Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I’m sorry, Cannonballers, but I did not buy a ticket for the hype-train

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

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Let’s just jump right in. My biggest issue that I had with Gideon the Ninth is that I frequently did not know entirely what was going on. And not in a “Ohh, there’s a mystery afoot, and people are being secretive” nor in a “The narrator and I are both doubting reality” a la Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer. I just kept feeling like I was missing things. Missing lines of dialogue, missing transitions, missing some exposition. Gideon Nav is a member of the Ninth House (as an indentured […]

Never Has a Book Tested My Patience and Paid Off the Effort in the End…Until Now

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

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Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir My rating: 4 of 5 stars If you haven’t read “Gideon the Ninth” then why are you even reading this review for “Harrow the Ninth”? Stop right now and get reading. Then come back and read my reviews. “Harrow” begins almost immediately from where “Gideon” left off. Because the ending of “Gideon” was somewhat blurry, so too is the beginning of “Harrow”. We figure out pretty quickly that something has happened there is not only a timeline jump that […]

“What a fool. What a destructive, romantic, ridiculous act. It was always a certain kind of ass who approached love like that”.

Harrow the Ninth: The Locked Tomb trilogy vol. 2 by Tamsyn Muir

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Spoiler free review of Harrow the Ninth. I started Harrow at the wrong time.  When I began in mid-February, I didn’t know my dog was about to have an emergency that would lead to his passing within a month.  I couldn’t focus and the book deserved more attention.  I put it down for a long time and read comfort fluff.  When I picked Harrow back up again I would read it off and on.  One night I was determined to finish it, stayed up way too […]

Death Becomes Her

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

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I feel like a ‘real’ cannonballer, now that I’ve finally tackled Gideon the Ninth. I feel like I see this book all over Cannonball Read, and that it comes highly acclaimed. The quote on the front cover sums it up fairly well: Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space! Decadent nobles vie to service the deathless emperor! Skeletons! This is a fantasy novel, focussing on Gideon – a plucky upstart who wields her sharp sword and tongue with aplomb. She’s scathing, she’s edgy, […]

My poor confused nerves, both cerebral and sensing

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

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From a review I saw: “70% of deliberate confusing insanity before reaching the big payoff in the final 100 pages of the book,” and has anything been more truth? I posted an update at 10% of the book, going “ah I get what’s going on,” or something similar, and as it were I was right. But even with that, even with that thread of thought keeping me grounded, I fell asleep pretty consistently for the first 55% of this book. On one hand, I was […]

I have as many emotions inside me as there are genres in this book.

Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #1) by Tamsyn Muir

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Please note that although there are no real spoilers in this review, intuitive readers/reviewers might be spoiled anyway because of the way I’m going to say some things. You have been vaguely warned! “Read Gideon the Ninth!” they said. “You’ll love it!” they said. Well, fuck you, I did! I did love it! And I’m so mad and so sad also! It’s been a long time since I let a book get to me like this, and frankly, I blame everyone. I blame the author […]



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