Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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The Stone Sky: “Different choices have always been possible.”

The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin

April 18, 2026 by beereadsbooks Leave a Comment

The Stone Sky is the third and last installment in the Broken Earth Trilogy. This book is split between Essun and Nassun in the current day and Hoa in the past, which gives us context for how we got to where we are. We know that Essun and Nassun are on a collision course of sorts – they have the same general goal in mind, but with vastly different outcomes. Regardless, this Season and the Seasons in general cannot continue if humans are to survive. […]

Filed Under: Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction Tagged With: #brokenearthtrilogy, #fantasy, #Science Fiction, afrofuturism, black speculative fiction, n.k. jemisin

beereadsbooks's CBR18 Review No:15 · Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction · Tags: #brokenearthtrilogy, #fantasy, #Science Fiction, afrofuturism, black speculative fiction, n.k. jemisin ·
· 0 Comments

The Obelisk Gate: Things get worse before they get better (I hope)

The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin

April 1, 2026 by beereadsbooks Leave a Comment

Possible spoilers for The Fifth Season – Proceed with awareness. The Obelisk Gate is the second book in the Broken Earth Trilogy. In this installment, we follow two main stories – Essun and Nassun after each has arrived at a new, but separate, comm and the years that follow. Nassun is Essun’s daughter. Nassun had been taken by her father, Jija, after he murdered her little brother, Uche. We heard of them in the first book, but we officially meet them as they travel south […]

Filed Under: Fantasy, Featured, Fiction, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction Tagged With: #brokenearthtrilogy, #fantasy, #Science Fiction, afrofuturism, black speculative fiction, n.k. jemisin

beereadsbooks's CBR18 Review No:12 · Genres: Fantasy, Featured, Fiction, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction · Tags: #brokenearthtrilogy, #fantasy, #Science Fiction, afrofuturism, black speculative fiction, n.k. jemisin ·
· 0 Comments

The Fifth Season: Funny how oppression is never the answer that the oppressors hope it is.

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

February 21, 2026 by beereadsbooks Leave a Comment

A good friend gave me this book a few years ago as a very strong recommendation for the series. Intending to read it right away, I immediately purchased the rest of the trilogy. Then they sat on my shelf for a while. After reading Amina Al-Sirafi, I wanted to dig into Shannon Chakraborty’s trilogy. So, off I skipped to the local bookshop only to find that they had 1 and 3 in stock, but #2 would take a few weeks to arrive. Rather than be […]

Filed Under: Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction Tagged With: #brokenearthtrilogy, #fantasy, #Science Fiction, afrofuturism, black speculative fiction, n.k. jemisin

beereadsbooks's CBR18 Review No:11 · Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction · Tags: #brokenearthtrilogy, #fantasy, #Science Fiction, afrofuturism, black speculative fiction, n.k. jemisin ·
· 0 Comments

The Right Read at the Right Time, almost

The Black God's Drums by P. Djeli Clark

November 10, 2024 by CoffeeShopReader Leave a Comment

Bingo Free Space Yes, I know Bingo technically was supposed to end two days ago, but since this is the extra free space I never ended up using, I’m still going to finish that off. I’ve been struggling to find a novella that I wanted to assign to an intro to lit class this coming spring (for reference, I’m at a regional state school) because I didn’t want to re-use anything too recent and I wanted to avoid something easily findable on the internet (either […]

Filed Under: Fantasy, Fiction, History, Speculative Fiction Tagged With: #fantasy, alternate history, black speculative fiction, historical fiction, P. Djèlí Clark, speculative, the black god's drums

CoffeeShopReader's CBR16 Review No:64 · Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, History, Speculative Fiction · Tags: #fantasy, alternate history, black speculative fiction, historical fiction, P. Djèlí Clark, speculative, the black god's drums ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments
These Alien Skies

Finishing the Black Stars series

These Alien Skies by C. T. Rwizi

We Travel the Spaceways by Victor LaValle

2043...(A Merman I Should Turn to Be) by Nisi Shawl

July 25, 2022 by teresaelectro 1 Comment

Getting back on my reviews with Cannonball Read 14 Bingo! I liked all three of the remaining stories from the Black Stars anthology. I highly recommend you check them out on audiobook. Bingo Square: Star “These Alien Skies” was my favorite story from this round. Two human space explorers are sent through a wormhole on a mission to find habitable worlds. Before we can really get to know Msizi and Tariro, an accidental explosion (or was it) sends their ship crash landing on a planet […]

Filed Under: Audiobooks, Science Fiction, Short Stories, Speculative Fiction Tagged With: afro-futurism, Black authors, black speculative fiction, Black Stars collection, C.T. Rwizi, cbr14bingo, Kindle Unlimited, nisi shawl, Victor LaValle

teresaelectro's CBR14 Review No:3 · Genres: Audiobooks, Science Fiction, Short Stories, Speculative Fiction · Tags: afro-futurism, Black authors, black speculative fiction, Black Stars collection, C.T. Rwizi, cbr14bingo, Kindle Unlimited, nisi shawl, Victor LaValle ·
Rating:
· 1 Comment

Octavia Butler – Adulthood Rites, well this was disappointing

Adulthood Rites by Octavia Butler

February 25, 2021 by MarkAbaddon 1 Comment

I hate writing negative reviews, especially for authors I love, but this book did not do it for me. Middle parts of a trilogy are difficult, I understand that, but this book just felt repetitive and barely moved the narrative forward. This novel focuses on the first male child born of a human (with genetic input from the Oankali) on earth since humanity was saved from extinction. Lilith, the main character from the first book is the mother but she barely appears as Akin, her […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction Tagged With: alien, alien contact, black speculative fiction, octavia butler, sociology

MarkAbaddon's CBR13 Review No:3 · Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction · Tags: alien, alien contact, black speculative fiction, octavia butler, sociology ·
Rating:
· 1 Comment
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