Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Search

It’s a lot harder to write reviews than it is to read books.

Duma Key by Stephen King

The Totally Awesome Hulk (Vol. 1): Cho Time by Greg Pak

The Last Emperox by John Scalzi

by 3 Comments

Duma Key (3.5 stars) These days, most of my “reading” comes in the form of audiobooks. I can burn through stories a lot quicker that way, because it allows me to listen to them while I’m driving, or while I’m at work. But, given that I’m largely home-bound because of the coronavirus, and I’ve got two small kids to take care of, I’m not left with much time to listen to my books. So, I pulled this book off of one of my many book […]

Ambassador Sara Bair knew that when the captain of the Polk had invited her to the bridge to view the skip to the Danavar system, protocol strongly suggested that she turn down the invitation.

The Human Division by John Scalzi

Miniatures and other stories by John Scalzi

by Leave a Comment

The Human Division – 3/5 Stars A thirteen episode book told in separate chapters, published separately, and for me, purchased separately in audio installments. I bought them all at once, so I don’t know what, if any, kind of serializing this made out. The book takes place concurrent with the world of Old Man’s War, which is a kind of Starship Troopers riff where citizens who hit a certain age can opt to join up for military service (at 75) and receives a new body, new […]

The Death of Duane Chapman

Head On by John Scalzi

by Leave a Comment

This is the second novel in this series by John Scalzi. I read the first book and remembered the central conceit of the world building, but don’t recall the actual details of the plot. I do have some of that restored to me from reading this one, but given that these books are otherwise structured as procedural mysteries within the world of the world-building, the actual plot is not super important. If Scalzi were to continue writing them, and I don’t know why he wouldn’t […]

“I and only I did this to myself”

Redshirts by John Scalzi

by Leave a Comment

I guess I have been doing this review thingy for a while because I remember when Redshirts was being reviewed on the Cannonball, and I remember the reviews were mostly positive. I try not to go back and read reviews of my book until I’m done with my review, unless I just can’t think of what to say. Do you ever have a review like that? It’s frustrating. I got my copy of this review in a subscription box of sci-fi and fantasy books and […]

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

Redshirts by John Scalzi

by Leave a Comment

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 […]

“‘Fourteen million and fifteen percent of the gross?’”

Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi

by Leave a Comment

This is a kind of good, kind of bad, and very ridiculous take on first encounters with an alien species. It’s also very clearly a younger John Scalzi getting ahead of himself in terms of talent, and trying something that can only really work as a farce, and offers some deeply disturbing questions that aren’t really answered in the book and a lot of casual misogyny that I bet he felt perfectly fine with at the time. Anyway, our narrator is a 30ish agent for […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo