Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Two very different books, two very different reactions

On a Pale Horse by Piers Anthony

Blood Music by Greg Bear

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On a Pale Horse (1983) by Piers Anthony – 4 stars Zane is poor. Jobless. He lives a pathetic existence, and has little to look forward to. A shop keeper attempts to sell him powerful gems that can give him everything he wants. A magical gem that can point him in the direction of a woman who will love him absolutely? Tempting, but Zane can’t afford it. How about one that will grant him wealth beyond imagining? Absurd – that would have to be far […]

Much lizard, so destruction

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

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The Kaiju Preservation Society is about a masters graduate who loses his job and falls into doing menial labour (via a loosely-rebranded Uber Eats stand in) when the pandemic hits.  His job brings him back into the orbit of an old friend from college, who hits him up with the mysterious job opportunity of a lifetime. After preparing his will and getting shot full of vaccines, he’s whisked away to a world of nightmares to, in his words, ‘life heavy things’.  It turns out he’s […]

“Not really caring about the names of other people was never one of her best qualities, but it was one of her most defining features and she clings to it.”

Children of Ruin (Book 2) by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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If you’ve read the first in the series, Children of Time, you’re in for a ride that is both familiar and brand spanking new. If you haven’t, don’t start here. Go back, and do it right. It’s so worth it. Disclaimer: do not even read this review if you haven’t read the first book. I will avoid spoilers for this book, but not the first one. Plot: We pick up with explorers from the Old Earth, Kern’s contemporaries are trying to terraform a world for […]

Aliens Everywhere

On Earth As It Is On Television by Emily Jane

The Seep by Chana Porter

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I loved both of these books. They are both technically science fiction, in that they both deal with alien invasions. But like the best scifi, the stories are less about aliens and more about what makes us human. In Emily Jane’s On Earth As It Is On Television, the ships show up, hover for a day or so, and then just leave. What follows is a bit of a wacky adventure, featuring cats as main characters and an average dad just trying to hold it together […]

I think the author needed a nap

Animals Rule This Land by Luke Milton

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The only reason I am reviewing Animals Rule This Land by Luke Milton is because I know someone will appreciate this, while having some clever moments but overall violent situations which can be downright oogy moments and which can really be a turn-off, graphic novel due mid-March 2024. The concept is when animals rule, humans drool. Or worse. Like getting dead worse. Therefore, if you are warped (and I mean that with much love), go for it. Though teens can read, I won’t recommend it […]

Ian Flemming Goes Cozy and Slightly Comedic

Starter Villain by John Scalzi

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I don’t know how John Scalzi would feel about his work being labeled “cozy” but that’s basically what Starter Villain is, a cozy adventure riffing in Scalzi fashion this time on the James Bond spy thriller. If you’ve read any of Scalzi’s more recent work, especially The Kaiju Preservation Society, Starter Villain will be kind of familiar. Take a down on his luck smarter than he might initially appear regular person, a former journalist now substitute teacher named Charlie, and throw him into an improbably […]



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