Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The philosophical adventures of Uncharles the robot.

Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky

by Leave a Comment

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the audio ARC. It hasn’t affected the contents of my review. Okay, so, this book was not AT ALL what I was expecting going in, based on the blurb. If you are expecting emotional good times and characters to identify with ala Murderbot, stop expecting that. Our main character, Uncharles, goes on a sort of picaresque philosophical journey of What Does It Mean to Be Alive, with each section of the book being an ode/homage to a different […]

“As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.”

All Systems Red (Murderbot Diaries #1) by Martha Wells

by 4 Comments

In five(ish) words: Free will, space-faring, android, science fiction, charming. I see how “charming” might seem out of place for something called “The Murderbot Diaries” that revolves around our understanding of a security droid’s awakening to and wrestling with purpose, but here we are. This novella packs a lot of meaning and thought-provoking content (and even a little humor) into its pages. This book reads like a space episode of Doctor Who, the type where the Doctor and their companion is stuck on a space […]

Cleo couldn’t believe that she was about to spend her last moments being insulted by a dead woman in a computer

The Stars Too Fondly by Emily Hamilton

by Leave a Comment

Emily Hamilton’s The Stars Too Fondly is a fun sapphic scifi debut with some flaws. It started strong. I enjoyed the story and the characters. However, I found myself putting it down when we got to the unknown narrator interstitials. The bits of communication between the crew members who disappeared didn’t bother me, but the unknown, omniscient narrator who popped in annoyed me and broke my reading flow. That’s very much a me issue, and my frustration is as much with myself as with the […]

Not What I Was Hoping For, but I’m (Probably) Not Giving Up

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

by 2 Comments

I don’t think I’ve read a science fantasy book before, so this was a cool first for me. It also had more horror elements than I typically read, and I found the darkness didn’t bother me (mostly). I liked it, but I didn’t love it. I’ve realized that I tend to have trouble explaining my feelings on 3-star reads and the mix of things that worked and didn’t work for me, but let’s give it a go. Gideon Nav is an orphan living in the […]

“We don’t have to fall into the same category to be of equal value.”

A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers

by Leave a Comment

A first time foray into the cosypunk science fiction worlds of Becky Chambers. Based on the reviews, I’d say this is a relatively representative sampling of her work and VERY short, so it is not only a low stakes book, but even the length of this short story is a fairly gentle commitment. If you like science fiction, this seems like a safe investment of your time. Plot: Sibling Dex is frustrated. They felt stifled in the monastery and so took off for a new […]

Just a bit of fun… gone horribly wrong

Read at Your Own Risk by Remy Lai

by Leave a Comment

I almost didn’t read Read at Your Own Risk by Remy Lai. I have enjoyed reading their Surviving the Wild books and have had other titles by them on my radar, but at first I didn’t realize this was theirs and second it did not look like it was something I would normally read. But since one goal this year is to break away from the reading norm and try new things, I thought a young adult thriller might be good. Well, it is a […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo