Category: Fantasy

Of Noble Family by Mary Robinette Kowal

Of Noble Family is the fifth book of Mary Robinette Kowal’s Glamourist History series. The series crosses Regency romances with alternate (but not terribly alternate) history and a dash of domestic magic. The series follows Sir David Vincent and his wife Jane, accomplished glamourists; that is, practitioners of the arts of magical illusion known in …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/10/09/of-noble-family-by-mary-robinette-kowal/

The Well-Favored Man by Elizabeth Willey

A friend whose taste I respect recommended The Well-Favored Man to me, and, while I didn’t bounce off of it, I didn’t respond with quite the enthusiasm we both thought I might. She zipped right through it and has, I think, re-read it again in the meantime, while I dawdled the weeks away, and read …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/10/08/the-well-favored-man-by-elizabeth-willey/

Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett

They seem such slight things, the Discworld books. Mostly slender paperbacks with the unmistakable art on their covers and the absurd premises piled on one another (it’s turtles all the way down), usually stacked up in the first few pages. Suddenly it’s a couple hundred pages later, there has been laughter, there has been at …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/10/07/reaper-man-by-terry-pratchett/

Whispers Underground by Ben Aaronovitch

It’s extraordinary how this series doesn’t flag at all, with each book feeling entirely self-contained even as the overarching narrative races towards what promises to be a breathtaking denouement (no pressure, Ben Aaronovitch!) With most urban fantasy, Book 3 (if you’re lucky) is where the stresses of carrying a series would begin to show, in …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/09/27/whispers-underground-by-ben-aaronovitch/

Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch

It isn’t often that the second book in a series I like is even better than the first, but Ben Aaronovitch has managed to build on the cleverness of Midnight Riot to add pathos and depth to his magical universe with Moon Over Soho. Whereas the first book felt a little shaky in its grasp …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/09/26/moon-over-soho-by-ben-aaronovitch/

TRUST by Jodi Baker

  Series: Between Lions (Book 1) Hardcover: 296 pages Publisher: BookBaby (October 3, 2015) Language: English ISBN-10: 0986431710 ISBN-13: 978-0986431715 Publisher’s Description TRUST is a young adult, mythological, urban fantasy thrill ride about the darkly fantastical, supernatural Museion that has secretly protected humanity’s greatest treasures for millennia, and Anna, the sixteen-year-old New York girl who …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/09/21/trust-by-jodi-baker/

Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch

A testament to how good I think this book is: not only do I want to binge-read the whole series, I’m also willing to shell out the full price on Book 2, as it’s the only one with an absurd wait list from the library. I am voting with my dollar here, people! Midnight Riot …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/09/14/midnight-riot-by-ben-aaronovitch/

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski

It should have been painfully obvious to me from the blurb that this would involve retellings of fairy tales, but I did not realize till I was well into the Beauty And The Beast tale and then ZOMG, THIS IS MY JAM!!! Andrzej Sapkowski has written a terrific fantasy novel with a sympathetic hero, and …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/09/11/the-last-wish-by-andrzej-sapkowski/

The Once And Future King by T. H. White

When I first started reading this, I was so completely taken aback by the Boys’ Own, jolly-good, public school vibe of the writing that I honestly wasn’t sure whether I was going to like it. The first part was, thus, slow-going for me, used as I was to depictions of Arthurian romance that were a …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/09/08/the-once-and-future-king-by-t-h-white/

Pack Of Strays by Dana Cameron

After the verve and uniqueness of the first book, this installment of the Fangborn series was a definite let down. Too much happens to Zoe too quickly, with only the sketchiest of explanations: whereas the globe-trotting of Seven Kinds Of Hell felt exotic and fast-paced, everything that happens here just feels rushed and jumbled. While …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/08/28/pack-of-strays-by-dana-cameron/