Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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The Cheese don’t stink

Lisa Cheese and Ghost Guitar (Book 1): Attack of the Snack by Kevin Alvir

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Lisa Cheese and Ghost Guitar (Book 1): Attack of the Snack by Kevin Alvir is a lot of things. I was about half way through when I realized it probably was mostly a commentary on capitalism, mom & pop stores vs. the big man and the greed of “bigger and better” and addiction to that (via fast food joints).  It is a story of love and friendship and demon possession. If a humanoid-unicorn had a superhero origin story this would be it. There was more […]

Can I adopt a Murderbot please?

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells

Exit Strategy by Martha Wells

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The Murderbot Diaries is a sequence of 4 novella length works with an overarching storyline consisting of a voyage of discovery for, well, a Murderbot. They are a cyborg security unit who at some point in their past was involved in an incident resulting in 57 deaths. As a consequence of this event they’ve overridden their programming and disabled external control so that they are now autonomous and cannot be reprogrammed or have their memory wiped. Of course, that’s not known to the company who […]

The first three books of the Lunar Chronicles

Cinder (Book 1) by Marissa Meyer

Scarlet (Book 2) by Marissa Meyer

Fairest (Book 3.5) by Marissa Meyer

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Let me start out this review by saying SPOILERS BELOW!  After the first picture, all bets are off.  I can’t review these books without using details, because some of them get me feisty.  I actually wrote these reviews on paper last night because I had many #feelings.  I randomly found this series from my library through the Overdrive app.  I’ve listened to all three books that way.  Cinder is #1, Scarlet is #2, and Fairest is #3.5.  I’m on a waiting list for #3, but […]

We took you out from your mother’s womb; Our temple, your tomb

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This book is a sequel, and this review may contain spoilers for the first book in the series, Cinder. I was initially surprised to see the direction Meyer chose to go when continuing her series, The Lunar Chronicles, in that she introduced a new protagonist and switched between character POVs, rather than just sticking with Cinder’s. A lot of time, this is a YA contrivance that bothers me somewhat, because it’s frequently a shortcut into another character’s emotions without having to write them descriptively (e.g. […]

Once you gone tech you ain’t never going back

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Reading Cinder was a great way to get back on the YA train after my last misadventure. It’s actually well-written in addition to being well paced and having a heroine who doesn’t completely suck (the opposite, in fact — Cinder is a total badass.) The long and short of it is this: set in the future in “New Beijing”, the story is a retelling of Cinderella, except our title character is a cyborg. If that sounds awesome, it’s because it is, but the citizens of […]

Do you cyborg?

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Cyborgs are a common theme in SciFi, so Upgraded, edited by Neil Clarke, with short stories from authors from around the world is a welcome anthology for the genre. I picked it up, specifically to read Madeline Ashby’s contribution, “Come From Away” but I was definitely invested in reading more. Unfortunately, more doesn’t begin to describe Upgraded. In all, there are 26 stories, which, might honestly be over-egging the pudding a bit. When your theme is so narrow that every story pretty much has to begin […]



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