Cannonball Read 16

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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A small part of the immense universe

To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers

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[Read as an audiobook from the public library] “I send greetings on behalf of the people of our planet. We step out of our solar system into the universe seeking only peace and friendship, to teach if we are called upon, to be taught if we are fortunate. We know full well that our planet and all its inhabitants are but a small part of the immense universe that surrounds us and it is with humility and hope that we take this step.” — Secretary-General […]

A Unique Read, Above All Else.

The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders

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If there is one thing that I can say about Charlie Jane Anders, is that she can commit to keeping things weird. Like, deeply, deeply, weird. She’s also not at all afraid to make ambitious leaps with her writing. Her first novel, All the Birds in the Sky was a broad, experimental urban science-fantasy mash-up, which ended up charming a lot of people. And while I could recognise the flashes of brilliance in the book, the whole thing didn’t come together in a way I […]

This Was Exactly My Kind of Weird.

Middlegame by Seanan McGuire

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  My heart goes out to Seanan McGuire this year, really it does. As I mentioned in a previous post, this year’s Best Novel nominees for the Hugo Awards was really strong, and if it were any other year, I think Middlegame would have taken the crown. It’s one of my favourite books that I’ve ever read from Seanan McGuire – nearly beating out some of her best Toby Daye novels too. It did score a Locus award though, so I hope that’s some consolidation, […]

It All Started, as Great Tales Often Do, With a Book.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix Harrow

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Well, the Hugo Awards came and went this weekend, and I never did get around to writing up reviews for all the Best Novel nominees beforehand – oops! The winner, for the curious, was A Memory Called Empire, which I wrote a review for here. However, the playing field was really hyper-competitive this year, and I really owe it to the nominees to write my thoughts about them as well Alix Harrow’s The Ten Thousand Doors of January has to be commended for having some […]

“It just goes round and round, one big circle. We’re trapped. All trapped’

The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley

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Warning, this review contains mild spoilers for the early parts of this book. Do you ever start reading a book and get the feeling that the author showed their hand too early? I was feeling that way when I started Kameron Hurley’s The Light Brigade. I had just gotten to the end of chapter two when I put the book down and thought. “Right, I think I know where we’re heading here. Hurley’s pulling a Paul Verhoeven on me. This book is going to be […]

A murder mystery in the heart of a space opera

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

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I brought this book home in March 2019.  It was Mysterious Galaxy’s featured speculative fiction hardcover pick for the month.  Over the past year this book kept getting recommended; by fellow Cannonballers, articles, and it is nominated for a Hugo award.  That nomination finally pushed A Memory Called Empire to the top of my TBR. In a normal timeline, I would have torn through this book in a matter of days.  Instead it took a few weeks.  This book pushed all the right buttons; excellent sci-fi world […]



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