Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

a traditional fairy tale: nasty and unfair

Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower by Tamsyn Muir

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A princess, a tower, a witch, a fairy- you know this story, right? If you are well-versed in the nasty beginnings of most beloved fairy tales, then probably yes. If you are familiar with the delightfully cracked work of Tamsyn Muir then also, yes. If you are coming in seeing a blonde princess in a tower and thinking Disney, then absolutely not! Princess Floralinda is your traditional princess: beautiful, naïve, and imprisoned in a tower. She was put up there by a witch; and while […]

“The whole place had the look of a picked-at-body. But damn! What a beautiful corpse.”

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

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This book has received so much hype and lived up to every bit of praise it has received!  Thank you, Cannonballers for putting this on my radar and keeping it there.  I’m almost at a loss to review Gideon the Ninth since so many of y’all have done so already.  Here is a list of things that I enjoyed immensely, in no particular order: 1 – Muir’s word choices.  It’s delightful to be confronted with an unfamiliar word and Muir did it more in this […]

Political intrigue is extra intriguing when everyone’s a necromancer

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

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I discovered Cannonball Read at a rather opportune time, because I read Gideon the Ninth recently and until now, I’ve lacked a place to yell about this book as much as I need to. I know a fair bit has been written about it already, and I need to add to it, because this book. This book. My God this book.  The setting and worldbuilding of Gideon the Ninth speaks directly to the part of me who really, really wants to be into Warhammer 40k. […]

Gideon Nav packed her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and she escaped from the House of the Ninth.

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

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I have been trying to read this book for four months. That may not sound like much, but this book is 100% my jam and I still could not focus on it enough to get it read. Finally, I re-upped my Audible account and got it as an audiobook read by Moira Quirk.

Hunger Games + Lost= This Amazingly Hilarious, Intriguing Book

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

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Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir My rating: 5 of 5 stars Gideon the Ninth lives in Drearburgh, the seat of the Ninth House. Together with the other eight houses, the nine form the realm of the Emperor. Each house has their own characteristic, mythology, and strengths. Gideon longs to leave the Ninth and join the Cohort, aka the realm’s army. Her plans are put on hold when a summons from the Emperor calls all of the house heirs and their cavaliers to the First […]

Chaotic, Cruel Fairy Stories

Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower by Tamsyn Muir

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Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower was not at all what I expected. But in retrospect, I’ve come to conclude that my expectations may have been a bit daft. Based on the title and some choice pull quotes, I thought I might be getting a bit of a gently inverted fairy tale. More fool me. This is Tamsyn Muir we’re speaking of here. The author of the Locked Tomb series, whose bread and butter is messy, fucked up sort of sapphic relationships in gruesome settings. […]



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