Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A monk and a robot go camping with a tea cart in search of crickets

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

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Bingo 24: Travel A Psalm for the Wild Built is a travel story in both the literal and metaphorical sense. The monk, Sibling Dex, has lived most of their life in The City but they have this sudden urge to try and find crickets to listen to. To do this, they first decide to become a travelling tea monk. Then they decide that they need to go off into the real wilds of the world to find crickets, since they have found success with the […]

Can’t find “the one”? Build him.

The Plus One by Sarah Archer

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Kelly needs a date to her sister’s wedding. But Kelly is terrible with men. Conversely, she’s really great with robots. So in a fit of insanity, she turns her current work project “The Conifbot” into the “perfect man”. It’s so simple, she can write a program that gives her exactly what she’s looking for in a man and make him look exactly the way she wants. A few key strokes and she has what would take her months if not years of dating in the real […]

Robot Dreams? More like a nightmare.

Robot Dreams by Sara Varon

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cbr13bingo White Whale (I finally get around to reading and was very disappointed) I think I have found the first book in the First Second lexicon that I really did not like. For the most part I had only heard good things about Robot Dreams by Sara Varon. It sounded interesting due to reviews, but once I picked it up, I realized one big thing: it is a wordless graphic novel. So, what was everyone talking about? How can you get a story without the […]

When your buddy has a real chip on his shoulder

Murderbot Diaries All Systems Red by Martha Wells

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cbr13bingo  Rec’d (by y’all) What can I say about Murderbot Diaries All Systems Red that has not already been said? I have nothing new to add to the conversation about Martha Wells series. Only (for those who have not read) this first novella deals with the idea of what is human and what is robot. It asks can a robot be “human” or at least human-like? Can one make that choice themselves or must someone or something validate them, make them “legitimate”? I told a […]

AI: Not scary in the way you think

You look like a thing and I love you by Janelle Shane

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You say AI and people immediately start thinking about Skynet, The Matrix, or HAL 9000. We have been programmed by decades of literature and film to associate the concept of AI with human like intelligence and thought processes that sees these creations go rogue and decide to “kill all humans”. Probably Boston Dynamics scary dancing robots and “dogs” are not helping here either! But as this book shows the reality is closer to the kind of decisions made in “I Robot” where a decision is […]

Hilo and friends are repeat business!

Hilo V03 The Great Big Boom by Judd Winick

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The Great Big Boom is the third instalment of the Hilo graphic novel series. Judd Winick continues the same humor (one mention of repeat business, along with the usual puns, action and more), illustrations (bright, bold, with the comic book/graphic novel style) and adventures of the first two (battling the baddies). This time our heroes Hilo and DJ must save Gina from the portal she was sucked into at the end of our last adventure. But portal travel is tricky (so tricky in fact Hilo […]



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