Or more accurately titled, “When I fell off the CBR wagon”. When I posted my last review, I was behind where I had hoped to be in June but hopeful for being able to successfully complete my half cannonball. Then I stopped reviewing what I had read and shortly thereafter stopped reading anything else out of guilt for the review backlog. I’m sure other Cannonballers have been here before. So, here I am trying to get back on track and vainly recall details of books […]
We are all just dust jackets for books.
This year, I promised myself that I would devote more of my time to reading classics, and reflecting on the books I’ve chosen to read, I’m a little shocked at how many classics I’ve somehow skipped over the years. Fahrenheit 451 is a great example. When do people normally read this, and what was I doing instead? Maybe it’s weird that I never read this book, but, being on a science fiction kick, now seemed as good a time as any. Being perfectly honest, I didn’t […]
I felt the need to share this with you immediately!
I received this book in the mail today, and I had only read a few pages when I knew I had to review it. “This book,” I said to myself, “needs to be shared with everyone I know!” I got the book through a Nerd Block, one of those monthly subscription boxes that sends you miscellaneous items through the mail, with things you may or may not actually want. This was one of the known items, so it was the main reason I shelled out […]
Point Counterpoint, or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Enjoy the Show
Like the two disconnected eyes of some monstrous oracle, these books look out of their respective time periods, casting forward to try and envision a future that could arise from contemporaneous events. One sings of nationalistic pride in service to the state, while the other firmly declares that war is a pointless and exploitative endeavor whose only benefit is the fostering of an unwieldy bureaucracy feeding on the health of its people. These books are diametrically opposed to one another, but each also serves as […]
“I used to be someone.”
Dramatic irony — simply, the idea that the audience knows something that the character doesn’t — is a common tension-building storytelling device. From the point of view of the audience, it’s oppositional from the “plot twist,” where the character(s) and the audience are both in the dark and they figure out the crucial, shocking bit of information at the same time, and it completely transforms the story, both moving forward and retroactively. There are the stories that play both sides. They don’t explicitly inform the […]
A pretty cool sci-fi premise that I could see as our future
What’s the best thing that can come from a debilitating illness that renders your body useless? The internet, of course, and a bit of sci-fi neural networking voo-dooery. Which brings us to our story and a future where people are “locked” in by Haden’s syndrome. While most people affected by this illness just experience flu-like symptoms, a small percentage of those afflicted suffer complete physical, but not mental, paralysis. Technology has allowed these individuals, known as “Hadens”, to live productive lives via brain downloads (or […]
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