Category: Fantasy

Uncanny Times (Huntsmen #1) by Laura Anne Gilman

What a fun way to get into the mood for spooky season, as we follow a pair of sibling monster hunters on the trail of an unusual killer in early 20th century New York! To most eyes, Rosemary and Aaron Harker are an orphaned brother and sister living quietly as adults in New Haven, Connecticut, …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/10/31/uncanny-times-huntsmen-1-by-laura-anne-gilman/

Sea Serpent’s Heir, Book 1: Pirate’s Daughter by Mairghread Scott & Pablo Túnica

Siiiiigh. I’m sure lots of people will love this book but it is not, unfortunately, for me. Premise: young Aella hates living on her remote fishing island, and longs to run away and have real adventures. Her mother Ryanna is constantly away at sea herself, leaving Aella to be raised by a coterie of friends …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/10/25/sea-serpents-heir-book-1-pirates-daughter-by-mairghread-scott-pablo-tunica/

Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots

Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots

So in my day job I do things related to fairly customized computer software, and if the company needed some extras to stand around in the background for a public presentation or a video about a new product, sure, I’d do that. Anna Tromedlov, the first-person narrator of Hench, says yes to more or less …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/10/16/hench-by-natalie-zina-walschots/

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

In a sleepy Yucatan town where her family sits atop the social pyramid in the 1920s, Casiopea Tun discovers how they came to occupy that condition. It’s an act of rebellion against her tyrannical grandfather, who took her and her mother back into the family home when her father died, but never ceased to remind …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/10/14/gods-of-jade-and-shadow-by-silvia-moreno-garcia/

Twelfth Grade Night (Arden High #1) by Molly Horton Booth, Stephanie Kate Strohm & Jamie Green

Shakespeare and I have a love-hate relationship, but I’ve always had a soft spot for Twelfth Night due to its hapless heroine Viola. I’ve even seen the play presented once professionally, in Malaysia. The production was pretty great, and the story overall less ridiculous than some others of the Bard’s (not that that’s saying much, …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/10/11/twelfth-grade-night-arden-high-1-by-molly-horton-booth-stephanie-kate-strohm-jamie-green/

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

Considering a book of scholarly articles about the history Chinese international relations, I wrote that it was “chock full of implied stories” and looked forward to the day that I could read some of them. Shelley Parker-Chan chose a later inflection point from Chinese history to tell the story of She Who Became the Sun, …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/09/25/she-who-became-the-sun-by-shelley-parker-chan/

The Very Genius Notebooks #1: The Chronicles Of Deltovia by Olivia Jaimes

I’m genuinely starting to believe that some of the best under-the-radar writing out there nowadays is coming from middle grade authors. Not that Olivia Jaimes is primarily that (or even her real name.) Having gained acclaim for her reboot of the long-running Nancy comic strip, she’s now published her first middle-grade novel under this name, …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/09/23/the-very-genius-notebooks-1-the-chronicles-of-deltovia-by-olivia-jaimes/

Nona the Ninth (The Locked Tomb #3) by Tamsyn Muir

Ugggggh, I love Nona so much. Not Nona the book — and we’ll come to that later — but Nona the character, who is about the sweetest gorram teenager you’ve ever met in your life. Well, technically a teenager: her body is about nineteen years old but she’s only really been alive? resurrected? reborn? for …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/09/16/nona-the-ninth-the-locked-tomb-3-by-tamsyn-muir/

Hugo 2022 Chat

Doreen Sheridan: We should have a conversation about the Hugos and edit that and post on the site, because lol. Doug Merrill: Sure! I was thinking about writing up my reactions, but joint reactions would be even better. Looking at the longer list of statistics, I was so glad that Light from Uncommon Stars scraped …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/09/08/hugo-2022-chat/

Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch

Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch

I’m only three books into the Rivers of London series, and already they feel like comfort reading. I can feel confident that with each new Peter Grant book I pick up, I will encounter characters I enjoy spending time with — the narrator first and foremost — that they will have adventures and scrapes, that Aaronovitch will …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/09/04/whispers-under-ground-by-ben-aaronovitch/