Cannonball Read 11

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Sacrifices understanding for looking real smart. Mistakes complexity for depth.

Ninefox Gambit (The Machineries of Empire, #1) by Yoon Ha Lee

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What it comes down to with this book is that the barriers to entry were too high. (I shouldn’t have to add the “for me” to that statement, but I will because other people are losing their mind over this book and it was nominated for a bunch of awards, so clearly SOMEONE gets it.) With science fiction and fantasy as a genre, certain barriers to entry are expected, even looked forward to. I always relish that feeling of confusion and displacement I get when entering a new fictional world for the first time, before I learn its intricacies and […]

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8/1/2017 's CBR9 Review No:53 |

Meh, At Least It’s Short!

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

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I read this both because my book club assigned it for the month of April and also because I am a Hugo voter and got a free copy of it in the voting packet.  I was familiar with Anders’ work, mostly essays and some short stories, and thought this book sounded really interesting from the description.  It was a combination of magic and science, takes place in the SF Bay Area, about modern life with fantastical elements.  Sign me up! But this book kind of dragged and also sped forward in ways that didn’t work for me.  I like the […]

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7/3/2017 's CBR9 Review No:18 |

Cthulhu is An Equal Opportunity Employer

The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle

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What could be worse than living in the world where the mythos of Cthulhu is real and the Old Ones are merely a spell book reading away from returning to earth to devour humanity?  This is the question asked in this novella, a re-telling of one of Lovecraft’s more infamous and racist stories, “The Horror at Red Hook.” Before I read this novella, I read that story in preparation.  Well, more accurately, I skimmed it.  I’ve read some Lovecraft and enjoyed it, when it wasn’t bogged down by more problematic narratives.  Red Hook is particularly offensive, taking place in an […]

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7/3/2017 's CBR9 Review No:17 |


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