I read thirty books this year. (Comic books count.)
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I read thirty books this year. (Comic books count.)

My cannonball read reviews (# 26, 27, 28). 26 / Wool Omnibus by Hugh Howey I’ve read a lot of sci-fi. I’ve read a lot of post-apocalyptic fiction. I’ve read a lot of straight fiction (or what we might call “drama”), suspense, and a few mysteries. Comparatively, the Wool Omnibus (which is a collection of five short novels self-published by the author) is one of the best in its field. Ten or so thousand people live in an underground “silo,” a cylindrical city bored 150 stories deep into the earth. The air outside will kill you, so criminals sentenced to death are sent outside, to “clean” the sensors that let the silo’s inhabitants know it’s still bad out there. You’ll learn all this in the first five pages, and I really don’t want to tell you more. Imaginative, thrilling, with well-drawn characters and a compelling world, Wool also happens to fall into one of my favorite sub-genres: The Book in Which the Backstory is the Real Story. I’m such a sucker for it. While spinning a contained narrative that stands well on its own, Howey simultaneously reveals the history of the silo, its inhabitants, and the greater world with exquisite skill. I recommended this book more in the last couple of months than any other in recent memory. It’s insanely readable. Five stars. One of my favorites this year. 27 / First Shift - Legacy by Hugh Howey This series just keeps getting better: prequel slash simultaneous timeline FTW! (See also: Ender’s Shadow.) If you finished Wool with more questions than answers, like I did, First Shift will do a great job at answering most of those questions and creating a ton more. A slighter book than Wool, this kicks off the prequel series with style (and quite a bit of action). Five stars. 28 / Second Shift - Order by Hugh Howey Darker and twistier. I love it. Following Wool and First Shift, Second Shift continues exploring a timeline parallel to the original story to great, cliffhanger-y effect. Five stars. Can’t wait for the next installment.
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My cannonball read reviews (# 26, 27, 28).

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My cannonball read reviews (# 24, 25). 24 / Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn Dark and twisty. Fun and depressing. Full of unreliable narrators. It’s been a while since I read anything resembling a mystery, so this was a breath of fresh air. Like in my review of Room, I really don’t want to give anything away plot-wise, but I will say this: the first part of the book plays like a pretty standard whodunnit. At the halfway mark, though, shit gets real. Ms. Flynn is a crafty, crafty lady. Four stars. Trust no one. 25 / Ready Player One by Ernest Cline One phrase kept running through my head as I read: “nerd nostalgia porn.” Lots of my friends inhaled and enjoyed this book, but I was slightly less charmed. Combining elements of Reamde, Neuromancer, For the Win, and strongly reminiscent at times of Ender’s Game (which, strangely, was not referenced in the book, unlike every other piece of media released in the 1980s), Ready Player One is an enjoyable “fight the man” tale set in a near-future where nearly everyone lives in squalor and spends most of their time “plugged in” to Oasis, the ultimate cyberspace environment. Our protagonist, Wade Watts, is one of thousands of Oasis-dwellers on a hunt for a mysterious prize. He’s just a poor kid, and he’s up against a group of professional “gunters” (“egg hunters,” as in “easter egg”) who aren’t just fighting dirty in the game. Hijinks ensue. Three stars. Not totally for me, but fun.
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My cannonball read reviews (# 24, 25).

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My cannonball read reviews (# 21, 22, 23). 21 / Astonishing X-Men, Vol 1: Gifted by Joss Whedon 22 / Astonishing X-Men, Vol 2: Dangerous by Joss Whedon 23 / Astonishing X-Men, Vol 3: Torn by Joss Whedon Fun! Funny! Exciting! If you like Joss Whedon, and/or Wolverine, and/or comics in general, read this series. Four stars.
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My cannonball read reviews (# 21, 22, 23).

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My cannonball read reviews (# 18, 19, 20). 18 / Insurgent by Veronica Roth Insurgent is the sequel to Divergent, which I reviewed earlier. It is, unfortunately, not quite as good as the first in the series. (The similarities to The Hunger Games continue!) We learn much more about the other Factions in this installment, as well as unexpected things about our protagonists’ families. Other than that, there’s a lot of somewhat confusing double-crossing, teenaged angst, freedom fighting, and a promise that things will get more exciting in the as-yet-untitled third in the trilogy. Three stars. Might read the next one. 19 / 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson I got a good hundred pages into 2312 thinking “holy shit, I finally found a ballsy female hard sci-fi author!” before looking up Kim Stanley Robinson and finding out that yeah, he is a dude. In which case, (and I don’t know why I’d be easier on a woman - there’s probably something wrong with this) this is a pretty forgettable attempt at an Iain M. Banks-like story. Sprawling and with lots of characters (check), super-advanced human/alien diaspora (check), secret evil cabal potentially run by robots trying to control the universe (check), mysterious bombings of technologically advanced cities on far-flung planets (check). This is a nicely-crafted and intellectually impressive book without a lot of heart. Like this summer’s unfortunate Prometheus, it’s a story about commuting. From Earth to Mercury to Mars to Saturn to Jupiter’s moons, with lots of shuttles and asteroids-turned-spaceliners in between, our characters hop around the solar system incessantly - all the while investigating who or what is behind the attacks. There are some interesting bits, to do with body modification, art, music, and technology. The book’s 560 pages, though it felt significantly longer. Three stars. A decent read. 20 / Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway This book, like Nick Harkaway’s first (The Gone-Away World) is nerd heaven. We’ve got a literally-underground society of thieves in London, a terrorist organization of clockmakers, kickass nuns, and uber-makers who travel in a handcrafted train named after Ada Lovelace. I’m not going to get into the plot, because it’s mostly an excuse to throw all of these amazing elements into conflict with one another. Plus, come on: if the list in the previous paragraph hasn’t already sent you to your local library’s website to put this thing on hold, there’s not much more I can say to convince you. Four stars. Totally enjoyable.
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My cannonball read reviews (# 18, 19, 20).

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