Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time
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Designer babies go about as well as you’d expect

Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress

May 4, 2023 by Bothari43 4 Comments

This was kind of a weird one. Really good writing, interesting concept and story, and I did finish the book, but it never quite hooked me. None of the characters, even though the book spans several generations, really spoke to me. Genetically engineered babies are all the rage: beauty, brains, anything the rich parents can imagine. Then a fad sweeps the engineered baby community, and a heap of babies designed to never need sleep are born. Due to all the extra time to study, plus […]

Filed Under: Science Fiction Tagged With: genetically engineered babies, humans suck, nancy kress, no sleep

Bothari43's CBR15 Review No:7 · Genres: Science Fiction · Tags: genetically engineered babies, humans suck, nancy kress, no sleep ·
Rating:
· 4 Comments

New Ideas for Old Tropes

Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint by Nancy Kress

March 4, 2022 by sabian30 Leave a Comment

Nancy Kress is a well-known writing instructor. I was in a lecture just like week where the instructor quoted Ms. Kress. She’s an easy educator to read. Her style is smooth and conversational. In this book, subtitled “Techniques and Exercises for Crafting Dynamic Characters and Effective Viewpoints” she deals with the more common aspects of writing: developing characters, showing them emoting, and the different points of view you can use as a writer when telling your character’s story. Her format is easy to read and […]

Filed Under: Non-Fiction Tagged With: #writing, Characters, emotion, nancy kress, Viewpoint

sabian30's CBR14 Review No:8 · Genres: Non-Fiction · Tags: #writing, Characters, emotion, nancy kress, Viewpoint ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

They sat stiffly on his antique Eames chairs, two people who didn’t want to be here, or one person who didn’t want to and one who resented the other’s reluctance.

Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress

Beggars in Spain (Novel) by Nancy Kress

April 12, 2020 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

So, I didn’t even know this book was a book when I went to read it. I bought the novellla a few months ago because it won the Nebula and I like the title. The rest of the review will be about the full novel that I was able to pick up later and read. The novella begins in a doctor’s office in the nearish future (less nearish at the time of the writing of the book) where an officious rich man is berating a […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Science Fiction Tagged With: Beggars in Spain, nancy kress

vel veeter's CBR12 Review No:195 · Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction · Tags: Beggars in Spain, nancy kress ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

I did not know this was about space viruses when I started it

Yesterday's Kin by Nancy Kress

April 3, 2020 by Bothari43 Leave a Comment

I had never heard of Nancy Kress, but she showed up as one of the few female names on this list of 25 best hard science fiction novels my dad sent me. My library (which I miss so much!) didn’t have the specific one on the list, but had this one available. It’s fine, and weirdly about an impending global pandemic, but nothing super special. Marianne is a scientist, studying genetics and DNA and something called haplogroups. She discovers a new haplogroup, and all of […]

Filed Under: Science Fiction Tagged With: Aliens, first contact, nancy kress, novella

Bothari43's CBR12 Review No:10 · Genres: Science Fiction · Tags: Aliens, first contact, nancy kress, novella ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

Dear Authors of the World: ‘Dangerous’ doesn’t have to mean ‘Femme Fatale Sex Stripper.’ There are other options.

February 15, 2014 by narfna 3 Comments

This was pretty good for an anthology, but I really prefer longer stories, as it really takes a talented author to make me care for characters in such a short period of time, or to have a plot immediately interesting enough to trump my interest in the characters. Short stories also tend more towards the self-important and annoying. Anyway, this was worth it just for the Martin and Sanderson stories alone, and there were several others I really enjoyed as well including ones from Robin […]

Filed Under: Fantasy, Fiction, History, Mystery, Science Fiction, Suspense, Western Tagged With: anthologies, brandon sanderson, caroline spector, carrie vaughn, cecelia holland, dangerous women, Diana Gabaldon, diana rowland, gardner dozois, george r.r. martin, Jim Butcher, joe abercrombie, joe r. lansdale, lawrence block, lev grossman, megan abbott, megan lindholm, melinda snodgrass, nancy kress, narfna, pat cadigan, s.m. stirling, sam sykes, sharon kay penman, sherilynn kenyon

narfna's CBR6 Review No:11 · Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, History, Mystery, Science Fiction, Suspense, Western · Tags: anthologies, brandon sanderson, caroline spector, carrie vaughn, cecelia holland, dangerous women, Diana Gabaldon, diana rowland, gardner dozois, george r.r. martin, Jim Butcher, joe abercrombie, joe r. lansdale, lawrence block, lev grossman, megan abbott, megan lindholm, melinda snodgrass, nancy kress, narfna, pat cadigan, s.m. stirling, sam sykes, sharon kay penman, sherilynn kenyon ·
Rating:
· 3 Comments


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