Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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 […]

Afflicted by a hero.

Dune Messiah (Dune, #2) by Frank Herbert

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Hoo boy, talk about conflicting thoughts and feelings. This book (at least my edition) starts with an introduction by Frank Herbert’s son, Brian, who has shepherded the world of Dune since his father’s death, co-writing books with Kevin J. Anderson and making sure his father’s stories and legacy are safe. This is nice of him! He clearly admired his father very much. Anyway, in the intro, he posits that Dune Messiah wasn’t nearly as well-received by fans and critics because Herbert does something unique to […]

Slight case of second album syndrome

The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin

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Picking up where The Fifth Season left off, Essun is in Castrima-under getting to grips with comm life and the various personalities within it,  trying to understand just what happened to Alabaster, what his relationship is to the stone eater who accompanies him, and why he wants to teach her to manipulate the obelisks that litter the sky. Meanwhile, we pick up her daughter Nassun’s thread and follow her journey, alongside the father who killed her younger brother for his orogeny, as he takes her […]

I have as many emotions inside me as there are genres in this book.

Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #1) by Tamsyn Muir

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Please note that although there are no real spoilers in this review, intuitive readers/reviewers might be spoiled anyway because of the way I’m going to say some things. You have been vaguely warned! “Read Gideon the Ninth!” they said. “You’ll love it!” they said. Well, fuck you, I did! I did love it! And I’m so mad and so sad also! It’s been a long time since I let a book get to me like this, and frankly, I blame everyone. I blame the author […]

Family, War and Making a Better Life for Your Kid

Saga book 3 by Brian K. Vaughan Fiona Staples

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The young narrator of Saga, book 3 is born of parents from two different species engaged in a brutal war. Hazel is now old enough to understand that her family must hide, not only because her mom was a soldier who freed her dad while under her guard, but because her very existence disproves that the two species most definitely can co-exist. The war is a profitable venture for powers far beyond the hero parents and all the other grunts used as fodder on both sides. Hazel […]

What’s the plural of apocalypse?

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

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So insanely readable that I devoured it in a day, The Fifth Season is the fantastic opener to a really  interesting trilogy that’s a dystopian mix of sci fi and fantasy – I am ridiculously excited to get my hands on the next part. In a world where the apocalypse has already happened – quite a few times, actually – and is littered the ruins of the dead civilisations that came before them, those that remain know that each geological incident could preface the next […]



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