Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About sabian30

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Sixty something retired banking software analyst in Little Rock, Arkansas who writes science fiction and fantasy short stories. Has four great kids (one the editor of Cannonball Fodder) and one awesome grandson.

sabian30's Reviews:

Shakespeare in Space

The Golden Globe by John Varley

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I’ll admit up front that I’m a big John Varley fan. I only keep books on my shelf that I reread periodically, and I have TWO Varley books on prime real estate, Millennium and Persistence of Vision. When I discovered his bio-science fiction short stories, I’d never read anything like it. Gender-swapping, body modifications to live on barren worlds, and Moon disneylands. They were all new concepts to someone who had been raised on spaceships and little green men. When I saw a John Varley […]

Too Much of a Good Thing?

I, Lucifer by Peter O'Donnell

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Out of all the Modesty Blaise books, I, Lucifer is my least favorite, and I can’t pin down exactly why. It might be my Victorian prudishness dealing with the adventure having three of her lovers in one story. She’s always been nonchalant about her partners, leaving them friends when she departs, but two of the three aren’t quite so easy-going as she is, and she has to remind them of who owns her body and who decides what she does with it. We have the […]

Give Me a Happy Ending Every TIme

Prisoner on Limnos by Lois McMaster Bujold

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This book concludes the Penric/Desdemona novella series and ends as expected but wraps everything up in a very satisfactory manner. Not only do we have the ongoing story of Penric and his unrequited love for Nikys becoming requited, but we also have him broaching an impregnable fortress to save his potential mother-in-law. In Orbas, Ny’s brother, Adelis, has gone off to fight a war for his new lord, leaving Nikys as a lady-in-waiting and poor Penric packing to return to his homeland as ordered by […]

A Change to the Modesty Blaise Formula

Dragon’s Claw by Peter O’Donnell

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In almost every Modesty Blaise pulp fiction novel, there’s a thriller formula. Usually, a nefarious and colorful megalomaniac is trying to take over the world/kill everyone/overturn countries and needs some hapless but genius schmo to accomplish a key task in their plan. Modesty and her hunky partner, Willie Garvin, encounter the poor guy and save him. Then, they go after the mastermind to ensure the victim is safe and bring the villain to justice. Modesty generally takes the schmuck to bed during the healing and […]

Are All Victorian Romances the Same Plot?

Golden Urchin by Madeleine Brent

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Like the Modesty Blaise books I’ve read by Peter O’Donnell, his Victorian romances (writing as Madeleine Brent) also follow a familiar structure. I’ve read three of his thriller/romances and they have much in common. Young women in impoverished circumstances (a fishergirl, a Yak-whisperer in Tibet, and a white aborigine with fiery red hair) encounter a handsome man, save his life, become (or are) orphans, are taken into a household that educates them and teaches them to be “civilized.” They are the secret children of extremely […]

Who the Heck is Mira?

Mira's Last Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold

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First of all, this is the fourth book in Ms. Bujold’s Penric and Desdemona series. I was bewildered by the format. It’s a small book, barely 150 pages, 8 chapters, and written in very large type. I wondered if it was a YA novel, but when I read the cover, I saw it was “a fantasy novella.” Why she didn’t consolidate the six stories into two normal-sized novels, I don’t know. Possibly because each story is separate and independent. Whatever the format, this is typical […]



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