Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“His skin neatly tailored over his bones:” A Great YA SF/F Novel

Dragon's Blood by Jane Yolen

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I’m unable to be objective about this book since I’ve been reading it since childhood. I love it, it really is a perfect book to start a person onto sf/f. Dragon’s Blood follows Jakkin, who is an indentured servant at a dragon fighting stable. He’s an orphan whose father was killed when he was trying to train a feral dragon and whose mother died after they went into indentured servitude. The book blends science fiction and fantasy, as the dragon fighting happens on an alien planet […]

Great SF/F in the Tradition of LeGuin

Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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This was such a satisfying read! It was a perfect blend of fantasy and sci-fi, and packed a lot of plot into a relatively short book. This reminded me what reading a good book could be like and why I do love to read after struggling through my last pick. The book (which I think is being sold as a novella, but it’s 198 pages, so a long novella) uses alternating viewpoint chapters to good effect. Lynesse Fourth Daughter is a princess in a medieval […]

Saving Grace

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

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I’ve read all of Andy Weir’s books. He’s written three so that’s not exactly a major achievement, but it does give me the opportunity to compare and contrast them. Like most people I enjoyed The Martian but did not care very much for Artemis (which, well-intentioned though it may be, is a textbook example of how not to write a strong female character). I loved Project Hail Mary, though with a couple of caveats. But hey, that’s what reviews are for.  First up: it’s really […]

More Murderbot!

Rogue Protocol: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

Exit Strategy: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

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These are the third and fourth books in The Murderbot Diaries and, like the first two, they are full of intrigue, action and snarky humor. Murderbot, a rogue SecUnit who has been purchased and freed by one of its clients, is still at large, having snuck away from client/guardian Dr. Mensah in order to try to figure out why it murdered a bunch of humans on a previous job. MB’s memory was wiped by the company that owned it, but armed with incredible tech, hacking […]

A Pleasant Space Interlude

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers

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If you’ve read the other two in the trilogy, you’ll enjoy this one as well. It’s been a few years since I picked up the other two, but I remembered that they’re all loosely linked standalones, so I was able to read this with no issues as to remembering who anyone was. I’m sure I missed some hints to the previous books, but that didn’t seem to take away from following anything. This book follows three strangers of different species who get stranded at the […]

“We race the cold and night, my wolf and I.”

Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves by Meg Long

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I’m a sucker for kid-and-their-dog books, and this is a high-stakes scifi version of that. It’s the perfect book for reading while snowed in and cuddling your own dog. “No wolves. No sleds. No racing.” I say it automatically despite the lump in my throat. “Foolish rule for life on a planet that revolves around those three things,” she quips.” Tundar, an Edge World, that has near constant electrical storms and a frigid climate. Corpos – giant corporations – attempted to terraform the world once, […]



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