In an alternate universe, I’m a professional fiction author and Pierce Brown and I have beautiful literary babies together. I mean, what greater compliment can I give this series? It’s smart and beautiful and moving. It examines the compromises of society, and the ethics of war and love, and does it all with a stunning …
Category: Doreen
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2017/06/17/golden-son-red-rising-2-by-pierce-brown/
Jun 15 2017
Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat!, Volume 2: Don’t Stop Me-Ow by by Kate Leth, Brittney Williams & Megan Wilson
I so very much loved Volume 1, and Volume 2 was looking to continue the adorable shenanigans, but then Civil War II happened, and I hate big crossover events because they wreck the overarching narrative flow of books like these. But also, since I was only first introduced to Patsy and She-Huik’s friendship via this …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2017/06/15/patsy-walker-a-k-a-hellcat-volume-2-dont-stop-me-ow-by-by-kate-leth-brittney-williams-megan-wilson/
Jun 08 2017
Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat!, Vol 1: Hooked On A Feline by Kate Leth & Brittney Williams
Freaking adorable. It’s less superheroics than woman-with-superpowers-tries-to-deal-with-the-real-world and I loved it. It reminded me a lot of old Archie comics, from the slightly more cartoony art style to the all-ages humor and storyline. I loved that it leaned more towards the original Patsy Walker romance comics than to the almost gratuitously tortured iteration of the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2017/06/08/patsy-walker-a-k-a-hellcat-vol-1-hooked-on-a-feline-by-kate-leth-brittney-williams/
Jun 08 2017
Captain Marvel (Marvel NOW!) #1 by Kelly Sue DeConnick & David López
Maybe this book just suffers in comparison with the very excellent Ms Marvel that I’d also recently finished reading, but as a space opera, I felt it only really took off (if you’ll pardon the horrible pun) in the last two issues. Everything before that was mildly interesting but not compelling, though Rocket Raccoon’s reaction …
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Jun 04 2017
Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson & Adrian Alphona
OMG, this book made me SO HAPPY. I’ll freely admit that I avoided reading it because I didn’t enjoy G Willow Wilson’s Alif The Unseen, and I wasn’t interested in being disappointed once more by well-meaning reviews who give questionable issues a pass because diversity. But Ms Marvel Vol I was so terrific that I …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2017/06/04/ms-marvel-vol-1-no-normal-by-g-willow-wilson-adrian-alphona/
May 28 2017
Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly
As far as fantasy novels go, this has a great setting and characters (with one exception that I’ll get to in a minute) and above all atmosphere. Essentially an alternate world take on Weimar Berlin before the fascists’ rise to power, it depicts life lived on a razor’s age, hedonism in the maw of societal …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2017/05/28/amberlough-by-lara-elena-donnelly/
May 17 2017
Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music by Blair Tindall
By the time Blair Tindall gets to the skills analysis that tells her she’s terrible at logic and analysis, I was so frustrated with this book that I said aloud, “You got that right.” Other things she gets right in the book: the fly-on-the wall look at the life of a professional classical musician of …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2017/05/17/mozart-in-the-jungle-sex-drugs-and-classical-music-by-blair-tindall/
May 15 2017
Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye
Reader, I devoured this book on my road trip to visit my in-laws over Mother’s Day weekend. It is, as the author admits, something of a ridiculous novel: a contemporary of Jane Eyre’s contemplates the similarities between their lives even as she herself, the titular Jane Steele, solves problems by means of murder, and finds …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2017/05/15/jane-steele-by-lyndsay-faye/
May 02 2017
Deathless (Leningrad Diptych #1) by Catherynne M. Valente
There’s no denying that this is a beautifully written book. Catherynne M Valente takes Russian and Slavic folktales and melds them with Russian, particularly Leningrad, history of the early 20th century. Her descriptions of falling in love and of the secret languages and compromises of marriage make for compelling, wholly believable and empathetic reading. And …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2017/05/02/deathless-leningrad-diptych-1-by-catherynne-m-valente/
Apr 23 2017
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
There are lots of reasons to commit suicide, but most of the people I know who’ve done it or attempted to have had a lot of Really Bad Shit going on in their heads from Really Bad Shit that comes from their past, or from a present so at odds with their perception of self …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2017/04/23/thirteen-reasons-why-by-jay-asher/