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:

Where No One Has Gone Before…

The Fifty-Year Mission – The Next 25 Years – From the Next Generation to J.J. Abrams by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross

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The second lengthy volume (over 800 pages!) of Star Trek’s fifty-year mission isn’t as exciting as the first tome. That first extended work dealt with the original Star Trek series and the subsequent movies and was quite interesting. This volume, like the first, is a series of quotes from the key players involved in Next Generation, its subsequent movies, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise. There’s also a brief section on the new Star Trek movies and some series which never made it to air. […]

To Boldly Go…

The Fifty-Year Mission - The First 25 Years by Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman

by 1 Comment

I’m ashamed to say that I, lifelong Trekkie that I am, had not heard of these Mission books until Cannonballer narfna pointed them out to me. At 560 pages, Volume 1 is a great big book. I bought both volumes from ebay and doubted I’d get either of them read in time for this year’s Cannonball. Although I wasn’t sure about the format, I found it an amazingly fast read. The two authors do little writing; the book is quotes from everyone who ever heard […]

Breezy and Brief (No Pun Intended)

Take Off Your Pants – Outline Your Books for Faster, Better Writing by Libbie Hawker

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This large print, 150-page book supposedly shows how to write a commercially successful book in three weeks using the outlining techniques shown in the book. It identifies the major character and plot points necessary for a good book and extolls the advantages of plotting (outlining) over pantsing (writing by the seat of your pants). Defining the main character, showing their external goal, identifying the protagonist, the hero’s flaws, the allies, and the overall theme are the first steps in setting up your outline. Ms. Hawker […]

A Horse of a Different Color

Fiction is Folks – How to Create Unforgettable Characters by Robert Newton Peck

by 2 Comments

Mr. Peck is a funny and witty writer who presents the standard writing information in a new and unusual way. Reading all these DIY books about writing, I find they fall into helpful but predictable topics: how to build a world, which POV to use, how to develop a character, and etc., etc., etc. All very helpful but a little repetitive. Mr. Peck asserts that a writer should start with the character and not worry about the ensuing plot. It will take care of itself. […]

A Halloween Treat

Unmasked – Tales of Risk and Revelation by Kevin J. Anderson, Executive Editor

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It’s always difficult (for me) to review a collection of short stories because there are always good ones and some not so good, but this collection edited by New York Times bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson and his graduate students at Western Colorado University really raises the bar. (Full disclosure: I have a story in this collection of 21 stories, but I don’t know how.) The theme of masks, put on and stripped away, is a novel one, and these authors have some very original […]

Star Trek’s God Has Feet of Clay

Inside Star Trek - The Real Story by Herbert F. Solow and Robert H. Justman

by 4 Comments

Seeing recent memorials to Gene Roddenberry on what would have been his 100th birthday reminded me of the darker side of Star Trek’s early beginnings and the damaged man whose television program had such an impact on my life and the lives of so many others. There are numerous books out there about Star Trek’s beginnings, but most of them are written from the fans’ perspective and place Mr. Roddenberry on a very high pedestal, but this book is written by Executive in Charge of […]



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