Feb 03 2026

Detox Doodles by Joy Chew

I’m a doomscroller. In this environment, who can afford not to be? But I do have a carefully curated feed that helps me know when I’ve come to the end of my Instagram and, especially, BlueSky time so I can go do other productive things once I’ve thoroughly acquainted myself with what fresh horrors this administration keeps churning out daily.

But if you need a little something to help get you off your phone and into a more productive habit, then you should definitely check out Joy Chew’s terrific new art book, crowdfunding on Kickstarter now!

Back in 2025, lawyer-turned-artist Joy decided to challenge herself to put down her phone in favor of spending time with her sketchbook instead. She would sketch at least one page of animals per day, to help her get into a calm, creative mindset free from the noise and brainrot of social media. This book is the result, a chronicle both of her artistic journey and of the animals she would eventually decide to focus on depicting.

At first, she’d just draw whichever creatures came to mind, but as her mindfulness journey continued, she began to focus on individual species every day, capturing her subjects in different poses and phases of motion, and adding her own brief comments. She’d work each animal page in a single color, allowing her to focus more on the act of drawing rather than verisimilitude. Most of all, her art practice helped her find serenity while appreciating the marvels of nature.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/02/03/detox-doodles-by-joy-chew/

Feb 02 2026

The Aftermyth by Tracy Wolff

Y’all, as soon as I finished this book, I was all Adam Driver Saying More gif. I’m actually kinda mad that I’m going to have to wait who knows how long before I get to read the next book in this series. Tracy Wolff has written something so fresh from what can often feel like a been there, done that premise. If you love retellings of myths at all, then you HAVE to check out this novel.

The Aftermyth opens with Penelope Weaver and her twin brother Paris being driven by their parents to Anaximander’s Academy, the legendary boarding school where they’ll soon start the rest of their academic lives. Penelope is super excited and super prepared. Everyone in her family went to Athena House, with the goddess of wisdom herself as their patron, so she’s lived her entire life striving to be the perfect Athena Girl.

Things start going wrong almost from the beginning. Crossing the bridge to campus is an unexpected ordeal, and walking into the opening assembly late and bedraggled is hardly the impression Penelope wanted to make. Everything goes completely sideways though when Penelope isn’t assigned to Athena House, with its smart, striving rule-followers. Instead she’s sent to live in the campus’ party house, presided over by another deity, with students who are mostly there for a good time.

Penelope knows that there must be some mistake. Maybe if she works hard enough, she can impress the goddess Athena and be transferred into the house where she really belongs, where Paris already is. But the muse who’s been assigned to her seems to have no idea how to be helpful, and the list of Twelve Labors Penelope is meant to complete over the course of her studies is frustratingly vague. And that’s all before it starts becoming clear that one of the gods might actually have it out for her.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/02/02/the-aftermyth-by-tracy-wolff/

Feb 01 2026

What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher

T. Kingfisher’s third Sworn Soldier novella — following What Moves the Dead and What Feasts at Night — takes Alex Easton and their* batsman Angus to America at the urgent behest of their friend James Denton, a doctor last seen by readers not far from where the House of Usher had fallen. He had returned home, still shaken, only to encounter … something that spooked him enough to send a telegram imploring Easton to come “with all haste.” (p. 10)

What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher

Upon their arrival in Boston, Angus and Easton are met by Denton’s assistant Kent. He takes them from the harbor to their hotel, where Denton and his friend John Ingold are waiting in the dining room. Denton, it transpires, has inherited an abandoned coal mine in West Virginia, among many other things. His cousin Oscar recently disappeared while investigating the mine, and Denton wants Easton’s help finding out what happened.

Denton coughed. “At any rate, it’s your experience with … unusual … circumstances that I need.”
I raised an eyebrow. Angus raised both of his. “You mean like what we saw at Usher’s lake,” I said flatly. “Because I’ll tell you, that was the first time I’ve dealt with anything like that.” …
“The first time for me, too,” said Denton. He looked suddenly weary and much older than I remembered. “But you did deal with it, and you know there are terrible things in the earth. If you encounter another one, you won’t waste time insisting that there must be a different explanation or that I’m lying to you or that none of this can possibly be happening.”
Terrible things in the earth. Yes. Denton and I had seen a terrible thing in the earth and ended it … (pp. 16–17)

Oscar, Denton relates, had “always liked digging, whether it was papers or actual dirt.” (p. 19) He was the one who discovered the deed to the mine, which had been abandoned for decades. He was experienced with caves, and wanted to try to figure out why the mine had been abandoned. At first, Oscar sent regular letters. Then he sent one about observing unusual phenomena in the mine. What Stalks the Deep is a creepy adventure story, but it is also very much a T. Kingfisher book, as the next paragraph shows:

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/02/01/what-stalks-the-deep-by-t-kingfisher/

Jan 31 2026

A Brief Visit to DNFland

Most years, I set aside a couple of books that I have gotten a decent way into and decide that I am just not going to finish them. (Each year since 2020, it’s been either one or two.) This year, I’ve already DNF’d two and it’s only late January. I’m not one of those people who commits to finishing every book they start; a few years as a bookseller cured me of that. As did the loss of teen reading speed, no doubt. Nor am I one of those people who ditches a book after a couple of paragraphs or a few pages; I don’t mind a slow start from time to time, and I love big books. Nothing against folks who take either of those approaches. People read in all sorts of ways — boy howdy did a few years as a bookseller teach me that.

Howards End by E.M. Forster

Here in middle age, I think I’ve gotten a pretty good handle on books that are going to interest me. I like books that show me new places (even if they are old or imaginary), new ways of seeing the world (or worlds), new ways of being. The German word for curious, neugierig, translates literally as “new-greedy,” and yes, that’s me. I’m a cat whom curiosity will probably eventually kill. I think that’s what draws me to history, to historical fiction, and to fantasy and science fiction. While I can mostly tell what I will enjoy, I don’t think I’ve fallen into a rut: last year I tried 18 authors whose work was new to me.

So a DNF feels a little bit like a failure. I chose the book for a reason, or several. There was something I was looking forward to, or something in particular drew me in, and nowadays I have plenty to choose from. I didn’t bounce immediately, I got a substantial ways into the book, and decided I didn’t want to go on at all. (Sometimes if a book is short enough, I’ll just go ahead and finish it; this is not always a good approach.) Why?

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/31/a-brief-visit-to-dnfland/

Jan 29 2026

Tantalizing Tales — January 2026 — Part Five

Ooh, is this the first Part Five I’ve ever published of this monthly series? It can’t be because this year’s January has lasted forever can it, hahahahahuuuuuuuunh.

Anyway, this column is coming out on a Thursday this week because we’re taking part in the USA’s General Strike tomorrow. No work, no school, no shopping for one day, which — if you’re like me — could be the perfect opportunity to just curl up with a good book to read for fun. We have some excellent suggestions for you here should you need them, with five upcoming releases you can pre-order in anticipation of the next time you need a temporary respite from the horrors, as well as a throwback from warmer days in 2025.

First up, we have W. M. Akers’ To Kill A Cook, the first in a planned duology set in 1970s New York City. Fast-talking, hard-charging Bernice Black is the city’s busiest restaurant critic, juggling her career with her fiance and his two young sons. When she stops by the restaurant of her favorite chef and mentor Laurent Tirel one morning, she’s horrified to discover his severed head perfectly preserved in a mold of jellied aspic.

The cops are clueless, and with layoffs looming, she makes a reckless bet with her editor to solve the crime and get the scoop within a week. But Laurent’s killer has no qualms about striking again, much less eliminating any nosy journalists who keep getting in their way.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/29/tantalizing-tales-january-2026-part-five/

Jan 28 2026

Murder Before I Do by Rosie A Point and Charles Timmerman

Being confined to the house by a double whammy of flu and ice storm sure has made me appreciate books like this even more than usual!

The third in the Cranberry Creek Word Search mystery series finds our heroine, bookstore owner Abby Jones getting ready for the wedding of her best friend, baker Rose Turner. As maid of honor, Abby has been pretty busy, and is now looking forward to the welcome dinner for the relatives of Rose and her intended Paul Blakely, who’ve been trickling into town for the festivities.

While the Turner side is all in for the celebrations, Paul’s guests prove to be a little pricklier than expected. During dinner at The Barn, Abby has a front row seat to the tensions simmering below their pleasant surfaces. But things get really bad when a sudden power outage strikes. Abby goes looking for help… only to find the best man bludgeoned to death in another room.

Despite her sheriff’s deputy boyfriend having a dim view of meddlers in his investigation, Abby isn’t about to let anything as awful as the cloud of an unsolved murder hang over her best friend’s wedding. Will she be able to figure whodunnit before anyone else gets hurt?

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/28/murder-before-i-do-by-rosie-a-point-and-charles-timmerman/

Jan 27 2026

Initial Condition by Ian Domowitz (EXCERPT)

Hello, dear readers! Today we have an excerpt from a centuries-spanning novel of science fantasy that will appeal to lovers of the esoteric and the technological.

I’m gonna let the publicity materials for this latest book in a series speak for themselves, for fear of accidentally giving anything away with my own writing:

“A twelfth century vision of artificial intelligence foreshadows a sixteenth century recipe to produce it. A nineteenth century prison nurtures it. A twenty-first century golem befriends it. And a boy without a century stands at the intersection of real and virtual, moments into the future. They call him The Mechanic.

“A kidnapping leads Hanzi Boss to a sanctuary community where religious law forbids speech by the artificially intelligent. For beings like him, the penalty for existing is death and his true nature must remain secret. But the community has its own secrets. An ancient immigrant hides there, a monster made not born, a being who can know Hanzi for what he really is. When the price of life is death, who survives—infinite strength steeped in the silence of the past, or intelligence guided by lived experience?

“This is a story of arcane knowledge, alchemy, and strange philosophies. It is the story of a being not created by God, who does not know what he is and searches for something more. Initial Condition is the third book in The Mechanic’s Diary series following Wake the Whirlwind and Neurojuggler.”

Read on for an excerpt on the creation of one of the mysterious figures at the heart of the novel:

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/27/initial-condition-by-ian-domowitz-excerpt/

Jan 26 2026

Precious Metal by Darcy Van Poelgeest & Ian Bertram

with colors by Matt Hollingsworth and letters by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.

There’s no escaping the fact that Ian Bertram’s art is far and away the most arresting aspect of this project. The best way for me to describe it would be horror manga through a 70s psychedelic lens, as a far-future America where body modifications are the norm is beset by religious strife. Mr Hollingsworth’s colors do a terrific job of turning the volume both up and down on the gore where necessary, but if you’re squeamish when it comes to body horror, this is probably not the graphic novel for you. If you’re okay with a significant amount of gore and grotesquerie tho, then the panels very much reward extra scrutiny. Biology is gross, y’all, and none of the art in these pages felt like it was being any more nasty, brutish and short than life in the natural world actually is. Most of it felt, in fact, like an extrapolation of scientific advances that are more concerned with function over form.

The story itself revolves around a tracker named Max Weaver, who’s hired to find and return what’s basically a runaway enslaved person who’s about to be absorbed by the Twelve, a death cult that worships a deity cobbled together from flesh. What Max doesn’t expect is that the target is a kid, who is both deadly and engenders a weird feeling of kinship in Max. Not wanting to snatch the kid only to hand him over to one of the most notorious and powerful gangsters of New Empire, he takes off with the target instead.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/26/precious-metal-by-darcy-van-poelgeest-ian-bertram/

Jan 23 2026

Tantalizing Tales — January 2026 — Part Four

The last* roundup column of January features some terrific upcoming thrillers, as well as a few books I wish I’d been able to get to back in 2025.

First up, we have a non-fiction examination of two of my favorite pastimes and one of the places where they intersect. John Curran’s The Murder Game examines the birth of the mystery genre and its explosion in popularity, coinciding with the mainstreaming of light intellectual pastimes like crossword puzzles and deductive board games. He posits that these trends were helped along by the sudden abundance of both leisure time and literacy, with curious minds hungry for stimulation.

Dr Curran believes that the novels of the Golden Age of Detecting (essentially the 1920s and 30s) continue to be as popular as they were a century ago due to the fact that they’re essentially games set up between author and reader. There are unspoken rules best exemplified by the Fair Play movement, where all the clues to a mystery’s solution are laid out in the story such that astute readers should be able to figure out whodunnit alongside the fictional detective. He also examines the many different kind of games at play in the experience of reading, whether between detective and murderer, publisher and book buyer, or between authors themselves. It’s a fascinating study of the genre that provides real insight into the enduring popularity of Golden Age detective fiction and its many successors today.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/23/tantalizing-tales-january-2026-part-four/

Jan 22 2026

Wandering Souls and other stories by Philip Caputo

I tend to read a lot more female authors than male, which apparently puts me in the minority of readers worldwide. It’s especially unusual for me to read “serious” fiction by men, and while there’s a touch of the supernatural in each story collected here, this is still very much the kind of literary writing I actually admire (and regular readers will know how much I despise the vast majority of modern literary fiction churned out by American MFA mills.)

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by my own reaction here given that Philip Caputo won a Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism back in the 1970s. You know, back in the day when the fourth estate wasn’t primarily owned by the obscenely wealthy, who use it to hoard their fortunes by influencing the populace to not demand our nation’s rightful due via taxation. Ahem. Mr Caputo’s writing in this collection showcases his rightfully lauded journalistic background. It’s clear and strong and entirely devoid of fluff, even as he discusses such ephemeral subjects as guilt and its attendant ghosts. Because there are a lot of ghosts in this book, as troubled men seek to deal with the mistakes of their pasts, whether small or grand.

Vietnam figures heavily in the proceedings, again unsurprisingly given Mr Caputo’s experiences as a combat veteran in the Vietnam War. The title story begins with a former GI learning that he has a chance to help a woman recover the corpse of her brother Paul Salerno, who vanished while on a combat mission. Our unnamed narrator had actually been part of the squad who originally discovered the remains of Paul’s team. The extraordinary circumstances in which the corpses were found meant that our narrator’s company had had to leave them behind, in contradiction of the warrior ethos our narrator holds dear. The guilt of that has lingered over the decades, and comes roaring back to the fore when he learns of the ongoing grief of Paul’s remaining family.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/22/wandering-souls-and-other-stories-by-philip-caputo/