Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The one where Holden gets to be a do-gooder on another planet.

Cibola Burn (The Expanse, #4) by James S.A. Corey

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Whoops, need to get this review out before I start my re-read of book five. This wasn’t my least favorite of these books the first time through, that for some reason was book two (even though I can objectively say that one is a better book, I just prefer this more inferior one for some reason). This is also most people’s least favorite of the series, and I can see why, I really can. This is actually the only one of these I read in […]

Turning planets into origami

Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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CBR14 Bingo: Cold (the majority of this novel is set in spaaace, which is famously very cold) It would also work for Star and Series.  Official book description: Idris has neither aged nor slept since they remade his mind in the war. And one of humanity’s heroes now scrapes by on a freelance salvage vessel, to avoid the attention of greater powers. Eighty years ago, Earth was destroyed by an alien enemy. Many escaped, but millions more died. So mankind created enhanced humans ­such as Idris – […]

“We’re like children . . . who burn their hands on a hot stove and then think the solution is to blow up all the stoves.”

Abaddon's Gate (The Expanse, #3) by James S.A. Corey

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Yeah, five stars. I knew this was going to happen, that I would feel the need to give this one five stars after a re-read, because this is the book that made me fall in love with the series. I’m not sure what it is about it exactly that makes me like it more than the first two books, which I like a lot (five stars worth now for #1!). This story just has such a clear purpose, a clear arc, and wild stuff happens […]

Fergus to the Rescue (Again)

Driving the Deep by Suzanne Palmer

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I enjoyed the sequel to The Finder even more than the first book. Initially, I thought Fergus had another unwilling partner in Zacker, a NY cop who attacks Fergus when he returns to Scotland to make amends for deserting his family as a teenager. In typical Fergus fashion, he’s at the wrong place at the wrong time and is mistaken for a murderous art thief. In The Finder, Fergus took a job on the other side of the galaxy to find and retrieve an almost […]

“Be interesting,” said the alien.

Finder by Suzanne Palmer

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When Bothari43 says, “I’ve found a book you’re going to love,” I listen. The Finder is definitely a book I enjoyed. I already ordered the sequel. Fergus Ferguson has a simple job—repo a spaceship that was stolen during a test drive. He travels to a deep space cluster called Cernee with the protocols he needs to retake the ship and return it to its owner. He’s big, has a red beard and red hair, and stumbles into the internal conflict going on within Cernee, a […]

Mass Effect and Mando? Shiny!

Those Left Behind by N. C. Scrimgeour

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Those Left Behind is the first book in N. C. Scrimgeour’s “Waystations trilogy.” The first two books are available in paperback and on Kindle Unlimited if that’s your jam. I was scrolling through TikTok the other night, trying to ignore the impending doom of our planet and my own cold dead heart, when author N.C. Scrimgeour’s account popped up. “Do you like Mass Effect and The Mandalorian?” the video asked. Of course I do! I promptly added the Waystations trilogy to my To Read shelf, […]



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