Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“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 […]

It is faith wrapped in the cloak of science. Contact is as vague and obscure as communion with the saints or the coming of the Messiah.

Solaris by Stanisław Lem

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You are doing all you can to stay human in an inhuman situation. Noble it may be, but it isn’t going to get you anywhere. And I’m not so sure about it being noble – not if it’s idiotic at the same time. ― Stanisław Lem, Solaris It’s what we wanted: contact with another civilization. We have it, this contact! Our own monstrous ugliness, our own buffoonery and shame, magnified as if it was under a microscope! ― Stanisław Lem, Solaris Kelvin is finally on […]

Classic Sci-Fi: Should you read it? 1984

1984 by George Orwell

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CSF:SYRI? Background For the past couple years I’ve been working on my own little reading project. I love the sci-fi genre with my entire heart. I also went to a weird religious middle and high school and I missed reading a bunch of classics. A couple years ago I finally read Slaughterhouse 5 and y’all, it is great! What other classic sci-fi have I been missing out on, I wondered, and tried to research the best I could. Of course the internet has all kinds of […]

Fellow CBR reviewer for the win

Komarr by Lois Bujold

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I typically get bored or annoyed before completing most long sci-fi or fantasy sagas; Terry Pratchett’s Discworld is the lone exception so far. Lois Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga has the potential to join that tiny club, although to be fair, I’ve only read one, Komarr. I’m pretty sure I saw someone’s rave review on here, but I’m sorry I don’t remember whose it was. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of this series before then, but I’m glad to have found it. Komarr is both very […]

Give PKD a Pass and Read Some Octavia Butler, Save Yourself!!

We Can Remember It For You Wholesale by Philip K. Dick

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Honestly a disappointing and often infuriating read. We Can Remember It For You Wholesale is Volume Five of Philip K Dick’s collected short stories, covering 25 stories from the mid-60s to early 80s, and is also the title of the most famous story in the collection. I had read this before maybe seven years ago and have been carrying it around since. As part of my effort to weed out my fiction shelves, I figured I would re-read it and see if it was a […]

Strong Writing and an Interesting World Meet the Bad Gender Politics of 60s/70s SF/F Yet Again

Nightwings by Robert Silverberg

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I read this as part of my planned effort over the next year to thin out my library by reading some of the books I’ve been schlepping from apartment to apartment with the idea that I’ll read them someday. Someday is now! This plan worked here because this book is going straight in the recycling after this review, freeing up shelf space to buy more books. Nightwings is a combination of three novellas, one of which won the Hugo in 1969. I didn’t notice that […]



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