Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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About NatalieH

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I'm Natalie and 2026 is my third year participating in cannonball read. I love reading, especially fantasy and science fiction books. I live on Vancouver Island, in Canada.

NatalieH's Reviews:

Supporting Women’s Wrongs

The Children of Gods and Fighting Men by Shauna Lawless

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  The Children of Gods and Fighting Men (the first book in Shauna Lawless’ Gael Song trilogy) has been on my TBR for a while now. I’ve gone on a bit of a historical/fae kick during January (I also recently finished Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel), so I figured this was a good time to read it. The book is a (mostly) true narrative of Irish history at the end of the 10th century, with some fantastical elements sprinkled in. I didn’t know […]

It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times

A Far Better Thing by H. G. Parry

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My reading experience for H. G. Parry’s A Far Better Thing was somewhat non-standard (at least for me). I first picked the book up back in June of last year. I read a couple of chapters, but the story wasn’t really gripping me, so I set it aside. I’ve really enjoyed other books by the author, so a few weeks ago I decided to give it a second chance, and I’m glad I did. This is a retelling of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two […]

Not Worth the Wait

The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

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The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson got a lot of hype when it came out back in 2015. Apparently, I bought into the hype enough to pick up a copy, but not enough to actually read the damned thing until ten years later. Was it worth the wait? Ehh, not really. An expansionist empire greedily conquers its neighbours. Not by the traditional means of armies and swords, but economically and socially, by sending traders and educators. In some ways, they improve the lives of […]

Meep Meep

Snake-eater by T. Kingfisher

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I received a free ARC of this book from NetGalley. This hasn’t affected the contents of my review. As I think I’ve mentioned here before, I love T. Kingfisher’s writing, so was excited that she had a new book out (even though I’m mildly disappointed that it’s not a new novel from the world of the White Rat yet). Snake-eater is a bit hard to classify. I think it’s meant to be a horror, but it’s also very cozy. The beginning is quite slow, but […]

Stronger Together

The Strength of the Few by James Islington

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When I read James Islington’s The Will of the Many back in 2023, I loved it and immediately wanted to read the next book in the series (The Strength of the Few, released last month). That anticipation dropped somewhat when I read one of his other books The Shadow of What was Lost, earlier this year, and found it pretty mediocre. Had the author improved, or had my tastes just changed? I decided to re-read The Will of the Many a few weeks ago, just […]

It’s all Greek to Me

Atalanta by Jennifer Saint

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I haven’t read many Greek mythology retellings, but the ones I have read so far, I’ve really enjoyed. Namely, Madeline Miller’s Circe and The Song of Achilles. I came across Atlanta, by Jennifer Saint, at a book sale recently, and figured it would be in a similar vein. Warning: I’m going to spoil most of the book’s plot points in this review. It’s a 2000+ year old myth, and the book doesn’t really change any of the main story beats. The titular Atalanta was abandoned […]



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