Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Finally got around to this classic (pushed by Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya)

Dune by Frank Herbert

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Gun to head, if I had to choose a genre of books, it would be epic fantasy or science fiction.  I love the detailed mythologies and extensive worldbuilding that these genres provide.  I also like that most grapple with philosophical and sweeping questions about humanity and good and evil. I guess I’ve read a lot of the classics of both genres but somehow, I had neglected to read Dune.  Maybe because nobody really introduced me to the genre.  My Aunt and my Dad instilled a […]

The one where the main character is a giant worm with arms.

God Emperor of Dune (Dune, #4) by Frank Herbert

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I keep going back and forth on this rating. Reading this series has been a truly weird experience. The first book is a straight up classic that I enjoy reading, despite some issues with it being dated and gross in places. I will read it again! I will see the movie. The second two books I appreciated on an intellectual level but they did not engage me emotionally at all. I was very much dreading the rest of the series after reading those books. And […]

Herbert’s style gets in the way of a cool story, in Dune #3.

Children of Dune (Dune, #3) by Frank Herbert

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Very rarely do I finish a book and go questing after the TV miniseries adaptation of it, hoping it will be better, but that is what happened here. I haven’t yet sat down and watched the miniseries, but only because it’s super hard to find. I think my local video store might have a copy. I’m certainly not buying the DVD from Amazon for $46. But anyway, my point is that though I remain fascinated by the overall story, and it engages me intellectually, and […]

Space Opera

Dune by Frank Hebert

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I started reading Dune last year in advance of the upcoming Timothy Chalamet/Zendaya movie- turns out the great movie pushback of 2020 (pandemic!) meant I had a lot more time to read its 650 pages than I’d anticipated. This was a swift, tightly packed novel and I am very curious as to how director Denis Villeneuve (and the screenwriters) have managed to condense it to a single movie. The novel is split into three parts, and reads like a space opera: royal intrigue, hidden bloodlines, […]

“Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

Dune (Dune, #1) by Frank Herbert

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I probably should have continued on with this series sometime between now and first reading Dune about eleven or twelve years ago. There are elements here which I would have much more easily glossed over in years past, but which stick out terribly now. Still, I feel you have to read a book within the context of its time. I can much more easily overlook or ignore some of the stuff in here since it’s fifty-six years old at this point than I could in […]

Stuxnet and Cyberwar

Sandworm: A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin's Most Dangerous Hackers by Andy Greenberg

Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon by Kim Zetter

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While I am absolutely grouping my reading in a mad rush to finish my reviews, I would have grouped these two regardless as they are forever intertwined in my mind. In fact, Countdown to Zero Day is reference in Sandworm and it is why I read it. I got excited about Sandworm last year and waited more than six months for it at my library. I’ve read a fair amount about the general topic and I am fascinated by it. Sandworm is about the Russian […]



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