Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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A hopeful future with robots and food

Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz

May 27, 2025 by LB 1 Comment

If you need a story of chosen family and hope and good food, Automatic Noodle absolutely fits the bill. This is a delightful novella of a near-future where California has split from the United States after war, and part of California progressiveness was to give civil rights to human equivalent embodied intelligence (HEEI) robots. But those rights are limited – they’re not able to use a bank, own property, and there’s lots of prejudice against robots (very allegorical to American attitudes towards immigrants and marginalized […]

Filed Under: Featured, Fiction, Short Stories, Speculative Fiction Tagged With: #food, Annalee Newitz, friendship, near future, noodles, novella, queer, Romance, San Francisco, tor publishing, trans

LB's CBR17 Review No:5 · Genres: Featured, Fiction, Short Stories, Speculative Fiction · Tags: #food, Annalee Newitz, friendship, near future, noodles, novella, queer, Romance, San Francisco, tor publishing, trans ·
Rating:
· 1 Comment

The world has a talent for rewarding bad behavior with stardom.

Scythe (Arc of a Scythe #1) by Neil Shusterman

July 1, 2024 by carmelpie Leave a Comment

“You see through the facade of the world, Citra Terranova. You’d make a good scythe.” Citra recoiled. “I’d never want to be one.” “That”, he said, “is the first requirement.” ― Neal Shusterman, Scythe In the future, humans have solved the pesky problem of death. Disease, war, poverty, and suffering from the Age of Mortality no longer exist. Although people still have jobs and go to school, if they screw up in their life, they can pay money to reset to a younger age. If […]

Filed Under: Science Fiction, Young Adult Tagged With: bureaucracy, immortality, near future, Neil Shusterman

carmelpie's CBR16 Review No:57 · Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult · Tags: bureaucracy, immortality, near future, Neil Shusterman ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Smart, scary, and intimate science fiction thriller

Upgrade by Blake Crouch

September 4, 2022 by TylerDFC Leave a Comment

Blake Crouch’s previous novel Recursion is one of the scariest time travel novels ever written. Crouch created a near-future ripped apart by the invention of time travel and the utter chaos it unleashes. Upgrade does not reach the same heights of invention as Recursion, but Crouch has more on his mind this time around. In a non-specific near future, the world is in serious trouble. Climate change is destroying urban areas and genetic experimentation has unleashed the worst catastrophe yet on humanity. In response, the […]

Filed Under: Science Fiction, Suspense Tagged With: #Science Fiction, Blake Crouch, genetic experimentation, near future, TylerDFC, Upgrade

TylerDFC's CBR14 Review No:28 · Genres: Science Fiction, Suspense · Tags: #Science Fiction, Blake Crouch, genetic experimentation, near future, TylerDFC, Upgrade ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Not a time travel book, despite what the book description implies

Beyond the Hallowed Sky by Ken MacLeod

July 1, 2022 by Malin 1 Comment

Official book description: When a brilliant scientist gets a letter from herself about faster-than-light travel, she doesn’t know what to believe. The equations work, but her paper is discredited – and soon the criticism is more than scientific. Exiled by the establishment, she gets an offer to build her starship from an unlikely source. But in the heights of Venus and on a planet of another star, a secret is already being uncovered that will shake humanity to its foundations. This book was the March […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Mystery, Science Fiction Tagged With: #Science Fiction, Aliens, Beyond the Hallowed Sky, cbr14, colonisation, Ken MacLeod, Malin, near future, Outland book club, space travel

Malin's CBR14 Review No:10 · Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Science Fiction · Tags: #Science Fiction, Aliens, Beyond the Hallowed Sky, cbr14, colonisation, Ken MacLeod, Malin, near future, Outland book club, space travel ·
Rating:
· 1 Comment

“That we have some history together that hasn’t happened yet.”

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

April 6, 2022 by andtheIToldYouSos Leave a Comment

Why do I keep waiting so long to dig into word-of-mouth and critically acclaimed smashes? Twelve years later (and not a moment too soon), I finally get The Fuss around A Visit From the Goon Squad. I remember reading The Keep near the official release date, but Goon Squad eluded me for over a decade…or perhaps I eluded it? On the upside of being a latecomer, I am more likely to find these books in my neighborhood’s Little Free Libraries. Hooray! I love how “a novel” is emphasized on […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: andtheIToldYouSos, Award Winner, coming-of-age, contemporary, interconnected, Jennifer Egan, music business, near future, Pulitzer Prize, punk rock

andtheIToldYouSos's CBR14 Review No:21 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: andtheIToldYouSos, Award Winner, coming-of-age, contemporary, interconnected, Jennifer Egan, music business, near future, Pulitzer Prize, punk rock ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Community, Queer Romance, Near-Future SF….What More Could One Want?

The Short While by Jeremy Sorese

January 10, 2022 by GentleRain 4 Comments

This was a really nice surprise to read, as I had no real expectations going in besides being a follower of Jeremy Sorese’s illustrative work on Twitter. I knew he dealt with queer themes and I like his art style, so when I saw on Twitter that he’d done a graphic novel, I looked at the excerpt and decided to buy it. Pricey at US$30, but it is 432 pages and a mixture of illustration, comic panel style sections, and text, so you are getting […]

Filed Under: Graphic Novels/Comic Books, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction Tagged With: #Science Fiction, community building, gay fiction, Jeremy Sorese, near future, queer love, queer romance, trans character

GentleRain's CBR14 Review No:5 · Genres: Graphic Novels/Comic Books, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction · Tags: #Science Fiction, community building, gay fiction, Jeremy Sorese, near future, queer love, queer romance, trans character ·
Rating:
· 4 Comments
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