Cannonball Read 9

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

Leia Organa, Huttslayer

Bloodline by Claudia Gray

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What’s happening to me, personally, doesn’t matter. If it’s not the ideal time, well, it’s the only time we’ve got.” As I was listening to a section about a third of the way into Bloodline I was struck by the deeply screwed up dynamic of the Skywalker family. Some friends and I joke that Anakin and Luke Skywalker are the biggest drama queens in the galaxy. Listening to Leia recount being tortured for hours by the man she now knows was her father, it doesn’t feel like such a joke. Princess Leia is the Skywalker who gets stuff done despite everything she […]

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6/27/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:51 |

Heinlein’s Starship Troopers Meets Kafka’s The Trial Meets Heller’s Catch-22

Bill, the Galactic Hero by Harry Harrison

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“All of the characters in this book are fictitious,” the legalese in the front of Bill reads, “and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and, besides, they aren’t even born yet.” So begins Harry Harrison’s often absurdist and sometimes bludgeoning satire of war, bureaucracy, and humanity in general. Titular Bill is a Forrest Gump-like character in the beginning of the story; he is a gentle bumpkin content to live a quiet life in a rural part of his planet. However, circumstances drag him into military service on behalf of The Emperor, whoever that is. Bill stumbles […]

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6/26/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:19 |

I don’t know if you remember this…

Remake by Connie Willis

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but there was a small panic culturally in the early 90s when someone put like John Wayne or Humphrey Bogart in a commercial. I think it was Humphrey Bogart selling Diet Coke or something like that. There was a strong feeling that this would lead to old stars being in EVERYTHING and who knows what would happen then! Nothing would. Sure there were a few strange blips here and there where someone would pop up somewhere, but now we have Princess Leia and Tarkin showing up in Rogue One and it’s weird, but nothing collapsed in upon itself. This is […]

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6/24/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:250 |

The Variants are back, and so is Apollo!

Extinction Aftermath (The Extinction Cycle Book 6) by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

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This is book six in the Extinction Cycle books.  I read book five a few months ago, and then needed a little break from the bleak world of the Variants and the Juveniles and all the fighting.  When I picked this book up (Kindle version natch), it took me a little while to get into it, for those very same reasons.  Once I got going though, I couldn’t stop.  I love the characters in this world.  Also, Apollo is back.  Once I saw he’d be fighting with a main character (Fitz), I clicked on X-ray on my Kindle to see […]

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6/22/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:32 |

Sanderson does detective fiction with a sf twist.

Snapshot by Brandon Sanderson

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I swear, one of these days Brandon Sanderson will write something that I dislike—something that is boring or trite or that just plain doesn’t work—but that day is not this day. This day that son of a gun has written yet another clever, entertaining story for me to four or five star. And this time he takes on detective stories! With a fantasy twist, of course. In the near future, some sort of supernatural event has reshaped the world, and made it possible to recreate exact, life-size replicas of entire days. It’s left vague why this ‘technology’ was actually created, […]

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6/21/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:46 |

A HUG IS LIKE VIOLENCE MADE OF LOVE

Empire's End (Star Wars: Aftermath, #3) by Chuck Wendig

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“When they say to one another, ‘May the Force be with you,’ it is precisely this that they mean: It is a wish that when the time comes to leap into the void and to make a decision based on instinct and trust, you are rewarded for that act and not punished. The hope is that if you meet the galaxy halfway, it meets you in the middle and carries you the rest of the distance.”   I literally checked this book out of the library four times before I finally finished it (and kept it until forced to return it […]

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6/21/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:43 |

You’d Think I’d Learn

Mission to Universe by Gordon R. Dickson

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Mission to Universe by Gordon R. Dickson (1965) – They say you can’t go back again, and I’m beginning to think that it’s true when it comes to reading some of these classic science fiction novels.  This novel by science fiction (and fantasy) master, Gordon R. Dickson, does not hold up well.  It does, however, show that we’ve come a long way, baby. The story itself is basic space opera.  The captain of a phase ship capable of instant shifting from one galaxy to another finds himself adjusting to an integrated crew (with women!) as he tries to find a […]

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6/20/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:26 |

Ruined Cities of the Future

Ruined Cities by James Tallett

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Ruined Cities edited by James Tallett (2013) – I can’t believe I haven’t reviewed this anthology before.  I like beginning writers and original stories, so independent publications’ short story collections are right up my alley.  I’m not wild about dystopian or post-apocalyptic stories, but this one is large and meaty (420 pages) and has some exceptional writing.  I’ll talk about a few of my favorites. “The City Over Hell” by Jennifer Povey – A young illiterate girl discovers her city is actually a dying space station orbiting a fiery planet called Hell.  She and everyone are doomed until an old […]

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6/20/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:25 |

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