Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Heroes Aren’t Born, They’re Made

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

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There’s nothing better than starting a book that you don’t know much about and don’t have any expectations for, only to discover that it’s really good and that there are two more out there and a final fourth in the works. Last week, I loaded a bunch of library books on my kindle to read on vacation and this one, Ember in the Ashes, caught my eye both because it was the first book in a fantasy series and it was by a woman of color, […]

The Very Long Journey Portion of the Hero’s Journey

A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir

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I quite enjoyed the first novel in the Ember Quartet, and was very interested to see where Tahir would take it.  Tahir adds a third character perspective, Helene, in this novel, and I enjoyed her parts of the novel most since they were focused on the politics of the Empire with the new emperor in play.  Additionally, she has the most interesting of the character issues since Helene is struggling between her loyalty to her best friend, her family and the Empire and her oath. […]

Potentially Familiar Beginning Leads to a Creative and Intriguing World

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

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When I first started reading this, I was a bit worried that it felt derivative of other YA novels.  While it was a very different set up, something initially reminded me of Marie Lu’s Legend, though it quickly became its own separate thing.  I think it may have been that both alternate between the voice of a young woman and a young man, and in both, the woman has an older brother.  Both also deal with resistance fighters and an established empire, though the gender […]

A gripping YA fantasy series by an underrepresented author (3 Bingo squares for 3 books!)

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I’m slowly working my way through my library’s fantasy collections on Overdrive, which is how I found An Ember in the Ashes, the first book of Sabaa Tahir’s YA fantasy series. My reading goals this year are to a) not buy books (only bought one so far this year!); and b) read more female fantasy writers (I made it to July without reading any dudes, and I read more than I usually do!) So, as I quite enjoy YA fantasy, I added this one to my […]

Huge case of middle book syndrome.

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Project: Catch Up On Review Backlog, review #7 out of 11 This is honestly one of the worst cases of middle book syndrome I’ve ever seen. I know the first two books haven’t been everyone’s cup of tea, but I really enjoyed myself while reading them. They were fast reads with smart characters, and while utilizing some tropes, sure, Tahir also seemed to be constructing a plot using several things I’d never seen before, and that was exciting! I couldn’t really predict where she was […]

Another YA series where the protagonists will fight an evil Empire

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3.5 stars Spoiler warning! Some spoilers for the early parts of the book in this review (although some of it is already spoiled in the book’s blurb).  We’re back to me reviewing books I read a month ago, so Goodreads will have to help me out here: Laia is a slave. Elias is a soldier. Neither is free. Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Those that do not vow their blood and bodies to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved […]



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