Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Maybe next time I skip the omnibus version

Miles Errant by Lois McMaster Bujold

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There should be a content warning for the Mirror Dance section of Miles Errant; there were some mildly graphic descriptions of highly unpleasant things, mostly torture. I’m also learning that maybe the omnibus editions aren’t the best idea, at least for me. “The Borders of Infinity” doesn’t really fit narrative-wise with the other two novel/las (Brothers in Arms and Mirror Dance) even if they are apparently chronologically in order. Overall, for all three stories, there are some things of interest, but almost as many problems […]

Queer Found Family with a Human Murderbot on a Three Fish Ship in Space

You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo

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This is one of those books where I wonder if the entire reason the title was only chosen to set up an obvious but still kind of funny gag that goes entirely unacknowledged in the book. You Sexy Thing is actually the name of a bioship, basically an organic, kind of sentient spaceship; it’s current owner, slightly mysterious uber wealthy Arpat Takraven, set a password that’s incredibly obvious given the ship’s name, but there’s never any explanation for the origins of the ship’s name or […]

What would you do with a spaceship full of psychic cats?

Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes

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It might end up sounding like I didn’t like Chilling Effect, but I want to be clear from the beginning that this was a fun and mostly entertaining read. The basic premise might sound familiar: space-ship captain and rag-tag crew/found family go about their existence but then everything changes when they are faced with a seemingly impossible mission and chaos/adventure ensues. The same goes for most of the characters, including Eva Innocente, tough captain with some sort of tragic past who can’t seem to get […]

Oh Murderbot, why did it take me so long to heed your call?

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

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Thank you again, Cannonballers, for alerting me to another treasure that would have stayed hidden from me had I not seen your many rave reviews!  I am a sucker for both “robot learns to person” and “people learn to robot” stories; I do not know why it took me so long to give Murderbot a go! Earlier this year I was awed by the beauty of A Closed and Common Orbit, but this time I was delighted by some good old-fashioned gruesome space violence. Our […]

Relay-Reading Murderbot

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

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As far as I know, my dad doesn’t read a lot of fiction; the one exception to this is science fiction, at least of the what you might now call classic or vintage variety, as in William Gibson and Isaac Asimov. I was home visiting recently and Dad made a comment about not being sure what to read next after he finished whatever he currently had in his hands; I had Artificial Condition (Murderbot Diaries 2) in mine, so I let him have a look […]

A Few Too Many Space Bobs

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I think it was the title of this thing that caught my attention: We Are Legion [We Are Bob]. It just sounded a little goofy, and as it turns out, you can judge this book by its title. The premise is pretty standard sci-fi: guy at the peak of his career with a great life ahead, decides to get himself cryogenically frozen when he dies, and is almost immediately killed off. He wakes up about a century later to find a very different world than […]



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