Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“It’s not like I grow up to be some great war hero or any all-important savior but thanks to my parents at least I get to grow old. Not everyone does.”

Saga (Volume 9) by Brian K Vaughan

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Back again with another Saga installment! I can’t believe I’m almost finally caught up. What a roller coaster this series is. I saw that when this series first came out, it was billed as “Star Wars meets Game of Thrones” and I give two thumbs up to that comparison. The only thing I would clarify there is that it’s less “Star Wars meets Game of Thrones” and more “Game of Thrones set in a Star Wars-ish Universe” because every other volume has it’s own Red […]

“If we were all a little more selfish with our own lives instead of being in such a hurry to defend everything to the death the universe would be a much less scary place”

Saga (Volume 8) by Brian K Vaughan

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With a backdrop that is distinctly western, this volume starts with a wooden sign that says, “Welcome to Abortion Town!” And how you feel about that as an opening to a graphic novel (offended? jarred? intrigued) is a pretty good barometer for if you would like this series. I find it overall to be a jarring delight, but it’s not for everybody (she says, knowing she recommended it at work, and now someone she works with is reading it and she immediately had an OH […]

Hopefully it’s just series sophmore slump

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

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Potentially unpopular opinion ahead: I did not especially like Harrow the Ninth. I loved Gideon the Ninth, but I don’t think all the narrative experimenting and the pacing worked out well here. After Harrow becomes a Lyctor and Gideon is gone, about 85 percent of the Harrow the Ninth is confusion. The narrative switches between second and third person (there’s also some first person but that is mostly later) and neither voice really knows what’s going on; on the one hand, this makes sense because […]

‘Fear is the mind-killer.’

Dune by Frank Herbert

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When the Atreides family is betrayed, the heir Paul and his mother Jessica are sent on the run – and into the path that leads to his ultimate destiny. About three quarters through this book, I texted my friend M, who loves this book, the following: Arrakis is the Middle East. Melange is oil. Is Paul a white savior? That’s a very flippant way of looking at a book that carries a lot more within itself than that. Dune is about environmentalism, about religion, about […]

“If trying something new was valid, then keeping something old was, too…. Life meant death, always. But by the same token, death meant life.”

Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers

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Becky Chambers continues to keep me in awe of her writing.  Record of a Spaceborn Few is the third book in the “Wayfarer Series”.  It tangentially ties into the first book as one of the main characters, Tessa Santoso, is sister to Captain Ashby Santoso, of the spaceship Wayfarer, in A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.  This book is centered on The Exodus Fleet, the last humans to leave Earth when the environment collapsed hundreds of years ago.  They wandered for generations until […]

Space is creepy. Ghosts in space are creepier…

Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes

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Holy crap was this creepy.  Just like the last book I reviewed, I recommend listening to the audiobook.  The sense of dread is overwhelming, and I’m not sure you’d be able to create it that much for yourself by just reading. Claire is the team leader of a salvage crew in space.  They’re on their last mission and about to be moved on to different jobs.  Claire doesn’t want to leave, because she has nothing to go home for.  In the first few minutes you’re […]



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