Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About Bothari43

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When writing a genre-based lim'rick / Avoid lengthy 'post-apoc'lyptic' / Though CB reviews / Have broadened my views / My fave is still chick-written sci-fic (Learn more about this Cannonballer: Bothari43's Quick Questions interview.)

Bothari43's Reviews:

How is the only her first book, and how long do I have to wait for her second one?

Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots

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I moved this to the top of my TBR list after reading 1000Oyster’s review, with an assist from Emmalita (thank you!). I agree totally with 1000Oyster’s “I want to recommend it to everyone I know.” In fact, I sent it home with my dad to read on the plane after his Christmas visit, and he also loved it. Plans for world domination and mass destruction take a lot of work, but who does that work? What if there were temp agencies for supervillain henchpeople and […]

What if the only survivors of the apocalypse were…boring?

Earth Abides by George R. Stewart

by 1 Comment

Ish is the personification of that quote about “god grant me the confidence of a mediocre white guy,” except that he is even more assured of his specialness than usual, because he survived the plague that wiped out most of the rest of humanity. When he finally ventures out of his mountain cabin, civilization is dead and survivors are sparse. He adopts a dog and takes a road trip, looking for other people who are worthy of his company. Finding no one (California to New […]

Doesn’t live up to its premise, but there are some bright spots

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

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I agree with all the mixed reviews I’ve read so far. This one has some fun stuff, but also some aggravating stuff, and not nearly enough comeuppance. The good: The true crime lovers banding together to start their own offshoot book club after the overly persnickity neighborhood book club is awful. Patricia realizing the way the world works and initially doing what she can to make things right (Mrs. Greene and the missing children from the “wrong side of the tracks”). The ‘rich white privileged […]

Jumping on the bandwagon in the middle

A Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark

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I knew Cannonballers had enjoyed a book about djinn by an author named Clark, but I didn’t pay enough attention and accidentally started at book 2. It was all still easy to follow and I liked it, but I think there are a few parts that would make more sense if I knew the history of Fatma and Siti. Agent Fatma works for a magical Ministry where magic is real and djinns live peacefully alongside humans, after being let out into the world by al-Jahiz. […]

Would you go undercover and infiltrate a futuristic mob to save your sibling? I’d have to think really hard…

False Hearts by Laura Lam

by 3 Comments

How’s this for a synopsis: a pair of conjoined twins escape the cult they’ve been raised in, are surgically separated and given new hearts, and learn to live in near-future San Francisco, until one of them is arrested for murder and the other has to go undercover as her sister to infiltrate the mob that’s trying to mine people’s dreams and prove her innocence. Whew! It’s a fun ride. Taema and Tila lived on an island in a cult called the Hearth, run by a […]

It’s science, it’s fiction, but it’s not science fiction

Bellwether by Connie Willis

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Why is Connie Willis considered a science fiction writer? Is it just because she wrote about time travel that one time? I haven’t read a ton of her stuff (I did read the time travel one), but I don’t quite get it. This book is fine and fun, but not science fiction at all, even though the cover says “One of science fiction’s best writers.” Sandra is a scientist at a corporate-America type research institute that reminded me a little of Veridian Dynamics. She’s looking […]



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