Time for some short takes to clear the desk for the coming year. In Urs Widmer’s Der Geliebte der Mutter (My Mother’s Lover) the first-person narrator tells the story of his mother’s life, beginning with the death of her lover, many years after her own death. Erwin died as he lived best, leaning over a …
Category: Novella
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/12/27/wrapping-up-4/
Dec 21 2024
Hugo Awards 2024: Wrapping Up
When I read for the Hugos, I like to write a full review for each novel and novella that I finish, but I also like to finish all of my reviews from a given calendar year by the end of that year, and so here I am. There’s not a whole lot of December left, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/12/21/hugo-awards-2024-wrapping-up/
Nov 19 2024
Cold Snap by Lindy Ryan
I can see what Lindy Ryan was trying to do here, given my steeping in world mythology, but I think it needed a little more explaining so that the average reader can figure out what’s actually going on in this horror novella of guilt and grief. Just a few weeks ago, Derek Sinclaire died, falling …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/11/19/cold-snap-by-lindy-ryan/
Nov 08 2024
A Christmas Ghost Story by Kim Newman
I don’t know if this is the perfect complement or counterprogramming to my eldest child and I watching and really enjoying Agatha All Along together. Probably a little of both — tho my kid will likely have little interest in this book, alas. That might be for the best tho, as it’s A Chilling Tale …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/11/08/a-christmas-ghost-story-by-kim-newman/
Oct 24 2024
Bloom by Delilah S. Dawson
Oh my God, this was incredible and terrifying all at once. Spicy, sweet and hardcore revolting, this sapphic horror novella breathes new life into the trope of obsessive love as a lonely young woman falls hard for a mysterious figure she meets at the fair. Ro’s recovery from being betrayed by her ex-boyfriend, and the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/10/24/bloom-by-delilah-s-dawson/
Sep 21 2024
Das Konzert by Hartmut Lange
Everybody who’s anybody among Berlin’s dead craves an invitation to Frau Altenshul’s salon. She has devoted her afterlife — much as she had devoted her life — to beauty, whether that was beautiful music, beautiful art, or the simple beauty of conversation among like-minded people. Max Liebermann was a painter who had lived a long life, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/09/21/das-konzert-by-hartmut-lange/
Sep 13 2024
Out Of The Drowning Deep by A.C. Wise
“Ooh, more please!” were my exact thoughts on finishing this remarkably dense and deliciously chewy novella. Many years into the future, the gods will reveal themselves on a planet called Bastion, upending faith and religion as humanity knows it forever. Gods are real and angels are real and demons are real, just perhaps not in …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/09/13/out-of-the-drowning-deep-by-a-c-wise/
Sep 11 2024
Haunt Sweet Home by Sarah Pinsker
I wonder why this was published by sff stalwart tordotcom instead of by its horror imprint, Nightfire, as the also creepy (and just as speculative, if not more so) Crypt Of The Moon Spider was. Regardless, I’m so glad that this novella has been released as a standalone book, perfect as a quick-ish read as …
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Sep 03 2024
Crypt Of The Moon Spider by Nathan Ballingrud
This novella is the first of a trilogy and I have Thoughts about that. As a reader, I love that there’s more of this story to be had, even as it’s satisfyingly complete as is. As a reviewer, I love that we’re bringing the novella back: I’m tired of slogging through 300+ page books that …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/09/03/crypt-of-the-moon-spider-by-nathan-ballingrud/
Aug 04 2024
The Last Dragoners of Bowbazar by Indra Das
Like many children who grow up in peculiar families, Ru does not realize just how peculiar his home life is. As he gets bigger, he starts asking questions. Who am I? Who are we? Where do we come from? The second two are particularly important in in Bowbazar, the Calcutta (the spelling that Das uses …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/08/04/the-last-dragoners-of-bowbazar-by-indra-das/
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