Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Never before have so many been threatened with so much…Never has so much been promised to so many.”

The 9th Annual of the Year's Best SF by Judith Merril (Editor)

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This is a pretty long and comprehensive collection of good SF from 1963 (384 pages, so you’re definitely getting a lot). I enjoyed most of these stories and breezed through this on the Amtrak to and from visiting home. My mom also enjoyed the chunk she read while I was home, so it’s intergenerationally approved. However, nothing in here really blew me away and it all felt pretty standard and not hugely boundary pushing or subversive. Sometimes you do just need to read some classic […]

“The future may make these famous stories facts of history!”

Man Against Tomorrow by William F. Nolan (Editor)

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This was honestly a pleasant surprise in my continual quest to work through the classic SF/F collections in my possession. I think this is in large part attributable to the fact it’s from 1965, so is pre-New Wave. This era clicks with me, as does contemporary sci-fi/fantasy. It’s really only the 1970s and a chunk of the 1980s where I run aground. Man Against Tomorrow is a reprint collection which I enjoyed almost every story in, a real achievement in my opinion. The one con […]

A Very Solid SF Short Story Collection

The 1976 Annual World's Best SF by Donald A. Wollheim (Editor)

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I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the stories chosen for this collection. As I work through the SFF paperbacks I’ve inherited from my parents, I often end up slogging through some very boring or irritating stories from this era, which was a rough one for the field in my opinion. The New Wave and I do not mix. It could be that by 1976 it was on its way out and that’s why I liked these stories better. You can actually tell what’s […]

When nobody believes you about the aliens, werewolves, undead mermaids, and worse

Cindy and Biscuit Vol. 1: We Love Trouble by Dan White

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Cindy and Biscuit Vol. 1: We Love Trouble by Dan White is an experience book and I have a funny feeling no two people will have the same experience. Each reader will read a different collection of White’s work.  The unusualness starts with the artwork and its minimal approach to showing the people, places and things that surround Cindy and her pet, Biscuit. One reviewer called it “chunky.”  And while I am not sure exactly what was meant by that, yes, it can be chunky. […]

Can I be a drag queen when I grow up?

The Art of Drag by Jack Hall, Sofie BIrkin, Helen Li and Jasjyot Singh Hans

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Unless you have been living under a rock, you have probably seen something about the world of Drag.  Maybe it was RuPauls Drag Race (or one of the spinoffs), maybe it was Drag Queens reading to kids, maybe it was at a local drag show. But did you ever stop and think about the history of that?  When I told a friend I was reading The Art of Drag by Jack Hall, Sofie BIrkin, Helen Li, and  Jasjyot Singh Hans they thought it was up […]

Slices of life

The Color of Always by Brent Fisher and Michele Abounader

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Do you like graphic novels or short stories by queer authors and artists?  Then you need to read The Color of Always if you like one or the other or both.  All the stories deal with the queer experience. Some are about coming out, some about finding love, some about losing love. There are stories about families and friends.  There is even one about an assault, so not everything is rosy and happy. There are pluses and minuses in this community and the editors took […]



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