Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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 […]

The Lover from the Forest

The Lover by Silvia Moreno Garcia

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I have been interested in reading Silvia Moreno Garcia for a few years. Her Amazon Original was an opportunity to dip my toes into her library. I can mark another passport stamp as she is from Mexico, and the story is set in a mysterious village. CBR15 Passport Challenge: Books from different countries (book 3 of 3) SPOILERS AHEAD! We meet Judith in “The Lover”. She lives in a small village and makes a wish to bring her lover to her. Soon, a hunter named Nathaniel […]

“their houses would have wider doors, higher ceilings, and stronger floors so that Esteban’s memory could go everywhere without bumping into beams”

The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World by Gabriel García Márquez, Gregory Rabassa (Translator)

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I have been circling Gabriel García Márquez for decades, almost too afraid to approach his work at all. On and off the reading lists his works go, a constant pendulum of my ambition or lack thereof. When staring at our Bingo squares and realizing a few short stories and novellas were likely to help my progress I went on the hunt for a few and The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World by Gabriel García Márquez came up. Here we go, I thought – here’s […]

“It is the fate of all made things”

“The Secret Life of Bots” by Suzanne Palmer

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Narfna recommended “The Secret Life of Bots” last week and provided a link. I opened the link immediately, and then the tab sat there, open and unread, for days. As one does. The Bot is activated and given a task by Ship. It notes that a long period of time has passed since it was last activated, and that the task it has been given, task 944, was a higher number than usual. The Bot starts out on it’s task – exterminate a pest. Along […]

yes, yes, I should have read this already

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin

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My first thought while reading this: there are authors and there are Authors, whose reach is seen everywhere. I think there’s been a large number of books I’ve read this year or in recent time that owe a large debt of gratitude towards Le Guin’s short (some 30 odd pages) story on the society of the Omelas. If you’ve never read it, then steer clear if you really want to avoid spoilers but Le Guin does give away the punchline in her author’s note (the […]

My year, I fear, ends with a whimper

People of the Dark by Robert E. Howard

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I had intended this to be the start of a review dump of short stories. It’s ended up being a review of a single story: “People of the Dark”. I haven’t been reading very much this year. Anyway. Published in 1932, this is the story of John O’Brien’s attempt to kill his victorious rival for the affections of Eleanor Bland. His target is Richard Brent, and John has followed him into Dagon’s Cave, hidden away in the English countryside. Before he can let loose his […]



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