Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

Science Teacher Goes to Space

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

by 2 Comments

I read this in a family book club with my 10 year old and then watched the movie. I have thoughts on both!  If you don’t know, here’s the short summary: Dr. Ryland Grace wakes up alone in a spaceship. As he figures out what is going on around him, using science and math skills that he hasn’t forgotten, he gradually recalls memories of who/what/when/why he got up there in the first place. Turns out that he’s there on a mission to save Earth from […]

It is faith wrapped in the cloak of science. Contact is as vague and obscure as communion with the saints or the coming of the Messiah.

Solaris by Stanisław Lem

by Leave a Comment

You are doing all you can to stay human in an inhuman situation. Noble it may be, but it isn’t going to get you anywhere. And I’m not so sure about it being noble – not if it’s idiotic at the same time. ― Stanisław Lem, Solaris It’s what we wanted: contact with another civilization. We have it, this contact! Our own monstrous ugliness, our own buffoonery and shame, magnified as if it was under a microscope! ― Stanisław Lem, Solaris Kelvin is finally on […]

“We all have ways of showing our patriotism, and mine is holding my country to account. I want to dissuade her from her worst, cruellest impulses, for I truly believe that if she does not evolve past them, she will not survive.”

Truth of the Divine (Noumena, #2) by Lindsay Ellis

by 3 Comments

I don’t have it in me right now to talk about this book in the way that it deserves. This is a book that explores the fallout from First Contact (and the fallout from covering up First Contact) in practically every way possible. There was so much going on in this book (and all of it done well), I don’t even know how to start summing it up. I’m tempted to just do the bullet points thing. In fact, you know what, fuck it. I’mma […]

Young woman at loose ends finds an unexpected calling – with aliens!

Axiom's End by Lindsay Ellis

by Leave a Comment

Totally on accident, I have now read three alien invasion/first contact books in a row. (I did try to read a Nalini Singh in the middle and put it down in annoyance – sorry, gang!) But it was interesting to see the variety of stories: far in the future with scenes set on spaceships and other planets vs. two on Earth. Axiom’s End is the smallest of the stories in scale. Our hero is a young woman named Cora, who becomes pivotal to communicating with […]

I Finally Got There—I Finally Read Project Hail Mary

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

by 2 Comments

Caution, mild spoilers ahead. I have tried not to explain too much beyond the blurb in this review, but I don’t think I can talk about Project Hail Mary properly without pulling back the curtain—just a little—on one of the major plot points. It probably won’t be a huge deal as this book has been out a while, and I suspect most people are probably already conscious of the little point I want to reveal, even if they haven’t read the book. But I just […]

But the Habits of Memory Created All Kinds of False Harbours.

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

by Leave a Comment

Good Lord, I got all excited over the bingo thing, and wouldn’t you know it, I get hammered by work commitments! So it looks like this year I’ll be posting bingo-reviews late, and my reviews for the Hugo Best Novel noms after I voted   Oh well, oh well.   A Desolation Called Peace was one of those books up for the Hugo Award for Best Novel this year. And just like A Memory Called Empire before it, I think it’ll take home the top gong. […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo