Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Life is always happening and has happened and will happen

Question 7 by Richard Flanagan

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One of Chekhov’s earliest stories was a parody of mental arithmetic questions asked of schoolchildren, of which Chekhov’s question 7 is typical: Wednesday, June 17, 1881, a train had to leave station A at 3am in order to reach station B at 11pm; just as the train was about to depart, however, an order came that the train had to reach station B by 7pm. Who loves longer, a man or a woman? Who? You, me, a Hiroshima resident or a slave labourer? And why […]

To Bomb Atomically

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin

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One of my all-time favorite movies is The Hunt for Red October. I can never get over one of those opening scenes where the Red October’s political officer is reading from a book owned by ship captain Marko Raimius, played by Sean Connery. The officer reads the line “I have become death, the destroyer of worlds.” I still recall their exchange, with Connery doing his parts in his typical gravelly patrician tone: Connery: It was said by an American. PO: American? Connery: Mmmhmm. He invented the atomic […]

War and Hell

The Last by Hanna Jameson

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So…nuclear war. Been in the news a lot these days. How about that, eh? I never knew how good I had it as a kid in the (mostly) harmonious 90s. The Iron Curtain fell, the Cold War was over, 9/11 had not yet happened and the only existential threat to America was our collectively stupid reaction to the President’s affair with an intern. Wish somebody told me those would be the good ol days for the States. Anyway, I came upon this book because I […]

Full Throttle – Another good short story collection from the Kings

Full Throttle by Joe Hill

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I have enormous respect for authors who step out of their comfort zone to try new things in their writing style. Joe Hill has always done that and this collection is no different. Most of the stories work but unfortunately some fell flat to me. When one takes chances, that is invariably a result, but as a reader I respect the effort and it makes me want to read more of that author going forward. There are two stories Joe wrote with his Dad, Stephen […]

Not your great-great-grandfather’s War of the Worlds.

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Throughout the entirety of this book’s length, I was thinking of how best to frame it to you guys. Because I think it’s really good, and I want more people to read it. I have a soft spot for end-of-the-world/invasion/post-apocalyptic fiction, and Fear the Sky offered me something wholly different and unexpected: a rich story that isn’t just a vehicle for the decimation of society. Imagine Independence Day, only the aliens are smart enough to send (ten years in advance of their invasion fleet) a […]

In a year 2525 (or thereabouts)

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First published in 1960, A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. is considered a somewhat of a classic of post-apocalyptic science fiction. I’ve wanted to read it for years, thanks to goodreads and its recommendations page. See, goodreads thought that since I intend to read Russel Hoban’s Riddley Walker one day, I would also enjoy A Canticle for Leibowitz. And it wasn’t entirely wrong. The novel is divided into three parts, with each part taking the reader further and further into the post […]



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