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:

A Sugar-Coated World I’d Like to Live In

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

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At first, I thought this book was trying to be Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children with an isolated orphanage housing magical children. But as I joined Linus, the case worker from the bureaucratic Department in Charge of Magical Youth, on a special “level 4” mission to investigate the most unusual of the unusual, I discovered a charming same-sex love story (!). Arthur, the headmaster of the “orphanage” (a euphemism since none of the inhuman children are ever adopted) is a soft-spoken gentleman who cares […]

Alternative to What?

Alternative War by Debora Godfrey and Bob Brown, Editors

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This collection of short stories focuses on a war theme, but they aren’t all about battles. They also cover the alternatives to war—peace and those striving for peace. I don’t review the poetry (I don’t understand it well enough to judge) or the one-pagers. I also skipped my story in this collection. With “The Gelding” by Jim Wright, the anthology starts with a bang. In the far distant future, machines have destroyed Earth and almost all but the three hundred humans in cryo-sleep in a […]

With Friends Like These…

The Z Team by Chris DeSantis

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This book is my first ARC (Advanced Reader’s Copy) sent to me by the author. Knowing I’m a big space opera fan, Chris sent me a copy of his first book in a series. Captain Dash Anderton runs a cargo ship treading on the slim line between lawfulness and not. His crew, split into ops (the worker bees) and command (the captain, pilot, medtech, and loyal robot) is constantly at odds with one another and dealing with a ship gone too long without repairs or […]

My Favorite Childhood Book

Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

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As a Christmas present, my kids (instigated by Bothari43) got me a subscription to Storyworth. They send you a writing prompt every week and this week was Your Favorite Book as a Child. At the end of the year, they publish your answers in your memoir. Cool. This week’s question was a hard one because I’m torn between the original Oz books (all 14 written by L. Frank Baum!) which transported me away from the wet rainforest of western Washington into strange and mind-expanding places. […]

America’s First Superhero

Zorro's Shadow by Stephen J. C. Andes

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This non-fiction examination of the Zorro character is pretty interesting. I felt the connection between a Mexican highwayman in early California, Joachim Murrieta, to the swordsman from pulp fiction and Disney was tenuous, but it was interesting reading. Starting with histories of the robber and an Irishman who was killed trying to liberate Mexico from the Spanish a hundred years before the Mexican revolution, Mr. Andes shows the effect of these two men as potential prototypes for Zorro. As the author drives from Mexico City […]

A Little Old School…But Helpful

Writing to Sell by Scott Meredith

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I was hesitant to read this book for a couple reasons. One, it seemed to be similar to Techniques of a Selling Writer (it wasn’t at all). Being written by a writer and publisher, it deals primarily with the basics to get a novel sold, not just how to write it. Although there are the usual chapters on Character and POV, there are also interesting asides such as how to come up with a title for your novel. The second reason I put this one […]



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