sff – Cannonball Read 18

In case you were wondering, there aren’t really any werewolves in this book.

The Werewolf Principle by Clifford D. Simak

January 28, 2026 by narfna 4 Comments

Quite an interesting little book. And charming, in the way that a lot of 1960s/70s sci-fi is charming—I love the way that people thought the future might be (in this case, a world government, smart houses that take care of humans and that can fly), and also in this case, Simak’s imagination doesn’t really gel with science as we know it. But if you suspend your disbelief, you get a weird little book about a man found frozen in space who turns out to have […]

“I have just drawn my weapon and killed a Coke machine, sir.” CBRBINGO – Green (BINGO!)

The Tommyknockers by Stephen King

November 10, 2025 by narfna 2 Comments

According to many Constant Readers, this is Uncle Stevie’s worst book, but I don’t agree! It is extremely flawed, but I also found it very readable (it probably helped that Edward Herrmann narrates the audiobook, and he is a wonderful audiobook narrator). This is sci-fi horror. A woman named Bobbie, a writer of western novels, finds a buried object in the ground and becomes obsessed with unearthing it. Doing so changes her and the town she lives in forever, and in really really creepy ways. […]

“What good is passion without trust?”

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

April 10, 2025 by narfna Leave a Comment

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 […]

“If I die, you can always make another me.”

Mickey7 (Mickey7, #1) by Edward Ashton

January 2, 2025 by narfna 5 Comments

What a way to start the year—existential crises and smart-assery. Mickey7, aka Mickey Barnes, is our guy. He’s an Expendable on a mission to establish a beachhead colony on a far-flung world. Expendables are just that—they are the people sent on suicide missions, given dangerous tasks, experimented upon medically to develop vaccines and treatments for whatever exciting new ailments await colonists on their new planet. He’s the guy who will die for you, only to have a new copy of himself ready to go 24-hours […]

Time loops that feel like fairyland.

The Last Hour at the End of the World (The Echo Archive, #1) by Melissa Caruso

December 30, 2024 by narfna Leave a Comment

Thanks to NetGalley, Hachette Audio, and Orbit for the ARC. It hasn’t affected the contents of my review. Firstly, this is way more fantasy than it is sci-fi, for those who want the proper expectations. There are time loops and parallel universes, but they function on what feels like magic much more than science. And this is a book with a fantasy heart. Feeling blah right now, so here’s the (truncated) blurb: Kembral Thorne is spending a few hours away from her newborn . . […]

Samantha Allen brings her delightfully weird mind to romance.

Roland Rogers Isn't Dead Yet by Samantha Allen