Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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All signs point to… this being a pretty good anthology

All Signs Point to Yes by Cam Montgomery, Adrianne White, g. haron davis

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I’m not a huge astrology fan. Pretty much every I know comes from random internet articles, but I’m a big fan of anthologies (author speed dating!), so I hopped in hoping for the best. Luckily, each of the thirteen stories has a list of characteristics for that sign before the story starts. Yes, there are thirteen stories, the twelve traditional zodiac signs plus one that my limited googling indicates is controversial. Aries: “ruler and killer” – g. haron davis – ★★ F/NB. Not a strong […]

Space Fiction, Not Science Fiction

Alien Dimensions #22 by Neil A. Hogan, Editor

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When I write for an anthology, I frequently receive a contributor’s copy. I enjoy reading the stories by other writers, and Alien Dimensions #22 is no exception. In “The Voiceless City” by Elana Gomel, a spaceship commanded by an AI selects a crew for a first contact mission. The unusual crew is composed of a half-dozen experts, but all of them have issues: antisocial disorder, linguistic delay, autism, and similar neurological and psychological challenges. When the ship returns from its mission, the AI and several […]

A wide variety of horror from Lovecraftian to historically inspired

Dark Stars by John F.D. Taff

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I’ve said it before, but I love anthologies for the opportunity to speed date a variety of authors. While I’ve been reading more horror lately, it’s not a genre where I’m familiar with a lot of authors, so I jumped on the chance to read this anthology. In that respect, it was a complete success as I found several new authors! “In classes, I was often told that, according to Henry James, my taste for the works of Edgar Allan Poe was ‘the mark of […]

Thank you, llamareadsbooks!

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Thank you, llamareadsbooks!  Emmalita’s review got me quite interested in Sword, Stone, Table: Old Legends, New Voices since I’ve always liked Arthurian myths and retellings.  As I’m working on improving the diversity of the voices I read, this anthology of “gender-bent, race-bent, LGTQIA+ inclusive retellings” from a diverse group of authors will help with that.  I’m looking forward to reading this next year 🙂 Giving and receiving books is the best way to celebrate the holidays!  Merry Book Exchange!

My revenge is just begun! I spread it over centuries, and time is on my side.

Blood Sisters: Vampire Stories by Women by Paula Guran, editor

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As a reminder, I was really interested in reading vampire fiction before Halloween, and this book of short stories, cobbled together by Paula Guran, was a really wonderful sampler. There are about 25 stories ranging in eras from the early 1600s with Catherine of Aragon and Henry VII, vampire slayers, to a dystopian future where teenagers decide to ‘just do it’ and become vampires to rush the inevitable. The anthology is organized by era and showcases a wide variety of world-building concepts, tones, geographies, and […]

Don’t Talk to Me about Literary

Invisible Blood by Maxim Jakubowski

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It’s hard to review mystery anthologies like editor Maxim Jakubowski’s Invisible Blood. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I want to be careful what I reveal. There are also so many characters and plots that it’s hard to synopsize. Let’s start here: I enjoyed Invisible Blood. It was clear that Jakubowski has a good eye for a mystery story with a little more depth than just a whodunnit. Not that I don’t like whodunnits—I totally do. But it’s interesting to read a mystery anthology […]



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