Cannonball Read 14

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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If the formula works, might as well use it

Jujutsu Kaisen, vols. 0-12 by Gege Akutami

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I’ve been seeing comments about the anime for Jujustsu Kaisen is the best thing ever this year, so when I saw almost the first 12 books in the manga series at the library, I decided to try it out. As it turns out the whole thing is relatively formulaic (enough that missing volumes 3, 4, and 11 didn’t seem to matter a whole lot) but still has enough personality to be interesting. The basic gist is that Yuji Itadori who has just lost his grandfather […]

Structure over substance

Long Division by Kiese Laymon

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I’m going to be really honest with y’all. I picked this book up for cover and description of hte structure alone. But I mean, come on. That’s an intriguing and beautiful cover. And as for the structure: this novel is told in two books. Book 1 is read like a normal book, from the front to about halfway through. To read Book 2, the reader has to turn the book over to the back and read from the back cover as if it’s the front. […]

“The best worldbuilding doesn’t show the seams.”

Finder: Chase the Lady by Carla Speed McNeil

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Carla Speed McNeil’s Finder series is one of those series where I bring it up to people and they stare at me blankly. It is one of the best pieces of near-future alternate universe science fiction worldbuilding and storytelling out there and it feels like a precious secret, which is frustrating considering how amazing these books are, and how long they’ve been coming out (26 years). It feels like these should be as critically well-regarded as Bone, which came out around the same time and is similarly […]

Home is Whenever I am With You

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

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The House in the Cerulean Sea was on a best of list, but I can’t remember which one I got it from anymore. I highly recommend Daniel Henning’s read of the audio book by TJ Klune. The story is set in the present, or perhaps the near future, but there are magical creatures. Like many stories, there is a registry of the creatures, there’s a lot of discrimination and fear. In this case, the creatures are children, and they live in an orphanage run by […]

A somehow really boring corporate espionage technology thriller

Agency by William Gibson

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I have attempted William Gibson before; I did not enjoy Neuromancer at all. But Agency is considerably more recent and the premise made more sense to me. Basically, Verity is an app developer/tester who is brought on to field test “Eunice” an AI assistant of sorts, but Verity realizes there’s a good bit more to Eunice than anyone seems to have guessed, and soon mysterious corporate shenanigans are afoot, and there is some involvement from parallel universes, one of which has the technology to keep […]

“well they’re all good dogs” …or stories

The Year's Best Science Fiction volume 2 by Jonathan Strahan

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I adore short story collections, and I was particularly impressed by last year’s anthology edited by Jonathan Strahan. It follows the same format as last year, with the editor’s introduction including other recommended reading as well as general comments on the state of the publishing industry in 2020. And then we get into the real meat of it: 27 short stories that are, arguably, the best of the year. While some stories missed the mark a bit for me, they were all well-written and interesting. “well […]



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