Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin

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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

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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

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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/

“New City, Who Dis?”

The World We Make by N.K. Jemisin

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I discovered N.K. Jemisin through The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms trilogy.  Loved the first two, was very ‘meh’ about the third.  Then The Fifth Season erupted onto the scene and blew my mind with such a creative fantasy, Jemisin became an auto-buy author.  She hasn’t disappointed me yet and The World We Make is another excellent entry in her list of works. In Jemisin’s world, cities have the ability to awaken.  When enough people live in them, when the idea of the city’s identity becomes a belief […]

N.K. Jemisin is the queen of exposition and world building

The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin

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Damaya has been discovered by her family to be an orogene, a person who can wield a very special and dangerous kind of magic. Her kind are mistrusted by nearly everyone in society. If they aren’t shipped off to the Fulcrum to be trained and controlled, they usually end up dead at the hands of their neighbors. At a young age, Damaya is forced out of her home and in to the care of her Guardian, Schaffa, who is tasked with keeping her safe but […]

short review but trust me I adored this book

The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin

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It’s funny–I really liked this book, but find myself struggling a bit to remember what happened specifically in it. I remember the broad strokes and the feeling of finishing it very well, but not so much the details of the plot. As a set up: we’re still focusing on the travails of Essun, orogene par none (maybe), and the counteracting travails of Nessun, her daughter, orogene of renown. What really set this novel apart from the prior entry was the emphasis on ‘how we got here,’ aka […]



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