Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Problems of a Family of Psychics

Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory

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I discovered this book in a roundabout way. When I was reviewing a short story collection, I ran across a story I really liked and wondered what else the writer had done. I was pleasantly surprised to find Mr. Gregory had several novels, so I ordered Spoonbenders (recommended by several readers). It’s strange, wonderful, gritty, and a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle. The Telemachus family is highly unusual. They’re psychics but not very good ones. Teddy, the dad, isn’t psychic, but he is the greatest card-playing shyster […]

Revelator: Sometimes God is One of Us

Revelator: A Novel by Daryl Gregory

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To risk starting out on an annoyingly pretentious foot, Daryl Gregory is an author I liked before he was cool. I’d been enjoying his work before he broke out into the front tables of bookstores with Spoonbenders, and I feel an affection for his writing and the interesting things he does within the horror/fantasy field. I find him to be a writer like Robert Charles Wilson, a sure-footed storyteller whose name on the cover of a genre novel guarantees an interesting and fast moving read. […]

I guess I have a Cannonball – even though most of my reviews are of short stories.

The Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle

Harrison Squared by Daryl Gregory

Apt Pupil by Stephen King

Morality by Stephen King

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Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle (3.5 stars) Pierre Boulle published two dozen novels in his lifetime – but he is most famous for the semi-autobiographical The Bridge over the River Kwai and this franchise creating science fiction story from 1963. We’re all familiar with the basic story, right? A group of scientists board a ship bound for Betelgeuse (the second brightest star in the constellation of Orion, after Rigel). Due to traveling near the speed of light, centuries pass on Earth. When they […]

“His power wasn’t something he possessed, but a skittish companions had to woo to his side, and who’d vanish as soon as he showed fear”

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Spoonbenders is a slow burning story that I urge you to stick with despite its meandering narrative. I frequently put this one down and thought about giving up but my sister had warned me that it may take a while to get going so I stuck with it. Ultimately this is a strange but enjoyable book about the psychic Telemachus family in 1995 Chicago. “I can’t believe this is allowed by state law. You can’t just put a pile of shaved beef—” “Italian beef,” she said. […]

Good Concept That Didn’t Pan Out

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This book was recommended to me by a bookclub friend.  “Lesbian scientists!” she said.  “There’s a drug that makes people see God (or Gods or G-d),” she said.  It sounded like a cool idea, reminding me a little of Nexus by Ramez Naam or some post-William Gibson kind of thing about our modern technology gone just a little too far. My overall experience of reading this book was just “meh.”  The concept did sound pretty interesting and it begins with a character who is a […]

A Constellation of Tales

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Though the title makes it sound like it’s a collection of new stories, The Starlit Woods is a collection of re-told fairy tales. I had a different perception going into the book, though being a fan of retold fairy tales I didn’t mind that the stories were retellings and not completely original stories.  This is a really good collection of stories and while there were a couple I wasn’t fond of, most were very compelling. I decided to check this book out because the list […]



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