Cannonball Read 11

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Am I cooling on Scalzi?

The Consuming Fire: Vol. 2 of The Interdependency duology by John Scalzi

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I have long been a Scalzi fan and am always eager for his next book.  Fortunately, he is the type of author that is able to churn out books on a regular basis which has fed my appetite for some time now.  The Consuming Fire is the sequel to The Collapsing Empire (which I really enjoyed and reviewed last year!), together they are The Interdependency duology.   However, I stalled on this book.  Scalzi’s books tends to be easy reads that can be quickly ripped through, this book is no exception, but it took me several weeks to finish. With […]

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4/10/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:12 |

It’s Worse Than That; He’s Dead, Jim.

Redshirts by John Scalzi

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 This book was the perfect little bit of escapism to get me through a long, challenging weekend recently. It’s a really funny little book that goes a lot deeper than you think it would on the surface. Andrew Dahl has been posted in the Intrepid, the flagship of the UU fleet. It seems like a real career boost and he’s looking forward to it. Until he gets to the Xenobiology lab. Why does everyone hide when the senior officers arrive? Why is it everyone is suddenly very busy when the Captain is looking for folks to accompany him? Why does the […]

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Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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2/25/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:7 |

Who doesn’t like a sci-fi romp?

Head On by John Scalzi

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Recently on twitter, John Scalzi shared a one-star review of one of his books he found. In the review, the writer was upset that Scalzi wrote easily readable sci-fi “romps”. Like me, Scalzi had a hard time finding why writing something that could be described as a romp would be bad. Romps are usually fun, right? Anyway, all of this is to say that Scalzi’s second foray into the world he established in Lock-in is fun, slick and dare I say another romp. Head On, like the first book in this series, takes place in a world where a flu-like […]

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Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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2/6/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:3 |

I loved it, even with my surface knowledge of Star Trek

Redshirts by John Scalzi

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Okay, so my full knowledge of Star Trek can be summed up thusly: Picard face-palms, that one dude sits in chairs like he’s hurdling, and redshirts are cannon fodder. And honestly? That’s all I needed to know to enjoy the hell out of Redshirts. Those with an encyclopedic knowledge of Star Trek (which I’m willing to bet is more than a few of you) will probably fall head over heels in love. The title may pretty quickly clue you in – Redshirts takes place in a world much like the Enterprise, but with the focus decidedly off the bridge. Meet the actual […]

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Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

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1/4/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:3 |

Just as good as the first, maybe better?

The Consuming Fire (The Interdependency, #2) by John Scalzi

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I was not disappointed by this sequel. P.S. writing this on my phone. I don’t actually have much to say about the book. I enjoyed it a lot, and I was worried that I would have forgotten everything that happened in the last book, and I sort of had, but Scalzi makes it easy for you to catch up. Cardenia is still emperox, Kiva is still a profane little firecracker, Marse is traveling around giving lectures about the flow collapse, and the effing Nohamapetans are still messing everything up like the galactic class assholes they are. They are all trying […]

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11/30/2018 's CBR10 Review No:158 |

Fade to blackout

The End of All Things by John Scalzi

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What better way to go out on CBR bingo than on the “this is the end” square for the last of the Old Man’s War series entitled The End of All Things? Poetic. This wraps up the war between the CDF and Conclave (with special guest Equilibrium) in Star Wars fashion – with politics! Ok, im being unduly harsh, Scalzi does what he’s done this whole series to great effect – taking an interesting idea from his last book and expanding on it – particularly in the first novella of the four that comprise the book. The brain in a […]

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11/26/2018 's CBR10 Review No:69 |

Oh the humanity! Too much humanity!

The Human Division by John Scalzi

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In one of my Old Man’s War reviews I mentioned that Scalzi’s strong suit wasn’t in crafting disparate personality types; his best characters are all (presumably, but I’m confident on the logic) stand ins for John Scalzi, which is fine because I like them all. This book has more than a dozen characters we share a POV with.  It’s a lot, and it doesn’t play to the author’s strengths.  I had a tough time separating characters for just this reason, and it somewhat undermines Scalzi’s attempts at diversity.  I love that he writes strong female characters, but when Danielle Lowen […]

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11/26/2018 's CBR10 Review No:68 |

I’m not sure I’d do better, and I used to be a teen girl

Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi

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The more John Scalzi I read, the less convinced I am that he can write characters who aren’t John Scalzi.  Mind, that’s not entirely a criticism as I thoroughly enjoy John Scalzi, and so I like all his characters who are very clearly him as well. Same reason I like Bill Murray; you don’t buy a ticket to a Bill Murray movie for the same reason you see a Meryl Streep movie. Disappearing into a role is not the same as embodying a character so thoroughly they’re indistinguishable from yourself, but the differing skills both have value. This is Scalzi’s […]

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11/25/2018 's CBR10 Review No:66 |


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