Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

It’s the end for Haru

Haru Book 3: Fall by Joe Latham

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In volume three of this series, Haru Book 3: Fall, our hero Haru must follow one of the last troupes of mythology and the journey of the hero. Haru is a non-binary blue-colored bird (with a younger sibling, a pig best friend, and a ghost robin mother) that has in volumes one (Spring) and two (Summer), traveled and fought the evil of the land, but in three we must take the trip to the Afterlife to be reborn. Joe Latham’s characters continue the journey started […]

Side Quest Central

Carl's Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman

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Carl’s Doomsday Scenario is a pretty good continuation of the Carl and Donut dungeon crawl. The characters and seat of the pants problem solving are still there, the dark humor that’s both tragic and still entertaining is still there. Plot-wise this volume gets thin; much like the side quest emphasis (new feature of this volume), there is not a lot of progress in the main overall situation. There’s also isn’t  a ton of character development beyond the “game character” that everyone has to perform to […]

The Grief of Wisdom

Where the Axe is Buried by Ray Nayler

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That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which it may be said, “See, this is new”? It has already been in ancient times before us. – Ecclesiastes 1:9-10 (NKJV). Nayler’s Where the Axe is Buried reminds me of the Book of Ecclesiastes. It is, in my mind, the least hopeful and most useful book of the Bible. All of this has happened before, and […]

A hopeful future with robots and food

Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz

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If you need a story of chosen family and hope and good food, Automatic Noodle absolutely fits the bill. This is a delightful novella of a near-future where California has split from the United States after war, and part of California progressiveness was to give civil rights to human equivalent embodied intelligence (HEEI) robots. But those rights are limited – they’re not able to use a bank, own property, and there’s lots of prejudice against robots (very allegorical to American attitudes towards immigrants and marginalized […]

Sunrise of the Weeping

Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins

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I took a much-needed break from my brief—yet frustrating—foray into the romantasy genre to return to my comfort zone: dystopia. And Sunrise on the Reaping did not disappoint. The book begins back in the bleak, coal-dust-covered District 12, as Haymitch Abernathy prepares for the reaping of the Quarter Quell. It’s been 25 years since the Dark Days, and what better way to mark the anniversary of the end of slaughter than we MORE slaughter? Specifically, by sending double the number of children to their deaths […]

Stag Dance by Torrey Peters

Stag Dance by Torrey Peters

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I thought this was a great collection. I thought the first story was great with a  sci-fi/speculative fiction bent, and the rest were interesting/great, but I think the one story entitled “Stag Dance” just went on a bit too long. It dragged down the rest of the collection. Be warned that there’s a graphic depiction of animal death in “The Chaser.” “Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones” (5 stars)-This was a great start to the collection. We hear about something called The Rift Wars where […]



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