A Discovery of Witches in the midst of a tough project at work, and needed a soapy fantasy to help distract me. It didn’t work! Publisher’s description: “Deep in the stacks of Oxford’s Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the […]

Review #9: The best of “New Weird”

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

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This was actually a re-read, I first tackled this book six or seven years ago. It was the first Jeff VanderMeer book I’d read, and I was so enamored with it that I wanted to read it again to see if it held up. Publisher’s description: “Area X has been cut off from the rest of the world for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; the second expedition ended in […]

Review #8: Manga?!

The Ancient Magus' Bride by Kore Yamazaki

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I don’t normally read manga or watch anime (other than Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, which I would recommend to literally anyone). I had heard of The Ancient Magus’ Bride manga by Kore Yamazaki and it’s anime adaptation, thought the premise was deeply weird, and wanted to see if that was truly the case. I was also sick, and willing to read something far outside my comfort zone in order to distract from that. Wikipedia description: “Having been ostracized by both her relatives and partially by society, […]

Review #7: I felt so old reading Fourth Wing

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

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My sister and her husband wanted me to read Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros – neither of them read much (if any) fantasy, so I was curious what had made them pay attention to this novel. After thinking long and hard about it, I believe it was two things: 1. Hype 2. Accessibility First, the publisher’s description: “Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered […]



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