Category: Fantasy

Never Deal With a Dragon / Choose Your Enemies Carefully / Find Your Own Truth by Robert N. Charrette

For my first review for the Frumious Consortium, I’d like to start with a bang, a triple play. Three books at once, all part of a trilogy inscribed in the same universe, all by the same author, and all uncommonly uniform enough in style and execution as to try and pass a single review as …

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The Stolen: An American Faerie Tale by Bishop O’Connell

I’m not entirely sure why I picked this book up. I have an enormous To Be Read (TBR) pile that’s 400+ books and counting, and so when I finally get to a book, I often have trouble remembering how or when it got into the pile. In the spirit of trying to reconcile my need …

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Cold Days by Jim Butcher

One of the biggest issues with a SF/F series is in the area of character development and growth.  While mysteries require no change to the characters themselves, a series has the difficult balancing act of maintaining accessibility for first time readers, while simultaneously rewarding fans with meaningful growth and character development.  One of the tipping …

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Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski

Blood of Elves is billed as “a novel of the witcher” and this same witcher, Geralt of Rivia, is blurbed as the inspiration “for the critically acclaimed video game The Witcher,” which tells me some interesting things right away. First, that one way to get fantasy translated into English, it helps to have a popular …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/30/blood-of-elves-by-andrzej-sapkowski/

Nightmare Ink and Bound by Ink by Marcella Burnard

I was hesitant about these books, to be honest. There’s so much urban fantasy out there and new ideas seem difficult to come up with, or doing the old ideas with a new twist. I’m glad that I read both books, however. Marcella Burnard has managed to take tattoos, demons, magic, and evil angels, and …

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The Hienama, Student of Kyme, and The Moonshawl, a trilogy by Storm Constantine

Anyone who is familiar with Storm Constantine‘s Wraeththu Chronicles will enjoy these books. The first two are much shorter than the last, which was just released, but together they make a whole picture from three points of view, and tell a story that is more than just a story. These books delve deep not only …

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Carniepunk: Daughter of the Midway, the Mermaid, and the Open Lonely Sea by Seanan McGuire

This was a short story by Seanan McGuire that was part of the Carniepunk anthology released last year (2013). It is, like all of Seanan McGuire’s/Mira Grant’s books, an absolutely delectable piece of writing. I realize that I’m verging on the edge of hyperbole, but truly I have yet to read anything by Seanan McGuire …

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The House of Hades by Rick Riordan

One of the nice things about not being in a book’s target audience is being able to stand back a bit more and see what the author is up to, what’s happening structurally within a book or series, to generally chew on it a bit more. The House of Hades reaches its main intended audience …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/15/the-house-of-hades-by-rick-riordan/

The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss

What to say that Laura hasn’t already? This story is a week in the life of a minor character, minor in Rothfuss’ other works, that is, and I think that it’s a good example of a writer doing something interesting because he doesn’t feel constrained to follow that larger story. It isn’t trying to be …

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The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan

Fun, funny at times, and even occasionally touching. Hits its mark perfectly for its intended audience, and isn’t bad at all for those of us a couple of decades past that. The Mark of Athena is much the same, and brings the overall story closer to completion. I am taking a break before going much …

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