Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Underwhelming and Emotionally Manipulative

Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor

April 14, 2026 by Tracy Leave a Comment

I had high expectations for this book and was significantly underwhelmed by the execution. The main character is Zelu, a paraplegic Nigerian-American writer. Not long after the book starts, she loses her job, and her literary fiction novel is rejected yet again. She decides to write a new book, a science fiction novel that becomes a runaway success. Chapters of that book, entitled Rusted Robots, are interspersed with chapters of the main novel. Where do I start? The overall description of the novel appealed to me, […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: book within a book, literary sci-fi, Nnedi Okorafor

Tracy's CBR18 Review No:25 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: book within a book, literary sci-fi, Nnedi Okorafor ·
Rating:
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Please inhale, Ted Chiang

Exhalation by Ted Chiang

January 19, 2026 by fiordeligi Leave a Comment

In both Ted Chiang’s “Story of Your Life” and its cinematic adaptation, the 2016 film Arrival, the protagonist’s story appears out of order. You read (or watch) the narrative as though you are seeing someone put together an intricate puzzle, and it’s not until one critical piece of knowledge— the central conceit of the story — slots into place that you can understand the correct order of events, backwards and forwards. Reading “Story of Your Life” on its own, I loved it. So, I sought […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Short Stories Tagged With: collection of short stories, literary sci-fi, sci-fi, Ted Chiang

fiordeligi's CBR18 Review No:2 · Genres: Fiction, Short Stories · Tags: collection of short stories, literary sci-fi, sci-fi, Ted Chiang ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Math problems on Mars.

Singer Distance by Ethan Chatagnier

March 28, 2023 by narfna Leave a Comment

I said in a status update while reading Singer Distance that it was giving me Contact vibes, and that’s true. The homespun science and grungy academic feel of the book, along with a group of characters working towards contacting aliens does give me the same feelings I get watching that movie (I have the book and I really need to finally read it!), but Singer Distance also has its own unique feel. This is an alternate history where back in the late 1800s, scientists spotted a message on Mars and began […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Science Fiction Tagged With: #Science Fiction, Aliens, alternate history, Ethan Chatagnier, historical fiction, literary fiction, literary sci-fi, math, narfna, sci-fi, Singer Distance

narfna's CBR15 Review No:35 · Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction · Tags: #Science Fiction, Aliens, alternate history, Ethan Chatagnier, historical fiction, literary fiction, literary sci-fi, math, narfna, sci-fi, Singer Distance ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments


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