Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“burn before reading”

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El -Mohtar & Max Gladstone

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If this is what the Time War feels like, then I volunteer as tribute. This two-hander from Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone burns bright right in the center of your chest and dares you to put it out. Red and Blue are operatives on either side of a war that has been going on since before time existed and well past the end of the universe. They are fierce and wild warriors; brilliant minds matched with brilliant and sharp teeth. They claw their way through […]

“Whether it is right or advisable to create beings like Heathcliff, I do not know: I scarcely think it is. But this I know: the writer who possesses the creative gift owns something of which he is not always master-something that, at times, strangely wills and works for itself.” – Charlotte Bronte

Heathcliff Redux: A Novella and Stories by Lily Tuck

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We have a Heathcliff problem. We fantasize on the regular about a brooding hulk smoldering just out of view. He’s there- he’s part of the nature of the area, and we are going to conquer that nature. We are going to nurture the brutish man. We are going to fix him, and he’s going to rescue us. Except, we know the truth. We are going to ruin ourselves trying to capture him, and it isn’t going to change him in the slightest. Our narrator in Heathcliff […]

Feelings and Murderbot

Exit Strategy by Martha Wells

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According to the inner front cover flap. Exit Strategy is the final novella of the Murderbot Diaries; except that now in about a week, book 5, the novel, will be due out. The saga of Murderbot continues with a real emphasis on a theme that’s kind of been there the whole time: corporate evil. Maybe it’s some of the news lately, but the whole profit over life vibe GreyCris and its people, some of whom Murderbot actually meets this time, give off seems pretty timely. […]

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

Yesterday's Kin by Nancy Kress

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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 […]

Another delightful Lau novella

A Big Surprise for Valentine's Day by Jackie Lau

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Official book description: Amber Wong has landed her dream job at the Stratford Festival, and life is looking good. Sure, she hasn’t had sex in so long that her condoms have expired, but she’ll just pick up some new ones, along with some discounted Christmas chocolate, at the grocery store. And that’s where she runs into Dr. Sebastian Lam, the son of her parents’ close friends, whom she hasn’t seen in years. He’s moved back to Ontario, newly single, and… Oh my God. He’s really […]

Welcome to the Treaty Stay at Gertrude Hunt

Sweep with Me by Ilona Andrews

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Spoiler warning! This is the fifth story in the Innkeeper Chronicles series, and this review may contain spoilers for previous installments. If you want to start at the beginning, Clean Sweep is the first book. For Innkeepers, the biggest and most sacred holiday of the year is the Treaty Stay, which commemorates the ancient treaty between the first Inns, their intergalactic guests, and the agreement to keep humans safe and completely unaware of the presence of alien visits to Earth. During a Treaty Stay, Inns have to open the doors […]



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