Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A boy, his canoe, and the beginning

The Book of Dust Vol. 1 : La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman

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I quickly and deeply fell in love with Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” trilogy.  The ending of the third book has me in tears each time I read it.  However, when I heard that he was writing a prequel with Lyra “at the centre of the story”,  I rolled my eyes.  We already have three books where she is a main character.  How much could have happened to her before the start of The Golden Compass?  Then last year a fellow Cannonballer warmly reviewed it (apologies, […]

Still has exciting steampunk aerial combat but doesn’t recapture the joy of the first book

Arabella the Traitor of Mars: The Adventures of Arabella Ashby by David D. Levine

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“The Adventures of Arabella Ashby” series starts off with a bang in Arabella of Mars. The second book, Arabella and the Battle of Venus, was not as ‘romantic and dashing’ as the first.  The third, Arabella the Traitor of Mars, is a good conclusion to Arabella’s story but it doesn’t have the spark of the first book. I mentally groaned when the book started with Arabella and Captain Singh on Earth but then Arabella, once again, needs to race to the other side of the solar system, in as […]

Trouble in FantasyLand

Get in Trouble: Stories by Kelly Link

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The lovely faintingviolet turned me onto Kelly Link, and I’m here to report that her latest book of short fiction, Get In Trouble, is a delight and there was not a story in this collection that didn’t simultaneously charm and terrify me. As a whole, Link’s greatest achievement is her ability to build entire universes in 40 pages or less. It’s an incredible feat that includes massive speculative worlds and full character development, while still using beautiful prose packed with metaphor and description. Here’s the breakdown: “The […]

How long ’til black future month?

How Long 'Til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin

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I picked this book up purely on the strength of my love for N.K. Jemisin.  I’m generally not a fan of the short story format.  The only short story collections I’ve read cover to cover are the ones written by Neil Gaiman, who is very high on my favorite author list.  N.K. Jemisin is an incredible author who creates fantastic worlds so I anticipated enjoying the book, but I was blown away at how her short fiction thoroughly engaged me in a way that the […]

Just as outstanding as the first book, now I need to seek out The Lady Astronaut short stories

The Fated Sky: A Lady Astronaut Novel by Mary Robinette Kowal

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Fun fact, Robinette is not part of her last name and while it sits in the middle of her name it isn’t technically a middle name either.  She is Mary Robinette, and that is how she prefers to be called.  Both Mary and Robinette are in honor of her grandmothers.  It is not uncommon to find her books misshelved due to this misunderstanding.   The Fated Sky is the second book in the Lady Astronaut duolgy that started with The Calculating Stars.  The alternate timeline Kowal created has […]

The Saddest Bug in the World

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

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I read The Metamorphosis under great duress during both high school and undergrad. I remember despising it both times, and only reading enough to get through class discussion. But my mentor is teaching it this semester, and I’ve had no choice but to revisit it. It’s amazing how much perspective a decade and a half can give. I loved this novella, and aside from general immaturity and lack of language skills, I don’t know why I was so vehemently against this story in the past. Gregor the […]



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