My reading pace this year has slowed down seemingly tremendously, though in actuality probably not that much. The consequence of this is that my first temptation is, when I do have a spare moment to read, to only read books that I suspect I’ll race through quickly so I can get that quick high off finishing a story. That impulse has led me to put off reading the Old Man’s War series, despite it sitting near the top of my TBR for the last three […]
“In other words, crew deaths are a feature, not a bug.”
I am so behind on my reviews! I’m going to try to post the 7 (!!) that I owe at some point today — wish me luck! Starting with Redshirts: A Novel with 3 Codas. 5 stars for the novel itself. About 1.5 stars for the totally unnecessary codas. “God is a hack,” he said. “He’s a writer on an awful science fiction television show, and He can’t plot His way out of a box. How do you have faith when you know that?” Set in […]
Wrestling with Religion and the nature of God
I really don’t know where to begin with this novella. It’s a very thought provoking read but I’m just not sure I enjoyed it. I will say, I do think it’s probably one of John Scalzi’s better works, but I also don’t think that fans of his novels would enjoy it. I also can’t decide between three or four stars. I think writing wise, it probably deserves 4-5 stars, as I said I think it’s probably the best book Scalzi has written. However on a […]
Where is my mind?
Look at me, trying new things! Based on a great review from ChainedVase https://cannonballread.com/2016/02/sci-fic-mystery-yes-please/, I went a bit outside of my rut and tried some sci-fi. What a great read! In Scalzi’s very creative and fleshed-out world a widespread virus has resulted in millions of people being struck with Haden’s Syndrome, named for the first lady who was one of the early public victims. Haden’s sufferers (called Hadens) are “locked in” to their bodies with full mental capacity and no voluntary nervous system. Due to years of […]
Sci Fic + Mystery = Yes please!
The best part of this book is something that if I talk about, its ruined. Dammit, you guys. This is a good fun Science Fiction mystery story. My beloved Isaac Asimov, who wrote both SF and mysteries, said that it was possible to write a mystery set in the future, and invent all kinds of new gadgets and technology but still have challenges to solve, as long as you don’t rely on some kind of techno-magic device to save the day. This book is a […]
Scalzi strikes again.
I love this series! This one wasn’t my favorite, but it does a great job finishing off the arc started way back in The Last Colony and escalated in The Human Division. Whenever Scalzi comes back to this series, he’ll have a brand new universe to play around in. Also, it’s chock full of Scalzi’s smart, irreverent voice. So this is the sixth book in Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series. The first three books are a trilogy, #4 is a weird re-telling of #3, and then Human […]




