Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Dystopia Now

Radicalized by Cory Doctorow

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CBR Bingo: White I picked up Radicalized a short time after it was published in 2019, fully intending to read it, but for various reasons never got around to it. I’ve read some of Cory Doctorow’s work before, both full length novels and shorter essays. I think he usually has really good ideas, but these don’t always translate well into stories, where his characters often feel like they are lecturing the reader. Radicalized isn’t a novel, but a collection of four short stories (I think? I’m […]

Live to work/work to live, la la la

When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth by Cory Doctorow

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I don’t know if this even counts – it might be a short story. But then again, it might be a novella (I read it online and wasn’t paying attention to its length). So, I’m both a great and terrible audience for this – I won’t pretend to have understood most of their sysadmin stuff. But I do love an apocalyptic situation. So…here we go. An extremely short and oversimplified synopsis might be Computer Geeks Save Us All. An extremely fast-acting virus has more or […]

Politics, Economy and Gender of Gaming

In Real Life by Cory Doctorow

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My review of In Real Life by Cory Doctorow has borrowed pieces from a couple online reviewers. I figured they said what I was feeling, and it’s validating to know I wasn’t the only one that wasn’t “wowed” but the book, yet still found enjoyment. I will start  with: This is not a perfect story, still, I had… fun reading it. The online world vs real world has been done before.  You can … connect on a virtual level, but it can’t replace human (…) […]

The End Justifies the Means

Radicalized by Cory Doctorow

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Radicalized by Cory Doctorow is four short stories turned into a novel. I checked this out from the library. The cover grabbed me, it is black and white with four red and black images, a piece of toast with a no sign marked through it, a person in a heroic pose with a cape trailing behind them, a pill with a hand reaching up through it, and a red skull on a black background. I enjoyed “Unauthorized Bread” about digital rights management. The heroine is […]

She ain’t no Buffy

Poesy the Monster Slayer by Cory Doctorow

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Poesy the Monster Slayer was not my cup of tea. Poesy seems to be a bratty child. I understand her need to “fight the monsters” due to her fears (though she says she is not afraid, but her father who is actually afraid) but why did she have to be nasty about it? A quiet “fight” would be fine and a great lesson to children. Maybe say Monsters hate whispering so she whispers to them. Or point to a nightlight because they dislike light (her […]

Troll the respawn, Jeremy.

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With a great writer and amazing illustrator at the helm and a great premise behind it, this should’ve been an easy home run. Alas, I cannot fully put into actual human words the full breadth and width and depth of my disappointment in this. If only this were a series instead of one single book that left me wanting.



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