Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers

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You guys, these books. I really, really liked The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. It made me deliriously happy with the intricate character profiles, the worldbuilding, the way I felt like I was among friends almost from the start of the story. I didn’t want to leave the Wayfarer. And I knew the second book — this book — was going to do that, leave the Wayfarer, and journey off with Pepper and Blue to Port Coriol. And I’d met them already and […]

Redshirts by John Scalzi is silly, fun, and full of adventure.

Redshirts by John Scalzi

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The short version of the plot is that a group of junior officers on a spaceship realize that members of their rank tend to die when on away missions with senior officers. Anyone familiar with the original flavor of Star Trek will recognize the setup.  The book starts with ensigns Andrew Dahl and Jimmy Hanson meeting other newly assigned ensigns Maia Duvall, Jasper Hester, and Finn as they wait for the shuttle to take them to their newly-assigned ship. The five lucky ensigns have been […]

This book confused my brain in ways it did not intend

Neuromancer by William Gibson

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**Expository wordiness up top. Feel free to skip to the actual book-related stuff if you like. A few things right up top: A few years ago, I flirted with playing a card game called Android: Netrunner. My partner was way more into it than I was, but occasionally I’d build a deck or two and spar with him, just to give him something to play against. I included a link to the Wikipedia article on the game there, because it’s a lot to explain if […]

Space Opera Done Fantastic

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

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You guys, I really, really liked this book. Let’s start off there. It combines what I loved in the first parts of The Expanse series with Star Trek, stirs in the best bits of Firefly, and then adds a bunch of its own stuff. It’s very good. If that’s all you need to get you started, then go forthwith and devour at the next available opportunity. But I can’t get away with that little of a review, and I don’t really want to anyway, so […]

The Fifth Season: The Earth Really is Trying to Shake Us Off

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

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Season after season the Earth is hit with cataclysmic events: volcanic eruptions, massive earthquakes, a mining accident. These events cause shifts in the continent(s) and climate events that alter the earth’s ecology again and again. These events and their aftermath are called Seasons. The Fifth Season is a generic term for an extended winter of more than six months caused by a large scale environmental alteration. There are no vehicles, no internet, no fossil fuels. This is the backdrop for the stories of three women: […]

If only we had started tackling climate change 60 years ago

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal

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CBR11 Bingo: Award Winner I read almost no alternate history – but I absolutely love the thought experiments. I read this book for two reasons: I don’t think I read enough award winners, and I know I don’t read enough books written by women. Most of my reading is for pleasure. I’m not necessarily trying to challenge myself, or expand my horizons. I’ve tried reading books held in high esteem by people much smarter than I, and I even tried reading more literature a couple […]



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