Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

If I was wrong, I’d probably be dead, and that was bad enough. Being stupid and dead would just be that much worse.

Fugitive Telemetry (The Murderbot Diaries #6) by Martha Wells

Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries #5) by Martha Wells

by 2 Comments

Fugitive Telemetry Gurathin sighed and rubbed his face and looked off into the distance, like he regretted all his life choices that had led to him standing here right now. ― Martha Wells, Fugitive Telemetry I read these books one after the other. Even after reading them both, I’m not sure which is the correct order since I read Network Effect first, followed by Fugitive Telemetry. I think perhaps I should have read Fugitive Telemetry first, but reading it after Network Effect didn’t spoil anything. […]

In short, war is bad. Also gay.

In Memoriam by Alice Winn

by Leave a Comment

PIE Challenge: Education, because I really don’t know as much about WW1 og hot take, , In short, war is bad. Also gay.longer review I sat down to read this ahead of Word on the Water book club, and then just…didn’t stand up from the sofa until I finished. To say I liked this book would be an understatement (to say I loved it would also be a bit hyperbolic, though). I think it’s interesting to go through a few of the concerns/complaints that were mentioned during […]

Sometimes the Real Treasure is the Monsters We Made Friends With Along the Way

Wearing the Lion by John Wiswell

by Leave a Comment

Heracles may be the son of Zeus, but he does all his deeds in the name of Hera, the goddess of families. When he is struck with madness by a mysterious god and kills his children, he’s sure Hera will return that devotion and help him gain revenge on whoever it was that did it – not realizing that she has hated him all along. Greek mythology retellings have been in vogue in the last few years, following heroes and villains alike and reinterpreting their […]

“I subscribe to a theory that answers cannot hide from us forever if we seek them long enough.”

Ink & Sigil by Kevin Hearne

by Leave a Comment

Al is one of five magical scribes in the world, charged with upholding the law between the mortal world and the higher planes where gods and mythical creatures reside. When his latest apprentice turns up dead, he discovers that he may have been trafficking the fae – and as his mentor, it is Al’s duty to make things right. This is the first book in the series, which is a spin-off of Hearne’s Iron Druid Chronicles. I have not read those books, but Ink and Sigil works […]

Earth as the Main Character

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

by 2 Comments

Best for: Anyone wanting a beautiful bit of writing that isn’t about a plot so much as a feeling. In a nutshell: A day in the life of four astronauts and two cosmonauts as they orbit the earth 16 times. Worth quoting: “We find out about our own unspecialness and in a flush of innocence we feel quite glad – if we’re not special then we might not be alone.” “We think we’re the wind, but we’re just the leaf.” Why I chose it: This […]

The Hound and Other Tales

The Hound and Other Tales by HP Lovecraft, Gou Tanabe, Zack Davisson

by Leave a Comment

Another excellent manga adaptation of HP Lovecraft! This was apparently the first of these adaptations to be available in English. These also are Lovecraft stories that I don’t know nearly as well, which was exciting. My favorite of the stories was by far The Temple. In it, a U Boat takes a strange artifact from a dead Brit. Shit ensues. There was so much that worked for this: the setting, on a disabled submarine, is so good for claustrophobic horror and the slow creep as the […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo