Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Corruption and Colonization (And Kaiju)

A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett

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Yes, Robert Jackson Bennett is back! I am an unabashed fan of most of his writing, and was massively impressed when I first read The Tainted Cup, about a year ago. It was delightfully weird and just a little bit creepy; a Holmes and Watson style investigation in a Roman-style setting, topped off with some mycology-based body horror. In The Tainted Cup, the greatest threat the Empire of Khanum faced was not just the murders, but the Leviathans—kaiju-like creatures that emerge from the sea to wreak […]

“What good is passion without trust?”

Murder By Memory (Dorothy Gentleman, #1) by Olivia Waite

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Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the audio ARC. It hasn’t affected the contents of my review. Another cozy mystery series I actually like! I love that they are going more mainstream, and becoming less formulaic and more creative as the genre expands. This one is set in space! Our main character is Dorothy Gentleman, ship’s detective. She is awoken from a two year “sleep” (characters on this ship have their memories stored in books so when they die they can be reawakened in […]

“Women seem wicked, when you’re unwanted”

Beware the Woman (2023) by Megan Abbott

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I haven’t read very much at all this year; distressing work news  in an absolute shitshow of a job market in my field has affected my concentration somewhat. So have I bought a lot of books? Yes. Do I read them? I try? Between finally watching Succession (Waystar Royco is starting to seem like a utopian haven right now) and familiarising myself with the entire catalogue of Kendrick Lamar (upper management? THEY NOT LIKE US). But I did read Megan Abbott’s Beware the Woman (2023), […]

How the legend might have started with books before lattes

Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree

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What’s cozy in the same way as a latte? Second-hand books. That’s what we get with Bookshops & Bonedust, and I’m down with that. This is a pretty good prequel, but it can be done as a stand-alone, and it also does a nice job of maybe setting up volume 3. The whole story starts with young and eager Viv getting ahead of herself and getting injured in a fight. The rest of her team leaves her behind to recover in middle of nowhere Murk, […]

If I was wrong, I’d probably be dead, and that was bad enough. Being stupid and dead would just be that much worse.

Fugitive Telemetry (The Murderbot Diaries #6) by Martha Wells

Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries #5) by Martha Wells

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Fugitive Telemetry Gurathin sighed and rubbed his face and looked off into the distance, like he regretted all his life choices that had led to him standing here right now. ― Martha Wells, Fugitive Telemetry I read these books one after the other. Even after reading them both, I’m not sure which is the correct order since I read Network Effect first, followed by Fugitive Telemetry. I think perhaps I should have read Fugitive Telemetry first, but reading it after Network Effect didn’t spoil anything. […]

L’état C’est Lost

The Black Tower by Louis Bayard

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I greatly enjoyed Louis Bayard’s The Pale Blue Eye and was excited to pick this one up as well given how effectively he wrote his other historical mystery. And though I liked it a hair less, it did not disappoint. There has always been a curiosity amongst conspiracy theorists wondering what if some historical figures survived death. Hitler in the bunker. The princes in the Tower. And Louis-Charles, the dauphin of France and rightful heir to the throne of his father, Louis XVI. Sadly for him, he […]



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