Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Dr Strangelove, My Favorite Skynet, Jonathan Swan.

The Red Queen by Isobelle Carmody

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Apologies, this is going to be a long one.  It took me a while to get here. After close to thirty years and seven volumes, I finally made it to The Red Queen –  the final entry in The Obernewtyn Chronicles. And I rather wish it wasn’t. This isn’t just some kind disappointment at hitting the end of the series, this is also me lamenting that we didn’t get an eighth volume—or a more hardline editor.  Let’s start with the positives: the first half of […]

Taking Time to Stop and Smell The Radioactive Countryside.

The Sending by Isobelle Carmody

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So I’m getting close to the endgame now with my re-read of The Obernewtyn Chronicles. As a reminder, the first book in the series, Obernewtyn , was published in the late eighties, while the book that I initially thought was going to be the final installment, The Stone Key, was published in 2008.  The Stone Key, as it transpires was not the last book at all—in fact, very little page-time had been spent on Elspeth’s final quest to disarm the Sentinel. Instead, it was more […]

Singing the Heartsong

The Stone Key by Isobelle Carmody

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Oh-ho, this is how you know I am starting to procrastinate this weekend! I’m going for two reviews in two days! When I first picked up this book, it had been eight years since I had read the previous four. I was no longer in high school but rather ready to start my Master’s degree. And to be honest, over the nine-year break, I had nearly forgotten the series. If I hadn’t noticed The Stone Key on the shelves after bumming around in a book […]

‘He is in a dream but the beast is not. It comes! Wake!’

The Keeping Place by Isobelle Carmody

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Ok, I am trying my best to keep the momentum up here because I feel that I may not have much free time in the next few weeks after quarter starts. As I mentioned in my review of the first book, Obernewtyn, The Obernewtyn Chronicles ended up expanding beyond the author’s original plans. There was originally going to be five books in the series, making The Keeping Place, the penultimate volume. Instead, The Keeping Place ended up as book four of seven. And maybe the […]

‘Futuretellers Ken th’ Danger of Dreams Best’

Ashling by Isobelle Carmody

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In my previous reviews for the Obernewtyn Chronicles, I made the twin observations that Obernewtyn is a very contained story and it’s The Farseekers where the series starts to find its feet. Now I can state that it’s in the third volume, Ashling, where the plot starts to learn to run. Ashling takes place about a year after the events of The Farseekers, and we open with Elspeth rescuing a gypsy woman from being burnt at the state by the Herder Faction. While the woman is […]

“Am I not merciful?”

Illuminae Files (The Illuminae Files #1) by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

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In five(ish) words: space opera, young adult, aritificial intelligence, romance, violence. I don’t read a ton of YA but was on the hunt for a good audiobook and this one was recommended by two people as the best audiobook they had EVER listened to. Bold claim? Yes. But now that I’ve read it, I’m on board. It is really that good. It was a complete audio experience, like listening to a play or an old timey radio show (or I guess a new-timey podcast?) with […]



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