Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Bleak but Creative

A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck

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cbr17bingo: borrow – borrowed from my library Well, this was depressing—but also kind of fascinating. Our narrator Soren, a devout Mormon, dies and ends up in Hell, where he learns that there is a true religion (yes, one that is currently practiced on earth), and it’s not Mormonism. Hell is real, but there are different versions of it, and Soren is sent to one inspired by Jorge Luis Borges’s story “The Library of Babel” (which I recall reading and enjoying in college). In this library is […]

System Collapse by Martha Wells

System Collapse by Martha Wells

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“System Collapse” picks right up with the events from “Network Effect” and Murderbot, the ART crew, and others, working together to try to figure out how to keep the Barish-Estranza corporation from trying to “own” the planet and the colonists that have been living there. This was not a bad book by any stretch, but to me there was way too much going on that I just after a while stopped trying to track what was happening to who and why. The first portion of […]

A Series of TED Talks, Occasionally Interrupted by Dinosaurs

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

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It’s always a little rough reading a book after you’ve already seen the movie adaptation, especially when the movie is directed by someone like Steven Spielberg. The movie Jurassic Park is a taut thriller, perfectly calibrated to excite movie audiences. It has one striking image after another, and a score that expertly guides your emotional response. Michael Crichton’s novel does feature some tense, thrilling scenes, and of course he should get a tremendous amount of credit for coming up with such a brilliant premise for […]

The Best Dick is Mysterious Dick

Ubik by Philip K. Dick

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I’ve read a few PKD novels by now, and now my favorite by far is Ubik. It is a true mindfreak of a novel. It’s got all of the stuff that makes a great science fiction novel – interesting technology and culture, real philosophical questions, and plain old entertainment. I ditched my plans this weekend to read this whole thing in two days. I can’t stop thinking about it. The story starts simply enough. Down-on-his-luck Joe Chip works as an anti-psychic. That may sound exciting, […]

A swing and a miss from Scalzi

When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi

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Bingo: Black I’ve been a longtime Scalzi fan since a friend insisted I read Old Man’s War.  However, his last trilogy, The Collapsing Empire, didn’t do it for me.  Then along came The Kaiju Preservation Society, 5 star read, followed by Starter Villain, 5 star read.  Scalzi was on a roll!  After seeing him at an event for Starter Villain, I was so geeked for the final book in this triptych, When the Moon Hits Your Eye.  Scalzi explained this at the event and here is a concise description […]

Rapport by Martha Wells

Rapport by Martha Wells

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“Rapport” follows Perihelion/Peri/ART and its crew while they are attempting a mission on a station that is dealing with a hostile takeover. You get to meet the crew that ART was ready to kill to get back in “Network Effect.” Well, that was delightful. It’s a nice little interlude showing how much our ART (otherwise known as Peri) has changed since it met and established a friendship with Murderbot. I think that this is great to read after the events of “Network Effect” actually since […]



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