Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Maybe compassion and empathy are just squishy emotions. Illusions created by our mirror neurons. But does it really matter where they come from? They make us human. They might be what make us worth saving.”

Upgrade by Blake Crouch

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This hit the spot. Sometimes you just need a book you can zoom through. Short chapters, intriguing and freaky plot, simple prose, high stakes. Blake Crouch always delivers. I think I like this book less than Dark Matter but more than Recursion. It helped that for once there were zero nuclear bombs present. This takes place in the near future, when genetic research and technology has been banned almost completely, excepting a few highly regulated government sponsored programs, due to a disaster caused by genetic […]

Mysteries and sci-fi fandom

Ten Little Fen: A Spade Paladin Novel by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

At Witt’s End: A Spade/Paladin Conundrum by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

The Really Big Ka-Boom: A Spade/Paladin Conundrum by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Unity Con: A Spade/Paladin Conundrum by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

The Early Conundrums: A spade/Paladin Collection by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

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These books and stories were all read together in a bunch, although the writing of them probably spanned decades.  The stories are all set at various speculative fiction cons – featuring two main characters who only really interact at these cons.  Spade – a large guy who made money in the early days of computing and acts as one of the “Secret Masters of Fandom” and helps keep cons going.  He acts as a form of detective.  Paladin – a slight woman who acts as […]

“The making of this book was thus a process of discovery; as I think the reading of it will be.”

Interfaces by Edited by Ursula K. LeGuin and Virgina Kidd

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I was hoping that Ursula K. LeGuin being one of the anthology editors would counterbalance the fact that this anthology came on the tail end of the 1970s (published in 1980), but I still felt like the overall quality was iffy and reflective of all my prior stated issues with this era of SF/F. LeGuin and Kidd’s taste did lead to more stories that I enjoyed, but I still skimmed in sections and this wasn’t a keeper for me. Interfaces is a themeless anthology, and […]

This book has reached its expiration so I have taken it off my shelves.

The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking, #1) by Patrick Ness

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Not for me, I’m sure it was great. (Or was it???) I might have liked this if it was still 2009. It seriously felt like time-traveling back to when I thought I liked dystopias, and when they were everywhere. Also, I just don’t think this author is for me. I read another book from him a couple years ago and also didn’t care about it very much. This is a YA sci-fi/dystopia about a boy and his dog who live in a place where there […]

Another Indifferent Science Fiction Collection from the 60s.

The Year's Best S-F: 10th Annual Edition by Edited by Judith Merril

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At this point I’m starting to question my decision to work through these 60s/70s SF/F collections, but I continue on because each of them does have a few notable stories, and I am interested in the history and foundation of the field. I think what I got the most out of this one was seeing famous authors breaking onto the scene and the background information on magazines Merril was pulling from, as well as her opinions on current events and the state of SF/F in […]

A wonderful SF/F anthology for young adults (and really anyone!)

Firebirds by Edited by Sharyn November

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In retrospect so many of the books I loved from a young reader until today were published under the Firebird imprint, and I feel incredibly lucky to have been contemporaneous with what were clearly great years for their publishing program. Just looking at the list of books that takes up the first two pages here — Lloyd Alexander, Nancy Farmer, Sylvia Engdahl, Brian Jacques, Robin McKinley,  Tanith Lee, etc — and then considering the additional star power of this anthology — Charles Vess, Garth Nix, […]



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