Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The fridged women speak.

The Refrigerator Monologues by Catherynne M. Valente

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The Refrigerator Monologues is a feminist response to the way women are treated in superhero comics. It’s a short read, a novella really, at only 147 pages, but it packs a punch. Riffing on both the stage play The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler, and Gail Simone’s website Women in Refrigerators (which coined the term “fridging” for any female character who dies in order to further the plotline or character arc of a man), Valente’s book features six women whose lives were reduced to subplots […]

Life is Beautiful, and Life is Stupid

Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente

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  ‘Everything in the universe has rhythm. Everything pulses to a beat laid down by the Big Bang. Everything feels the drumline of creation from star to sex to song.’   How do you determine if a species is sentient? Do you go running and hiding behind René Descartes when asked? Rig-up some kind of ad-hoc test to see if they are capable of a subjective, private point of view? Or are you of the mind that if critters have feelings, that should be good […]

Goth aliens call them ‘stop-stop dancers’ instead of go-go dancers

Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente

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It’s nearly impossible to read this book and not compare it to Hitchhiker’s Guide, and I don’t know how to give it a fair review without those thoughts tumbling around in my head. This was an interesting, fun read…but NOTHING is going to come out on top when you compare it to Hitchhiker. Humans are just getting close enough to attempting space travel to make the rest of the universe nervous, so they have to compete in the universal sentience test or risk total destruction. […]

Days of Our Trying Not to Get Humanity Blown into Smithereens

Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente

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By the time I was not even halfway through Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente I thought, “This is one screwed up book.” As one reviewer on Amazon put it, “it is a barrage of fluff” (more later). It is all these strung together words just to put words together. They are not run-on sentences but run-off-the-page-turn-left-at-the-corner-and-keep-going-on sentences. The story, once you get into it, is easy enough to understand: a has been singer (as one of my coworkers put it, “a Meatloaf like performer” […]

Be a Jukebox Hero, Got Stars in His Eyes

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Bingo Square (Round 2): Center/Free Space I was originally going to use this as my brain candy spot, but it didn’t quite fit that category for me.  There was just a bit too much going on in the first few chapters for it to be pure fluff, and required more attention than my tired brain was expecting.  There are absolutely absurd and hilarious moments, but with all the details of the all different parts of the galaxies, it also demands slightly more reader attention than […]

If Douglas Adams knew about ICP…

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So, this book was really fun.  It kept popping up as recommended to me and I kept it on the back burner until my good friend called me to say that I had to read it next.  I can’t emphasize enough how important it is that this friend picked up his phone and called me about it.  Not a quick text.  Space Opera necessitated a phone call.  That is about as high a recommendation as I can imagine in 2018.  My friend then told me […]



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