Jun 04 2022
In my fourth time as a Hugo voter, I can see that while I like formal experiments in fiction and am glad to find them as finalists on the ballot, they don’t rise to the very top of my preference list. I’m not sure if that’s because the attention needed — both author’s and mine …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/06/04/hugo-awards-2022-best-short-story/
Jun 03 2022
When this won a Goodreads Award a while back, I tried to give it a go on Webtoons where it was originally published, but found myself bouncing off of the format — or lack thereof, tbh. I like my visuals to fit a single consistent page so I’m not scrolling back and forth to try …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/06/03/lore-olympus-volume-one-by-rachel-smythe/
Jun 02 2022
Hugo packets are out, hurray, and I have till August to read everything! Having already consumed and voted for the nominees in the Best Dramatic Presentation: Long Form category and reviewed the first in the Graphic Story category, it’s time to look at the Short Stories, which I’ll discuss here alphabetically by title. Links are …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/06/02/hugo-awards-2022-best-short-story-nominee/
May 31 2022
Wow, has this series grown on me! As with last year, I selected this title first of the Hugo nominees for Graphic Novel in hopes of getting it out of the way, but was pleasantly surprised to find that it actually does keep getting better from volume to volume. As always, an overwhelming amount happens …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/05/31/monstress-vol-6-the-vow-by-marjorie-m-liu-sana-takeda/
May 28 2022
It isn’t true that the full title for When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain was originally meant to be When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain With Her Two Tiger Sisters and Considered Eating Cleric Chih but it could have been. Except that at that point it would have been politic to mention the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/05/28/when-the-tiger-came-down-the-mountain-by-nghi-vo/
May 02 2022
One problem I’ve had with The Mythics series so far is that knowing mythology and religion and history as well as I do, I’m sometimes made distinctly uncomfortable by the way the authors play fast and loose with established identities. I’m sure readers with a more superficial reading of the old tales won’t even notice, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/05/02/the-mythics-vol-4-global-chaos-by-patrick-sobral-patricia-lyfoung-philippe-ogaki-jenny-dara-alice-picard-magali-paillat/
Apr 01 2022
This homage to the kids’ dark fantasy movies and series of the 1980s is perfect for what it is, and perhaps even better than it has any business being. Jack Corman wants nothing to do with The Shadow Glass, the cult puppet movie created by his father Bob in the 80s. TSG bombed at the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/04/01/the-shadow-glass-by-josh-winning/
Mar 17 2022
Oh my heart. I don’t know how a book as bawdy and savage as Pennyblade managed to make me cry at the beautiful heartbreak of the final chapters but oh, how it did and how I did. This is not a book that everyone will like (see: bawdy and savage) but if the idea of …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/03/17/pennyblade-by-j-l-worrad/
Mar 14 2022
It’s impossible to be involved in indie tabletop gaming circles these days and remain ignorant of Jay Dragon’s bestselling pastoral fantasy game Wanderhome, which was recently nominated for a Nebula Award. Unusually for a 100+ page tabletop roleplaying game, it has zero combat rules or stats, and almost actively discourages that kind of physical conflict. …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/03/14/wanderhome-by-jay-dragon/
Feb 20 2022
Jazzmen dropping dead in circumstances that are unusual even by their standards. Incontrovertible, if circumstantial, evidence of a real-life vagina dentata. These two sets of mysteries set the stage for the events of Moon Over Soho, events that will show readers more about Constable Peter Grant, much more about his mentor in magical policing Detective …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/02/20/moon-over-soho-by-ben-aaronovitch-2/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire