Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“I am given no voice in decisions or plans!” but she wants one

Elusive by Genevieve Cogman

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Bingo 14: Citizen Elusive is part 2 of a trilogy that re-imagines some things about the French Revolution. It’s definitely fiction, but given the historical context of citizens trying to take back power from the elite which is a theme in the novel in more ways than one, I argue this counts. A major part of the fiction is the addition of the (former?) maid Eleanor to the Scarlet Pimpernel and his crew, and the addition of vampires (Marie Antoinette might still be around in […]

hot take scifi short stories are the highest art form, even if not every one lands 100%

Orange World and Other Stories by Karen Russell

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BINGO: Review, and with that my first EVER bingo!!!! This was a review from the always brilliant Julia, who could be argued first introduced me to the idea that books and reading could be more than just a thing that I really liked, but truly a part of my personality and how I experience joy in the world! When she recommends something, I do try my hardest to add it to the tippy top of my TBR list, although the rec for The Overstory did […]

Fascinating Philosophy and Science in an OK Story

The Quantum Revelations by Stuart Heinrich

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I’m immensely appreciative of Stuart Heinrich for undertaking quite a project – sharing complex and niche scientific ideas such as physical relativism and quantum cosmology with a general audience of sci-fi/speculative fiction readers in novel form. Think The Celestine Prophecy, but for science! Heinrich has previously published non-fiction articles on similar topics, and The Quantum Revelations is his attempt to integrate these areas of study into fiction. The plot is fun. In the near future, climate change rapidly accelerates past the point of no return. […]

The other Amazonian princess

Nubia: Too Real by L. L. McKinney

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What do you do when the reader copy you are reading is missing the last 20 pages or so? You holler loudly and say, “Darn you whomever made this reader copy! I need to know what happens in Nubia: Too Real by L. L. McKinney and illustrated by Robyn Smith.” You then say, “Well I guess late September/early October won’t come soon enough!” And then you tell yourself you’ll be first in line to get the finished copy and find out what happens to our […]

“I wanted to go home, where I felt safe. It occurred to me, as we continued our journey in silence, that when the first refugees from Earth had arrived on Giant—and, for that matter, on Io—they must have felt much the same.”

The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles by Malka Older

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When I finished The Mimicking of Known Successes a couple weeks ago I knew I wasn’t in love with that book, but that I wanted to continue reading the series to see how Malka Older built out her world and dug into her sapphic Watson & Holmes stand-ins because I had become quite attached to Mossa and Pleiti. The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles begins the same way as its predecessor in that we get a prologue from Mossa’s point of view and then the rest […]

“I am proud to be part machine.”

Noor by Nnedi Okorafor

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Cannonball Read Bingo: I am counting this book for the “N” square. Anwuli Okwudili is a young Nigerian woman who goes by AO, or “Autobionic Organism.” Due to an array of birth defects, followed by a freak car accident when she was a teenager, AO relies on cybernetic arms, legs, and organs to survive and function. But though she lives in a society where body augmentations are seen as unnatural, inhuman, and even sinful, AO is proud of who she is, both human and machine. […]



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