Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

What if your worst enemy designed a videogame death trap for you and then placed you inside it? But he was also incompetent?

An Unwelcome Quest (Magic 2.0, #3) by Scott Meyer

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First of all, this is one of the rare series that if you’re going to read it, you have to do the audio. You’re just missing something truly ineffable if you don’t. And I guess if you’re one of those people who can’t do audiobooks, then I don’t know what to tell you. I think I would have subtracted an entire star from all of these books without Luke Daniels’ performance. He brings a certain majesty of attitude and snarkiness, to these very silly stories. […]

“We should be focused on saving the Interdependency from collapse. Instead we’re playing palace intrigues. It’s pointless. It’s wasteful. And it’s going to end in our ruin.”

The Last Emperox (The Interdependency, #3) by John Scalzi

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A good ending to the series. This hasn’t been my favorite of Scalzi’s series (I still hold a very fond place in my heart for Old Man’s War), but it was overall a great read. It also takes his usual smart-ass style and amps it up to a thousand. The tongue-in-cheek tone makes for a nice contrast with the serious subject matter, and makes it so that when a character is doing something serious, you feel it more than maybe you would otherwise. I’ve been […]

New treasures from Octavia Butler

Unexpected Stories by Octavia Butler

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Some days, the gods just smile on you. I was walking into Dreamhaven Bookstore in Minneapolis (and if you are in the area, check it out, one of the best places for Neil Gaiman/anime/science fiction stuff in the upper Midwest) when I saw an entire shelf devoted to the works of Ms. Butler. I had read Lillith’s Brood many years before and loved it but loaned out my copy and it was never returned. So I purchased a number of works and started with Unexpected […]

CBR Diversions – Dream Casting

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As a lover of all things pop culture, I love to read and watch book adaptations on the big and small screen. I first saw HBO’s True Blood series before absolutely devouring the Charlaine Harris Sookie Stackhouse books. Same for The Golden Compass, which was panned by critics, but led to me reading the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. The screen versions captivated me and I simply had to know the literary origins of the characters. When I read a particularly engaging novel, […]

Incredibly timely, CBRbookclub is two for two this year in books that are unexpectedly relevant

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

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The themes of gender identity and the LGBTQ+ spectrum were always going to be relevant for Pride month and An Unkindness of Ghosts was thoughtfully chosen for this book club.  However, current events have given an added layer of pertinence.  Earlier this year, the CBR Book Club had chosen Station Eleven and then we found ourselves in a pandemic.  This month we are seeing protesting to change a racist police system (and institutionalized racism) and An Unkindness of Ghosts has an outright rebellion against the […]

‘We tend to think that because a bot or a construct looks human, its ultimate goal would be to become human.’ … ‘That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.’

Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells

Exit Strategy by Martha Wells

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  Well, well, well, guess who had some catching up to do before ordering that new MurderBot Novel? Me. It was me. It’s not like I’m going out anywhere –  more like I’m sitting at home re-watching series Murderbot style. So I made some time for myself earlier this month and finally read the last two Murderbot novellas. In Rogue Protocol, Muderbot has been thinking of leaving the Corporate Rim. While they’re better at passing as human these days, they still worry about getting caught. […]



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