Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“This is nothing but a tower, and I am nothing but a scientist of sufficiently advanced technology, which is to say a magician”

Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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I do not remember what part of our conversation in the end of year Cannonball Read Book Chat was that inspired me to put Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky onto my to read for the year. But I did add this science fiction novella to my list that day and then put it on my holds request list in January, proving that I was excited/interested enough to prioritize it to the early part of the year. But March me cannot remember specifically why December/January me did […]

Horribly Fun

Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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Tchaikovsky has a knack for making humans supporting actors in his space-faring opera about intelligent animal life. After reading Children of Time, which I enjoyed, I wasn’t sure how he would do a second book about a different species in a fresh way. But this second book is just as good as the first. Told in a similar way to Children of Time, Children of Ruin switches between the past and present. The past being a time when human civilization has basically self-destructed and sent […]

“Abnasio’s smile was so kindly you could shave with it.”

Spiderlight by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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I don’t know if Tchaikovsky’s interest in spiders preceded his writing or followed it, but the man writes a lot of books that try to force people to have compassion for spiders. But dude makes it work. Plot: A spider’s home in a forest is attacked by a team of adventurers on a holy quest to defeat a powerful, evil wizard. A deal was offered – the adventurers get what they need in exchange for not killing all the spiders. And what did they need? […]

Maybe humans aren’t the most deserving of a new planet

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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I read this book to get my brother to stop talking about alien *insert creepy animal here (I don’t want to spoil it)*. Every time I’d see him, he would ask if I read Children of Time and then proceed to explain the premise as if he hadn’t explained it to me the last time I saw him. After maybe the fourth or fifth time I decided to read the book to shut him up. Look, I’m not a big sci-fi reader, but this one […]

The philosophical adventures of Uncharles the robot.

Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the audio ARC. It hasn’t affected the contents of my review. Okay, so, this book was not AT ALL what I was expecting going in, based on the blurb. If you are expecting emotional good times and characters to identify with ala Murderbot, stop expecting that. Our main character, Uncharles, goes on a sort of picaresque philosophical journey of What Does It Mean to Be Alive, with each section of the book being an ode/homage to a different […]

A strange little fantasy. I expected nothing less from this author.

City of Last Chances (The Tyrant Philosophers, #1) by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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This is a tough book to sink your teeth into. It’s slow to start, and slow to catch your emotions (if it ever catches them all), but still, for the right reader this book could work very well. I always appreciate a well-executed attempt at a unique structure, and we have that here in abundance. Up front, though, the reason this is getting 3.5 stars is that though there were bits that caught my imagination in the first half of the book, it didn’t really […]



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