Alix E Harrow can definitely be hit or miss for me. This, fortunately, was such a hit that I actually exclaimed “yes!” when I realized it was the first of a series. Zinnia Gray is no traditional princess. But she has been cursed, more or less, with a genetic disease known as Generalized Roseville Malady, …
July 2022 archive
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/07/18/a-spindle-splintered-fractured-fables-1-by-alix-e-harrow/
Jul 16 2022
No Time Like the Past by Jodi Taylor
After tangling things forwards and backwards in A Trail Through Time, Jodi Taylor offers more straightforward adventures for the historians of St Mary’s in No Time Like the Past. Which is to say, there are calamities, dangers expected and otherwise, narrow escapes, and scuffles with university bureaucracy. I would say that Dr Madeleine Maxwell, first-person …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/07/16/no-time-like-the-past-by-jodi-taylor/
Jul 15 2022
Count Zero by William Gibson
How does Count Zero, William Gibson‘s second novel, hold up more than 35 years after its publication? That’s what I was thinking about, re-reading the book for the first time in at least a decade. At the end of Neuromancer, Gibson’s first, genre-defining novel, something happened to the AIs and the entirety of cyberspace, something …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/07/15/count-zero-by-william-gibson/
Jul 14 2022
Fireheart Tiger by Aliette de Bodard
I’m at the point in my reading life with Aliette de Bodard where I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not her, it’s me. Ms de Bodard is widely acclaimed, and I just don’t get it. Yes, I have loved every single one of the premises of the stories I’ve read of hers, with possibly …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/07/14/fireheart-tiger-by-aliette-de-bodard-2/
Jul 13 2022
It’s A Sign by Jarrett Pumphrey and Jerome Pumphrey
Mo Willems is a staple in our household, so when I (belatedly) discovered that he had an imprint called Elephant & Piggie Like Reading! I knew I had to check it out. More importantly, I had to check it out with my kids. Jms grew up on Knuffle Bunny, while Joseph had always seemed more …
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Jul 12 2022
The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse
So I requested this novel ahead of reviewing Sarah Pearse’s upcoming follow up to it, The Retreat. Interestingly, the publicist seemed a little reluctant to send it over — not a problem I’ve usually had with books from larger publishing houses, who don’t have to watch their margins as closely as smaller presses do. I …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/07/12/the-sanatorium-by-sarah-pearse/
Jul 11 2022
Discovering The Underground With Snow White by Tom Velcovsky & Jakub Cenkl
I had a blast spending time at the American Library Association’s Annual Conference 2022 recently, and one of the highlights was definitely coming across the Albatros Media booth. They’re a small Czech press and this was their first time exhibiting at ALAAC, and I was so pleased to be able to chat with the publisher …
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Jul 10 2022
A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow
“Sleeping Beauty is pretty much the worst fairy tale, an way you slice it” says Zinnia Gray, first-person narrator of A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow. She adds, “Only dying girls like Sleeping Beauty.” (p. 2) And there’s the first catch, because Zinnia Gray is dying, victim of a rare genetic defect, most of …
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Jul 08 2022
Die, Vol. 4: Bleed by Kieron Gillen, Stephanie Hans & Clayton Cowles
I’ve had time to think about it, and tho this final installment of the RPG-nerd series made me cry, it also made me kind of mad, and this is why: there’s a bizarrely “time to put away childish things” overtone to the ending that really irritated me. Kieron Gillen was trying to tread a fine …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/07/08/die-vol-4-bleed-by-kieron-gillen-stephanie-hans-clayton-cowles/