Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Earlier Dean Koontz with a Pseudonym Doesn’t Work

Icebound by Dean Koontz

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So I found this book on my shelf and I don’t remember it at all. I either DNFed this thing or just erased the memory from my head because it was awful. At times I kept getting a case of deja vu, though now I realize it’s because I was mis-remembering this book along with Dan Brown’s “Deception Point.” That’s another terrible book that I don’t even want to get into right now. Look this is going to be short (for me). This book was […]

A Supremacy of Dunces

The Last Widow by Karin Slaughter

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Here’s my problem with The Last Widow: I wish I could say it was implausible and over the top, and ten years ago it would have been, but unfortunately, it’s not, and that makes it a scary and gripping read, but not a particularly comforting one. There’s nothing in this book that hasn’t happened before, and it’s going to happen again, sooner rather than later. We all know it. Karin Slaughter certainly does; there is a bleak and cynical current that flows through this book; […]

Sherlock vs. Elder gods, round 2

The Cthulhu Casebooks - Sherlock Holmes and the Miskatonic Monstrosities by James Lovegrove

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Middle portions of the trilogy are always difficult. There is not the excitement of starting a story nor the anticipation of a conclusion. So how do you make the middle volume interesting?   In the case of this book the author changed things up a bit and focused much more on the Lovecraftian Elements then in the first book in the series. The strategy is largely successful. Lovegrove incorporates elements from a wide variety of Lovecraft’s tales From his stories involving the dream cycle to […]

Sherlock Holmes Takes on Cthulhu

Sherlock Holmes & the Shadwell Shadows by James Lovegrove

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I love Sherlock Holmes and I love the world of horror that HP Lovecraft created. Seeing the two of them brought together was almost irresistible to me but I have seen Holmes placed in a world where logic doesn’t apply before, most notably the collection called shadows over Baker Street. There are aspects of this book that are very reminiscent of some of the best stories in that particular collection.  Where the author is most effective is in trying to really ground homes in this World where […]

Reminded Me of Under the Dome…Not a Good Reference Point

Sleeping Beauties by Owen King

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I don’t know what to say here besides this new Stephen/Owen King mash-up was disappointing. I read “Under the Dome” eons ago and I really wish that my Amazon review had been pushed to Goodreads. I recall that I was flabbergasted that no one had reigned in King since that book was 1,074 freaking pages. I read that over two days back in 2009 when I was traveling to Afghanistan for work and recall that at one point I was awake for two days just […]

Great for Constant Readers…3 Stars for Others

Lisey's Story by Stephen King

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When I read this book years ago I remember loving it and even crying while reading. Now I see the flaws in this book all over the place. It doesn’t help that at the time I had not read most of King’s works so I didn’t see how he heavily “borrowed” from his other stories. If you are a Castle Rock fan this book is full of Easter eggs for you. Heck, if you are a King fan you can seriously see parts of this […]



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