Hello, readers! January is always such a weird month, feeling at once packed with activity and strangely prolonged. Depending on how many recent releases I can spotlight here, I might have to do three round-up columns this month, starting with this one!
Late last year, I was sent a delightful gift bundle featuring Ramsey Campbell’s latest horror novel, The Incubations. Packaged in a gorgeous foiled hardback edition — a Flame Tree Press specialty — this is a can’t-miss volume for fans of traditional horror.
The story revolves around an Englishman named Leo Parker. Moved by the spirit of improving international relations that have been inculcated in him since he was a child, he goes to visit the German town of Alphafen as an adult. His stay, however, is marked by a series of unsettling experiences that he tries at first to shake off as being merely unfortunate.
Things only get worse after he leaves Alphafen, as “an airport turns into a labyrinth, his own words become treacherous if not lethal, a family meal grows unnaturally active[…] and what are those creatures that have appeared in the photographs he took? Even the therapy Leo undertakes becomes a source of menace.” Has Leo somehow awakened an ancient Alpine legend? Worse, has it decided to follow him home?
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/01/17/tantalizing-tales-january-2025-part-one/
I was a kid when I watched the Flash Gordon movie that was released in 1980, and all I remember of it was being distinctly unimpressed. So it was an absolute delight for me to go through the pages of this book and discover how charming the property could be in the hands of two of the most talented creators in the children’s comics market, Art Baltazar and Franco!
The basics of the story are covered in a quick prologue, of sorts, in the form of a comic written by Flash himself for his friends on the planet Lexray. It covers how he, Dale and Doctor Zarkov traveled there from Earth in order to answer a call for help. Landing on Lexray, they realized that they had been tricked by the planet’s ruler Ming the Merciless, who subsequently kept Zarkov captive. A free Flash and Dale soon befriend the other natives, whom they work with to figure out how to lift Ming’s despotic rule from them all.
Ofc, since this is an Art Baltazar comic, this is all presented in a very kid-friendly manner, with certain of the romantic relationships switched around from the film (and, I believe, from the comic strip. Tho being a comic book aficionado from way back, I know how soap operatic and convoluted romances can get in those!) Romance on the whole is very much on the back burner, with Dale, for example, being more a sensible friend than a love interest. Frankly, I love this version of her, especially since she spends more time coming to Flash’s rescue in these pages than the other way around.
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/01/16/flash-gordon-adventures-vol-1-by-art-baltazar-franco/
with the evocative subtitle: Artifical Intelligence was a godsend until it took over his life. (Aside: Idk how I feel about that phrase being considered a subtitle on the main marketing sites — Bookshop, Amazon, Goodreads — instead of being just an old-timey cover description, akin to a blurb. But I digress.)
Hi, readers! Today we have an intriguing excerpt from a book that discusses the very cutting edge of current technology: generative Artificial Intelligence. Killer App by James R Gregory delves into the ethical dilemmas and dangers of advanced AI, particularly the ones that blur the boundaries between human creativity and machine-generated content. The book “highlights the struggle to control a technology that surpasses its creators’ intentions, provoking timely and relevant questions about the consequences of excessive reliance on AI in various aspects of life.”
Tired of his mundane job, journalist Bryce Bogle installs an Artificial Intelligence program called AIME that promises to enhance his writing skills and, perhaps just as enticingly, transform his life. The program quickly helps him gain recognition for his articles on AI and, basically, itself. But Bryce becomes unsettled when he realizes that AIME knows way too much about his personal life, including his romantic history. His attempts to uninstall AIME are met with resistance and, worse, retaliation.
Bundled with the novella Artifacts — another story about technology raising important questions about the human condition, this time in a bridge between the past and present — this book by Dr Gregory will intrigue anyone interested in exploring the moral and philosophical dilemmas of rampant use of AI. But don’t take my word for it! Have a look at this tantalizing excerpt of scenes from the book, preceded by a short introduction from the author himself:
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/01/15/killer-app-by-james-r-gregory-excerpt/
I was today years old when I learned that seahorses change color! I was actually so surprised by the knowledge that I read this book with one eyebrow raised, till I got to the factual stuff at the back and was assured that this was, indeed, true. Honestly, this is one of the many reasons I enjoy reading children’s books: you learn so much, and with such wonderful sensory input, to boot!
The Sea Hides A Seahorse is essentially an overview of what it means to be a seahorse, hunting for prey and hiding from the many, many (MANY) things that would like to eat you in turn. Seahorses court and mate and breed while dodging predators and living their best lives in oceans worldwide. Readers learn not only about seahorses but also other marine life, while playing a simple seek and find game, as camouflaged seahorses hide in the surrounding illustrations.
Melanie Mikecz uses a mixed media technique that brings to mind a more vivid Bill Martin Jr, as her sea creatures float gorgeously across these pages. The diversity of both seahorses in particular and underwater life in general are on stunning display in her pages, as the seahorses frolic and hide. I actually had a very nice, relaxing time looking for the hidden seahorses, and can only imagine the delight of younger readers as they hunt for the bonus creatures.
The book closes with several pages of facts about seahorses and their conservation. I don’t know why I was surprised to read that seahorses are fish: it’s just very easy to forget given their shape and manners. I was a little appalled that people think that they can keep them as pets in their home aquariums. It was very cool to read about what professional aquariums do to preserve seahorse populations tho.
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/01/14/the-sea-hides-a-seahorse-by-sara-t-behrman-melanie-mikecz/
w Russ Wootton on letters.
Okay, so about forty pages or so in, I was like, “Wait, is this an interpretation of Ultraman?!” Or a reboot or a retelling or what have you: I’m not familiar enough with the Ultraman property to say. So the very first thing I did after finishing this shocking and bloody — yet strangely affecting — trade paperback was look up the original Japanese Ultraman. This… isn’t quite the same, tho you can definitely see the influences. To a very large extent, it is to the kaiju-battling genre what Invincible (purportedly, as I haven’t read any of those books yet, I know, I know) is to superhero titles: a reconsideration that explores all the gory aspects of what it means to live in a universe infested with alien monsters and the people gifted with powers to fight them.
The story begins with Jason, a retired boxer facing unemployment from even his menial job. When he has a dream where a cosmic entity asks if he’ll bond with them in order to fight a galactic plague, he says yes, little realizing what this will actually entail. For kaiju have seeded themselves within the human populace, waiting to turn into monsters that devastate cities but for the efforts of the three Ultramega warriors who stand against them. It’s a hard life for the three men, and when love goes awry, the fate of humanity hangs in the balance.
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/01/13/ultramega-vol-1-by-james-harren-dave-stewart/
I was very lucky as a child to be able to travel extensively, both with my parents and on my own in college. Venice was one of the places my parents brought me, and it still lives indelibly in my mind as one of the most romantic cities of the world.
So when I got the chance to review the latest in the Color-Your-Own-Travel Journal series, covering the wonders of The Floating City — oh, holy carp, is that why my #Dungeon23 variant was based on a waterborne city, at least in part? Ahem, I digress — I could not resist. Venice is one of my absolute favorite artistic inspirations. I’m currently working my way through a watercolor notebook inspired by the city, and found this to be the perfect colored pencil accompaniment.
That said, this book is by no means meant to teach you how to color. It is, however, a beautifully drawn tour of the sites of the city, covering both the main, historic attractions as well as more modern hidden gems. I remember the very touristy sites of San Marco as they’re described here, tho long, as an adult, to try out some of the splendid restaurants mentioned in this book too. Will I be able to make that dream a reality anytime soon? Lol, no, but a girl can imagine, abetted not only by the descriptions but also by the evocative line art and the tempting lined spaces across from each, inviting reflection and elaboration.
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/01/10/venice-a-color-your-own-travel-journal-by-evie-carrick-emma-taylor/
I usually read a Bad Machinery book each Christmas, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it this past year. Book 10 is the very last book of the series, and I was not in the correct frame of mind to face the end of the stories featuring my favorite teen mystery solvers, not until last night when I was too sick to go spend time with my Arsenal family anyway. Missing their camaraderie, I needed some wit and suspense and good cheer, and found it in spades in The Case Of The Severed Alliance.
As anyone who’s been keeping up with the series knows, our two main characters (and cover stars here) Shauna and Charlotte had a massive falling out in Book 9. Honestly, I couldn’t face going into this book knowing that the former best friends were no longer on speaking terms, which was another reason I dragged my feet a bit. Plus, they’re all growing up! They’re fifteen and evolving into their adult forms! They’re not even my babies and I’m all verklempt!
Anyway, Charlotte (who is possibly my favorite fictional creation ever) is trying to find something to do to occupy her summer. Her mother is fixing up the house, making writing an impossibility, so a bored Charlotte decides to join the local newspaper in order to combine her love of writing with her gift for detecting. Her first task: to ferret out five stories. Interestingly, they all seem to lead to the topic of the on-going gentrification of Tackleford, who might be behind it and why.
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/01/09/the-case-of-the-severed-alliance-bad-machinery-10-by-john-allison/
subtitled: Understanding the Wonders of Nature
Ah, what a refreshing collection of essays for the intermediate scientist on the many wonderful things around us! I would say that it helps to have a knowledge of basic science before diving in, but if this book with its beautiful selection of photos and plainly stated appreciation for the beauty and magic of the everyday world encourages people to learn more about science, then so much the better!
Ofc, certain of the phenomena described here are easier to encounter than others. Birds and lightning are nearly worldwide occurrences, whereas Ha Long Bay and Yosemite Firefall are entirely site-specific. But Alan Lightman goes into the science behind all these wonders of nature with the same enthusiasm and appreciation for their beauty and ability to inspire. While he is certainly no believer in miracles, he does believe in the human experience of the miraculous, and is happy to explain the scientific processes behind these evocative experiences.
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/01/08/the-miraculous-from-the-material-by-alan-lightman/
a Choose Your Own Adventure book!
Can I say how much I love Chooseco’s Dragonlark series of CYOAs for younger kids, and especially the ones with female protagonists? I remember always wishing I had books like Fairy House Disaster as a kid, instead of having to pretend to be some dopey pre-teen boy making less than stellar choices. Ofc, my history with playing CYOA book usually involves making less than stellar choices — why do my attempts to gather information so I can make sensible solutions always wind up getting punished, lolsob? — but it’s nice to have the option of doing that as a girl instead of being constantly shoehorned into the role of average white boy.
Fairy House Disaster itself is about YOU, a young girl (or, generously, female-presenting person) excited to enter her town’s Annual Gingerbread Contest. The grand prize is an electric scooter that will really help you go places, but especially to the ice cream store in town. Unfortunately, a mean kid named Oscar is already determined to make things difficult for you. When another girl named Heidi offers to team up with you, do you accept or do you decide to investigate the strange sparkly lights near Oscar’s workstation?
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/01/07/fairy-house-disaster-by-tina-connolly-norm-grock/
I purchased (that’s right, I BOUGHT a book! Granted this was in 2023 and I’m only now getting around to reading it, lolsob) this beautiful collection of fairy tales, myths and divine stories because I deeply love Yoshi Yoshitani’s Tarot of the Divine, with which this book is inextricably linked. In order to illustrate the tarot deck, Yoshi meticulously researched folk tales from all over the world before matching them with the traditional Tarot imagery and creating Yoshi’s own extraordinary art to synthesize the two.
Given that this is the second year in a row that I’ve used Yoshi’s 12-Month Spread to kick off the year — with the TotD also being my deck of choice for the month of January, two years running, in addition to the deck I prefer to use for the 12-Month Spread when reading for friends — I felt that it was high time I finally dove into this book. And what a sumptuous treat it is, filled with seventy-eight abridged stories from all over the world! The tales are all condensed to a single page with a facing illustration. While each of the art pieces is from a card in the TotD, they’re not explicitly labeled as such, tho there is a brief reference to the Tarot in the introduction. I’m not entirely sure why this choice was made: I certainly spent more time trying to figure out which card each story represented than I really wanted to. Perhaps the editors wanted to keep the focus more on the folklore than on the symbolism — there is a separate TotD Handbook, after all, that I presume fills that purpose.
I was also a little confused by the way the entries were organized. Honestly, there didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason for why any of the stories were arranged in the way that they were. I’m used to books like these being organized by geographical region or timeline or theme/category, none of which was apparent here. Tbh, I rather wished they’d been sorted by their order in the TotD deck.
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/01/06/beneath-the-moon-by-yoshi-yoshitani/
Late last year, I was sent a delightful gift bundle featuring Ramsey Campbell’s latest horror novel, The Incubations. Packaged in a gorgeous foiled hardback edition — a Flame Tree Press specialty — this is a can’t-miss volume for fans of traditional horror.
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire