Cannonball Read 16

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Search This Site

> FAQ Home
> Tag: n.k. jemisin

“We have always been more rational than you people.”

Emergency Skin by N.K. Jemisin

by 1 Comment

Bingo: Strange Worlds; Passport: Dystopian science fiction I read this brilliant, darkly funny novelette after hearing about it on an episode of Our Opinions are Correct, the science fiction podcast hosted by Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz, that analysed the impact of Ayn Rand’s philosophy of selfish individualism on the tech industry.  In Rand’s own words: “My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as […]

When Reality and Fiction Overlap in NYC

The World We Make by N. K. Jemisin

by Leave a Comment

Bingo 17: North America This might be a little obvious but since The World We Make could actually fit several categories, I’m using for North America because it takes place largely in New York City, and most of the main characters are living avatars of the boroughs of NYC, as well as an avatar for the city overall. The gist of the novel remains similar from the prequel (this is part 2 of a duology): the avatars of Manhattan (Manny), Queens (Padmini), Brooklyn (Brooklyn), Bronx […]

I’m so curious what Jemisin will do next.

The World We Make (Great Cities, #2) by N.K. Jemisin

by Leave a Comment

This was a good ending to this series. It’s still not my favorite thing from N.K. Jemisin, but I very much enjoyed reading it (and it’s a fast read). I’m also glad that we didn’t get the original story or ending that Jemisin had planned (she talks about it in her author’s note); it sounded much bleaker and the series was originally going to be a trilogy instead of a duology. We’ve done the bleak N.K. Jemisin trilogy before. I appreciate that this ended on […]

It’s hard trying to look at something unfiltered by the vast acclaim of its author

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin

by 27 Comments

I think I’m a well-intentioned person. But we all do, I suppose. I try to read more books written by women. But I often don’t. Since I started reviewing books for CBR, I’ve reviewed 91 stories written by women, which is a hair over 20% of everything I’ve read. CBR07: 2 (7%) CBR08: 32 (29%) CBR09: 20 (26%) CBR10: 6 (11%) CBR11: 5 (18%) CBR12: 16 (26%) CBR13: 9 (18%) CBR14: 1 (8%) That’s abysmal. There’s no two ways about it. And that’s after some […]

A solid expansion and exploration in The Stillness

The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin

by 1 Comment

Jemisin continues to play with POV and split narration in The Obelisk Gate. In this novel which picks up immediately after the events of The Fifth Season, we primarily focus on Essun at Castrima and her daughter Nassun who is travelling with her father. Essun is still at Castrima while Nassun makes her way to a sanctuary for young orogenes led by Schaffa, the Guardian. There is a deeper exploration of magic in The Obelisk Gate which was very fun. What I find to be especially wonderful […]

The World We Make by N.K. Jemisin

by Leave a Comment

Hot take: Am I incapable of objectivity because a part of me will always miss NYC? (Yes) Attempted objectivity, December 2022 Panic Review-a-Thon: Jemisin has once again written a book that appears to appeal to only a small swatch of the reading public. Given the notes above on “objectivity, lack thereof,” I’ll caveat this by saying the population of English-literature-reading public probably does have a plurality in NYC, but nonetheless I’m left with a very similar sense s after I read The City We Became—was this […]

https://cannonballread.com/2022/12/the-world-we-make-wicherwill/



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo