Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Conversations with Houses

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Rose/House by Arkady Martine

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CBR16 Bingo: Dun Dun – Both books play on your nerves, and just when you think the protagonists may be reaching safe harbor things only get worse for them. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson – 4 stars Four people go to an allegedly haunted house to investigate – a scientist, a cheerful artist, a low down scoundrel, and a fragile, friendless young woman. All of them don’t return. This is a short book and slips by almost without you noticing it. At first […]

A trippy, atmospheric sci-fi haunted house.

Rose/House by Arkady Martine

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“I am Rose House, entire, and have never been anything else. I am not lonely. I do not wish to be a companion of elsewheres.” This was so atmospheric and a pleasure to read, even though I’m pretty sure I didn’t understand half of what was going on. The main conceit here is that this is a sci-fi take on a haunted house, where the haunt is an A.I. that IS the house, not that inhabits the house or was installed there, but is in […]

But the Habits of Memory Created All Kinds of False Harbours.

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

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Good Lord, I got all excited over the bingo thing, and wouldn’t you know it, I get hammered by work commitments! So it looks like this year I’ll be posting bingo-reviews late, and my reviews for the Hugo Best Novel noms after I voted   Oh well, oh well.   A Desolation Called Peace was one of those books up for the Hugo Award for Best Novel this year. And just like A Memory Called Empire before it, I think it’ll take home the top gong. […]

A Memory Called Empire- the next great space opera

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

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Plot: Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining Station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn’t an accident—or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court. Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her Station from Teixcalaan’s unceasing expansion—all while navigating […]

Space opera binge – “Nothing touched by empire remains itself”

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie

Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie

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              ** Some spoilers for the plot of Ancillary Justice in the review of later books in the series ** Space opera can definitely be big, loud and dumb and that can be fun and exciting.  But I love my space opera to be populated by complex, conflicted people (and other beings) living in intricate worlds with a deep culture and history.  Add beautiful writing, and big questions about identity and ethics, and I am in heaven. So I […]

“We’re both exiles, she’d thought, right then, and had hated herself for thinking it. She’d been gone a few months. She had no right to the name. She was home. She wasn’t, and she knew it. (There was no such place any longer.)”

A Desolation Called Peace (Teixcalaan, #2) by Arkady Martine

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What a great series, top to bottom. I don’t even want to talk about it. (Or, I want to talk about it for five hours straight.) I kind of already want to re-read. If you like science fiction, this is a must read. It’s so self-assured, so smart, so well put together, so full of heart and yet also full of thinking. It’s so hard to find an author who can stimulate both my thinking brain and my feeling brain, and Arkady Martine is a […]



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