Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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The sword fighting is more interesting than the romance but not the point

Fence: Disarmed by Sarah Rees Brennan

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Bingo 20: Star I think I mostly like the comics better; the novels for Fence, including Fence: Disarmed, get too wrapped up in the personal drama. At least Fence: Disarmed fits the star square; part of the premise of the whole series is that Nicholas, the new(est) kid at King’s Row boarding school, wants to become a star fencer to impress his supposed father Robert Coste who is a major figure in the sport. Part of the problem though is that Robert may have no […]

Angsty teens figuring themselves out and it’s actually interesting

Dark Rise by C. S. Pascat

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I know C.S. Pascat from the Fence comics, a lighter queer romance set in a boys school fencing team. This is no that, mostly. Dark Rise is a chosen one story in which there is a secret organization fighting a secret battle to stop the great evil of the past from coming back. This is a standard fantasy scenario; what keeps things interesting is that no one with one or two exceptions is exactly who they think or say at the beginning. Will needs to […]

Some Fencing but More Personal Stuff

Fence Volume Four Rivals by C.S. Pascat, Johanna the Mad

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So there was a YA novel that kind of tells the same story as volume 4 of the graphic novel Fence Volume 4 Rivals; one the one hand, few surprises, on the other, it wasn’t the EXACT same story, just the same kind with similar character development (at least for some characters). I’m reasonably sure the comic series was first, and that the novelization might be by another author. The basic premise is reasonably common: sports story (high school fencing team) + hate/rival to friend/something […]



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