Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Not enough dragon

The Clockwork Ice Dragon by Liz Delton

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The Clockwork Ice Dragon is kind of a mix of “Gift of the Magi”, Polar Express, a romance, and a steampunk science adventure. The characters and the world have some good promise; the one problem really is that the novella just doesn’t have the space to really get into the details that would make the whole thing amazing. The way an inventor/engineer can really make something of themselves is to get into the union of the Magistrate of Inventors, and Aurelia has her one chance […]

Fabulous sci-fi saving the world

The Ultra-Fabulous Glitter Squadron Save the World Again by A.C. Wise

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This was a fun read, but hard to describe.  So i took a look at the publisher and this is a book suggested  when one chooses “I want to read something that’s genderqueer…” .  And that is fair. This is a collection of stories and vignettes about how each of the members of the ultra-fabulous glitter squadron came to be part of the group and some of the challenges they have faced.  While it is a collection of stories, they do lead to a finale […]

This book rubbed me the wrong way

Anthem by Noah Hawley

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I’m going to try and explain why I was so irritated with this, but I freely admit that it might just have been me.  I’ve had some issues and frustrations this year with mansplainers… which may have contributed to just how much Hawley’s holier-than-thou, pompous tone resonated and irked me. I was looking forward to this one, because I loved Before the Fall and Hawley’s TV work.  But I was so frustrated and disappointed.  There’s a glimmer of a great story here – but it […]

“No point in thinking, you just have to get on with life. We only have one after all, we should try and do our best. We can never get it right, but we must try.”

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

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I will admit that I have been avoiding this book since it was published, but especially after I read a Sherlock fanfic one time* that was a riff on Life After Life, and which is one of the most emotionally traumatizing fics I’ve ever read, so by association I was pre-traumatized by this book. Also, one time I read the first Jackson Brodie mystery and I thought it was boring, so I thought this would be boring too. Happily, wrong on all fronts! *If you […]

Other things I have read – a mixed basket of books i finally finished

Prime Meridian by Silvia Morena-Garcia

I Have Always Been Me: A Memoir by Precious Brady-Davis

Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard

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An assortment of books that have been on my kindle for a while – half read and now finally finished Prime Meridian More of a novella, this is set in a near future where humanity is starting to head to Mars, but much of our current issues are are still there.  The heroine, Amelia, doesn’t have much money. She scrapes a living with various tasks and dreams of being an astronaut.  She had a relationship with an artist who turned out to be wealthy, but […]

“New City, Who Dis?”

The World We Make by N.K. Jemisin

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I discovered N.K. Jemisin through The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms trilogy.  Loved the first two, was very ‘meh’ about the third.  Then The Fifth Season erupted onto the scene and blew my mind with such a creative fantasy, Jemisin became an auto-buy author.  She hasn’t disappointed me yet and The World We Make is another excellent entry in her list of works. In Jemisin’s world, cities have the ability to awaken.  When enough people live in them, when the idea of the city’s identity becomes a belief […]



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