Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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A gorgeous, perfect fantasy for a history lover (#Reading the TBR)

The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay

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I have wanted to read one of Guy Gavriel Kay’s books for a long time–so I’m tagging this review as #Reading the TBR for Cannonball Bingo. It’s been ages since I did a review, but what with Bingo starting I’m a little more inspired. And also because I feel like writing this review might diminish the extreme book hangover I have right now. I’m a big fan of both fantasy and history, and people have recommended Kay’s books to me multiple times. Yet somehow, I […]

The value of a memory

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It took me 20 years to finally read Tigana. Israel in the 90’s (and especially) Jerusalem did not have a wealth of geeky things for a nerdy teen to enjoy. There was some book, mostly SciFi classics, Tolkien and Dragonlance. There was Dungeons & Dragons, but good luck finding dices. There was also the early internet, and I was lucky enough to have some family friends who lived in America and could help my needs by occasionally sending me reading materials (mostly books) that I […]

Yes, three pages can in fact ruin an entire novel

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So… this book didn’t age well. I think that’s probably the first thing we ought to get out of the way. The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay is the first book in a trilogy and was first published in 1984. And boy is it ever an 80s fantasy novel, and not in a good way. I’ve been sitting on this review for a long time, trying to process and maybe even forgive the book so that I can move on and maybe read the […]

Emotionally and historically epic.

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The Lions of Al-Rassan is an incredible book that’s inspired by the religious and political conflict that marked Moorish Spain. It follows several characters from three at-odds religious groups: the Kindath (based on Jews), Jaddites (based on Christians) and Asharites (based on Muslims.) Though the religions as described in the novel bear no real-life similarity to their analogous counterparts, and the particulars of history don’t entirely line up with the events described in the book, GGK’s alternate imagining still captures the ideological turmoil that was rampant […]



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