Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

It’s like Cinderella, but with more spaceships and a love triangle

Off Planet by Aileen Erin

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This is one of those young adult science fiction books that hit the fairy tale retelling itch for me. So while this isn’t the most innovative book ever, it’s immensely fun. Thirteen years ago, Maité and her mother escaped being killed with the rest of the alien Aunare on Earth when SpaceTech, the giant corporate conglomerate that runs Earth, decided to break their peace treaty. After years on the run, they’ve spent the past almost decade in Albuquerque, where they both work at a diner. […]

The ever tricky space colonization genre

Do You Dream of Terra Two? by Temi Oh

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In an alternate Earth, where space travel began before the first World War, a manned trip to another solar system is now possible in the year 2012. Temi Oh uses this conceit to explore what it would be like for us, people of the early 21st century, to explore the solar system and eventually colonize a new planet. It’s a great conceit. We’re introduced in the pre-launch section to a world with a space museum, one that has beautiful traditions dating almost a century at […]

“I saw the forest burn, when I was young.”

Notes from the Burning Age by Claire North

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CBR13Bingo: Flora If this book does not win a ton of awards, I will be truly disappointed. Climate change science fiction (I’ve heard it called cli-fi but I’m not sold on that name) isn’t anything new, as evidenced by last year’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction and N.K. Jemisin’s stellar “Emergency Skin.” But where this author truly excels is twisty plot and excellent characterization. Where most of those stories felt like far in the future scifi, this one felt in many ways startling immediate. “Our ancestors […]

“All any of us can do – is work to be something positive instead. That is a choice that every sapient must make every day of their life. The universe is what we make of it. It’s up to you what part you will play.”

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

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CBR 13 Bingo:  Book Club – Cannonball Book Club, I wish I had read this last year instead of An Unkindness of Ghosts Last year many of y’all raved about The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, I seem to recall comparisons to “Firefly”, and I agree!  I also saw  similarities with “Farscape”, a fish out of water story with a planet bound human now exploring space aboard a ship with aliens.  If neither of those TV shows are a frame of reference for you, this […]

Look, this book has space dinosaurs, enough said.

Wave Rider by Michelle Diener

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CBR13Bingo: The Wilds (I mean, it’s alien wilds, but seriously this entire book is mostly set outdoors) I’d read and enjoyed one book by this author before (the first in her Class 5 series) so I jumped on the chance to try out this one. A scientist and what sounds like a surfer dude running from bad guys? Sounds like my kind of thing! This is fifth in a series, but I read it as a standalone. First off, a little background. The small moon […]

Finally got around to this classic (pushed by Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya)

Dune by Frank Herbert

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Gun to head, if I had to choose a genre of books, it would be epic fantasy or science fiction.  I love the detailed mythologies and extensive worldbuilding that these genres provide.  I also like that most grapple with philosophical and sweeping questions about humanity and good and evil. I guess I’ve read a lot of the classics of both genres but somehow, I had neglected to read Dune.  Maybe because nobody really introduced me to the genre.  My Aunt and my Dad instilled a […]



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