Doreen Sheridan

Professional book critic, amateur cellist, full-time polymath. Occasional game designer, perpetual game enthusiast. Mom of 3. Arsenal till I die. I like a good story. My other mystery reviews can be found here: https://www.criminalelement.com/author/dvaleris/

Most commented posts

  1. Deathless (Leningrad Diptych #1) by Catherynne M. Valente — 12 comments
  2. A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan #1) by Arkady Martine — 10 comments
  3. Sweet Tea by Piper Huguley — 7 comments
  4. I Was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloane Crosley — 6 comments
  5. Busting Vegas by Ben Mezrich — 5 comments

Author's posts

Shubeik Lubeik by Deena Mohamed

And with this I’ve completed the reading for the 2024 Hugos nominees for Best Graphic Story! And what a way to round out the category! It won’t topple Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons from the chokehold that book has on first place, but it sure comes close. Shubeik Lubeik is the Arabic for, essentially, “your …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/07/18/shubeik-lubeik-by-deena-mohamed/

Life Does Not Allow Us To Meet by He Xi

translated into English by Alex Woodward. I guess I should start by attempting to summarize this story, but it’s just so weirdly — if not outright poorly — written (or perhaps translated? I’m sorry for throwing you under the bus here Mr Woodward but this story was just so bafflingly not good) that I don’t …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/07/17/life-does-not-allow-us-to-meet-by-he-xi/

The Three-Body Problem, Part One by Cai Jin, Ge Wendi, BO MU & Caojijiuridong

a graphic adaptation of Liu Cixin’s bestselling sci-fi novel of the same name, which I adored. This, tho… I very much did not love this. A large part of the problem with this adaptation of The Three-Body Problem is the fact that it strips out much of Mr Liu’s writing save the dialog, which was …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/07/16/the-three-body-problem-part-one-by-cai-jin-ge-wendi-bo-mu-caojijiuridong/

Thornhedge by T Kingfisher

God, reading this book was such a relief. After struggling through three of the other Best Novella nominees for the Hugo Awards 2024, it was nice to finally read a book that felt like it was written by a professional who gives a shit about her audience. Now I’m a sucker for fairytale retellings, so …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/07/15/thornhedge-by-t-kingfisher/

Tantalizing Tales — July 2024 — Part One

I honestly can’t believe that it’s the second Friday of July already! I feel like the start of this year absolutely dragged, but no time at all has passed since March. What’s up with that? As usual, I’m behind with my work reading and am frantically going through what Hugo nominees I can before the …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/07/12/tantalizing-tales-july-2024-part-one/

Rose/House by Arkady Martine

Once upon a time, I used to give authors 900 pages before I decided whether I was done with them, probably forever. That, ofc, was before I became a professional book critic and found myself inundated with more books than I have time for. In the before times, I might have extended that courtesy towards …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/07/11/rose-house-by-arkady-martine/

Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons Vol 1 by Kelly Sue DeConnick, Phil Jimenez, Gene Ha & Nicola Scott

OKAY, I am still inordinately pissed at the absurd, regressive, anti-feminist retcon that DC Comics gave Wonder Woman’s origins with the New 52. I know that people say that comic book back stories are like changeable weather: if you don’t like it, wait a short period of time and it’ll change again. But between the …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/07/10/wonder-woman-historia-the-amazons-vol-1-by-kelly-sue-deconnick-phil-jimenez-gene-ha-nicola-scott/

Mammoths At The Gates by Nghi Vo

Mammoths At The Gates by Nghi Vo

For all that each novella in this series is touted as a standalone, I do very much think that readers would benefit from reading at least a few of the earlier books first. I was struck with Nghi Vo’s propensity for giving almost no backstory to readers in Book One, preferring to immerse us directly …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/07/09/mammoths-at-the-gates-by-nghi-vo/

Unbecoming by Seema Yasmin

Every so often, the publicist Alex Kelleher-Nagorski (hi, Alex!) sends me a book and starts firmly (but gently) persuading me to read it. This is one of those books. I was genuinely afraid that I wouldn’t have time to get into it but Alex assured me that it would be totally worth my time. After …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/07/08/unbecoming-by-seema-yasmin/

The Witches of World War II by Paul Cornell, Valeria Burzo & Jordie Bellaire

Quite the trip to be reading my second book in a row with a prominent character who shares my unusual name! The Doreen in question here is Doreen Valiente, who at the time of the events depicted in this graphic novel was still going by her maiden name, Doreen Dominy. Considered the Mother of Modern …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/07/05/the-witches-of-world-war-ii-by-paul-cornell-valeria-burzo-jordie-bellaire/