Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

An Unexpected Delight

Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

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I am going the confess here that I have been dragging my feet a little bit when it came to writing this review for this book. Light From Uncommon Stars was actually the first of the Hugo Best Novel Nominees that I read when the voting packet was first made available, and if I didn’t scrunch up and focus on my resolve this afternoon, it would have been the last one I wrote about.  This is one of the most unusual speculative fiction books I […]

Dark and Light and Lots of Greys

Spontaneous Human Combustion by Richard Thomas

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In this collection, Thomas presents fourteen short works of speculative fiction which blend science fiction, fantasy, and horror together in intriguing ways. It’s hard to write this review because of the diversity of the tales. The stories touch upon a plethora of genres and themes, including familial relationships, transformation, and atonement. A common device the author uses is cyclical time loops, which often lends a dream-like quality to the story that is enhanced by his deft prose. One thing I really liked about the collection […]

If the formula works, might as well use it

Jujutsu Kaisen, vols. 0-12 by Gege Akutami

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I’ve been seeing comments about the anime for Jujustsu Kaisen is the best thing ever this year, so when I saw almost the first 12 books in the manga series at the library, I decided to try it out. As it turns out the whole thing is relatively formulaic (enough that missing volumes 3, 4, and 11 didn’t seem to matter a whole lot) but still has enough personality to be interesting. The basic gist is that Yuji Itadori who has just lost his grandfather […]

Structure over substance

Long Division by Kiese Laymon

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I’m going to be really honest with y’all. I picked this book up for cover and description of hte structure alone. But I mean, come on. That’s an intriguing and beautiful cover. And as for the structure: this novel is told in two books. Book 1 is read like a normal book, from the front to about halfway through. To read Book 2, the reader has to turn the book over to the back and read from the back cover as if it’s the front. […]

“The best worldbuilding doesn’t show the seams.”

Finder: Chase the Lady by Carla Speed McNeil

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Carla Speed McNeil’s Finder series is one of those series where I bring it up to people and they stare at me blankly. It is one of the best pieces of near-future alternate universe science fiction worldbuilding and storytelling out there and it feels like a precious secret, which is frustrating considering how amazing these books are, and how long they’ve been coming out (26 years). It feels like these should be as critically well-regarded as Bone, which came out around the same time and is similarly […]

Home is Whenever I am With You

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

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The House in the Cerulean Sea was on a best of list, but I can’t remember which one I got it from anymore. I highly recommend Daniel Henning’s read of the audio book by TJ Klune. The story is set in the present, or perhaps the near future, but there are magical creatures. Like many stories, there is a registry of the creatures, there’s a lot of discrimination and fear. In this case, the creatures are children, and they live in an orphanage run by […]



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