Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Just The End of The World

The Dead Take The A Train by Richard Kadrey & Cassandra Khaw

by 4 Comments

This one was intense. I probably should have paid more attention to the terrifying cover illustration. Or maybe not chose to read a gory horror novel while waiting for an inspection at the mechanic. I thought I was going to throw up all over the waiting room. Julie Crews (yes I am humming the Twin Peaks theme song thank you) has been doing the most gruesome, dead end magical jobs in New York City. Now that she’s in her thirties she’s tired of just scraping […]

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

by Leave a Comment

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 […]

Her magic was as blunt as she was: like a nuke hidden in a birthday cake.

The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey

by 6 Comments

I don’t know what prompted Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey to write a book together, but I am so glad they did. I’m also very excited that there will be another book from them. The Dead Take the A Train is the first in the Carrion City duology. I saw an ad for the book a couple of days ago, and John Langan blurbed the book as “compulsively readable.” I can’t think of a better description. It was hard to put down, and even when I […]

Stare into the Void for too long and it might stare back

A Song for the Void by Andrew C. Piazza

by 1 Comment

Much like its predecessor, 2022 has been quite a year.  I signed up for a Quarter Cannonball, did the reading, then life intervened.  I didn’t write any reviews, which I understand is against the rules.  Now, with half the year gone, I finally have the time to commit some reviews to pixels.  I hope you find worth in both my reviews and in the books I’ve read this year. The cosmic horror novel A Song for the Void by Andrew C. Piazza is set in […]

cbr12bingo – Adaptation!

Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff

by Leave a Comment

It is 1954, and a young man named Atticus is headed home to Chicago. In Chicago he will find his beloved uncle and aunt, who together run The Safe Negro Travel Guide and Travel Agency. His uncle, like himself, is a lover of pulp novels and dime store comics. His aunt travels the country alone, adding stops to the travel guide while looking at the stars. He’ll find his little cousin, a comic-book hound and talented artist. He’ll find his old friend Titia, who has […]

Zombies in space, with a Lovecraftian twist

Dead Moon by Peter Clines

by Leave a Comment

Slightly more than two years ago, I stumbled across Peter Clines’ novel of cosmic horror, 14. It wasn’t an earth shatteringly  brilliant story, but, as I described it initially, it “scratched an itch I didn’t know I had”. Since then, I’ve read The Fold, and Paradox Bound. The latter book was fairly disappointing in my opinion, and I was left reframing my thoughts around Peter Clines. 14 was great. The Fold was very good, but I had issues with some of the characters and how […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo