Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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“It was the hubris of each generation to think this anew, to think that their time was special, that all things would come to an end with them.”

Shift (Silo #2) by Hugh Howey

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It has been a few years since I read the first book of this series, Wool, but I was very excited to return to Howey’s dystopian world, of people living in a silo, with many unanswered quesitons about how humanity got to this point, and what exactly is wrong with the world outside. I was ready to pick back up where book one ended, but was in for a bit of a surprise. In fact, I was quite disappointed, because I DESPERATELY wanted to see […]

I think I’m done with dystopian fiction for a while

Julia by Sandra Newman

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Dystopian fiction feels very much of the zeitgeist. It’s certainly understandable as some corners of the world get darker and even the brighter ones seem dimmer. Dominant systems are pushing back on the shrinking of their legitimacy, attempting to put the top back on the Pandora’s box of equality and fairer economic systems. This retelling of Orwell’s 1984 from Julia’s perspective is very much in that vein, a misogytopia. Like a lot of men, I like Orwell. Well, more correct to say liked than like. In […]

The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth

The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton

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When a scientist is murdered in the last outpost of humanity left in the world, the villagers must seek justice or all face death. I read Turton’s debut The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle several years ago, and while I enjoyed piecing together the mystery and the science fiction underpinnings of the story, I though the solution got too convoluted in the end. This book has a similar problem, but as the focus for much of the story is the science fiction setting and […]

“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”

1984 by George Orwell

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I don’t often reread books, the old adage of so little time, so many books ticking like a clock behind me. This is the book I have reread the most, at least 10 times at this point, and the book that I say is my favorite book of all time, depending on the audience. (My favorite book is really Lamb by Christopher Moore, but that is a fictional “what if” about the life of Jesus, that entire chunk that is missing in the Bible, and […]

The Grief of Wisdom

Where the Axe is Buried by Ray Nayler

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That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which it may be said, “See, this is new”? It has already been in ancient times before us. – Ecclesiastes 1:9-10 (NKJV). Nayler’s Where the Axe is Buried reminds me of the Book of Ecclesiastes. It is, in my mind, the least hopeful and most useful book of the Bible. All of this has happened before, and […]

Doomsday Do’s and Doomsday Don’ts

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

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Carl is a normal dude. Except that he is stuck in the apocalypse. With his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut. And there is an alien invasion. Plus, Carl and most of what’s left of humanity are involuntarily placed on a Running-Man-style intergalactic game show. And the contestants don’t know who (if anyone) to trust. And the odds are that they will all die very soon. To stave off the inevitable, the characters have to kill monsters (Are they monsters?) and level up. Is it worth it […]



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