Cannonball Read 11

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Days of Our Trying Not to Get Humanity Blown into Smithereens

Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente

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By the time I was not even halfway through Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente I thought, “This is one screwed up book.” As one reviewer on Amazon put it, “it is a barrage of fluff” (more later). It is all these strung together words just to put words together. They are not run-on sentences but run-off-the-page-turn-left-at-the-corner-and-keep-going-on sentences. The story, once you get into it, is easy enough to understand: a has been singer (as one of my coworkers put it, “a Meatloaf like performer” but I say any glam-rocker that was not Bowie) and his band have to save […]

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1/29/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:31 |

I taught you better than to open doors you can’t close

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

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Rivers Solomon’s An Unkindness of Ghosts is yet another great example of the kind of book I would have missed had I not started reading more speculative fiction and diversifying the voices in my library. That would have been a pity, because this complex, powerful novel may very well end up at the top of my 2019 favorites list. After Earth suffered an unnamed cataclysm 300 years ago, the remnants of humanity were crowded onto the spaceship Matilda and launched toward some long-forgotten destination. Humanity being what it is, the ship ends up segregated by race and privilege, with white […]

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Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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1/20/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No:3 |

Spaceship pilot/dragon rider.

Skyward (Skyward, #1) by Brandon Sanderson

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I had so much fun with this book. I’ve not really seen Brandon Sanderson go full sci-fi before. He did that novella, Snapshot, but that’s pretty much it. Everything else has been in the realms of epic fantasy, superheroes, and the more speculative end of fantastical fiction that doesn’t really have a scientific basis (i.e. Legion). But I wasn’t really worried because a lot of the same tools he uses for his fantasy books are also applicable to sci-fi. He’s a fantastic worldbuilding, an excellent plotter, and is great at structuring a narrative. He’s not always the strongest on his characters, […]

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Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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12/30/2018 's CBR10 Review No:167 |

Just as good as the first, maybe better?

The Consuming Fire (The Interdependency, #2) by John Scalzi

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I was not disappointed by this sequel. P.S. writing this on my phone. I don’t actually have much to say about the book. I enjoyed it a lot, and I was worried that I would have forgotten everything that happened in the last book, and I sort of had, but Scalzi makes it easy for you to catch up. Cardenia is still emperox, Kiva is still a profane little firecracker, Marse is traveling around giving lectures about the flow collapse, and the effing Nohamapetans are still messing everything up like the galactic class assholes they are. They are all trying […]

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11/30/2018 's CBR10 Review No:158 |

The Interdependency

The Collapsing Empire & The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi

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I love Scalzi.  He is fun and his books a fast reads that always leave me entertained.  His audiobooks are frequently narrated by Will Wheaton and I enjoy his voice work.  All in all, I am a fan and the Interdependency trilogy is a lot of fun and I really enjoy it. This is a new world for Scalzi.  In this universe, interstellar travel is possible through pathways known as the flow and it is collapsing.  Soon worlds will not be able to access each other and entire planets and systems will be left on their own.  The premise is […]

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11/24/2018 's CBR10 Review No:43 |

Well, thanks a lot for leaving me with further emotional scars for a whole year, Brian!

Saga, vol 9 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

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4.5 stars This is volume 9, it is NOT the place to start the series. Do, however, get to your nearest retailer of comics/graphic novels and buy volume 1, it’s pretty much the best thing out there right now. You won’t regret it. Normally, the volumes of Saga tend to vary between heavy and emotionally wrenching storylines, followed by something a bit more funny, light-hearted and uplifting. Vol 7 ended on a very sad note, and Vol 8 was an exploration of grief and loss and not exactly a barrel of laughs either. Lured by the cheerful cover illustrations (the back of […]

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10/30/2018 's CBR10 Review No:94 |

Be a Jukebox Hero, Got Stars in His Eyes

Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente

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Bingo Square (Round 2): Center/Free Space I was originally going to use this as my brain candy spot, but it didn’t quite fit that category for me.  There was just a bit too much going on in the first few chapters for it to be pure fluff, and required more attention than my tired brain was expecting.  There are absolutely absurd and hilarious moments, but with all the details of the all different parts of the galaxies, it also demands slightly more reader attention than your average brain candy. Over a hundred years ago, galactic powers had a huge, destructive […]

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10/13/2018 's CBR10 Review No:177 |

“From the stars, came the ground. From the ground, we stood. To the ground, we return.”

Record of a Spaceborn Few (Wayfarers, #3) by Becky Chambers

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These books are so good. This one was the slowest to get started, but it finished up just as poignant as the other two. For those of you who haven’t read the first two books, first of all you probably should, but know that they aren’t sci-fi adventure books in the classic sense. They are slow burn character studies, for the most part. Interesting things do happen, but unlike a lot of sf, they aren’t driven by their plot. The first book does have the supposed backbone of the journey to the titular small and angry planet, but it’s really […]

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9/10/2018 's CBR10 Review No:110 |


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