Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Another Gas Lamp Mystery in Space!

The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles by Malka Older

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Mossa and Pleiti are back! Take a Sherlock Holmes style mystery (gaslamps, lots of fog, some terribly repressed people) but set it far in the future, on huge platforms that orbit the planet Jupiter, where humanity settled after we wrecked Earth so badly we couldn’t stay. Add in a University setting and the subsequent academic jockeying, rivalry, and backstabbing, and you’ve got yourself a potent combination! Book 2 in the series sees Mossa looking into the disappearance of Stravan, a student at Valdegeld University where […]

Steeped in Meaning

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

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I had the pleasure of reading A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers, which turned out to be the perfect end-of-your-day read: light but meaningful, engaging without being taxing. The story follows Dex, a monk in a futuristic society that has rebalanced itself after the AI singularity. In this imagined future, robots gain consciousness and – rather than triggering a bloody, Terminator-style war – humans and robots amicably agree to go their separate ways. Decades pass without contact as robot territory becomes the Wild, […]

I can’t get Matt Damon’s voice out of my head

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

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I haven’t read Andy Weir since The Martian came out – I enjoyed it but I remember the reviews of Artemis were a bit lukewarm and with so many other novels to read, I wasn’t in a rush. But then there was a movie preview for the adaption of Project Hail Mary, his third novel, so I figured why not (I read with my eyes but I have heard that the audiobook version is great, narrated by Ray Porter – for some reason every time […]

Just because it is set at Halloween doesn’t mean you can’t read it anytime you want!

Ghoulia volume 1 by Barbara Cantini

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Yes, Ghoulia volume 1 is a Halloween book, and maybe it is because I love Halloween, but I would read this book by Barbara Cantini all year round. It has humor and is low-key spooky. Most ages can appreciate it, however, the only thing that might be a smidgen much for the younger or sensitive reader is the fact that the “Halloween Candy Bag” our friend Ghoulia carries, is the actual head of her uncle and she will remove her own head near the end […]

When the zombie outbreak happened, I didn’t expect zombie gnomes

Hooves of Death, Volume 1 by Sam Bragg

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While I liked this book, I’m not really sure how to write about it. Hooves of Death, Volume 1 by Sam Bragg has many of the familiar themes, settings and story arcs you find in young adult literature, but it is also new and fresh. There are parts I did not like, parts I loved and one or two parts where I went “huh?” There are ups and downs. We follow one human and a few unicorns that escaped the destruction of their compound (don’t […]

The Rose Field by Philip Pullman

The Rose Field by Philip Pullman

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This was a painful read. I don’t even think I can articulate how bad this was. There was too much going on and just outright stupidity in a few places. I really wish we had the Lyra we came to know in His Dark Materials. Heck, even the first book in the Book of Dust trilogy was good, but then it went off the rails with book #2 and now this. Also the ending was a let-down. Don’t get me started on someone being straight up murderous through […]



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