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 …
Category: Review
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/30/blood-of-elves-by-andrzej-sapkowski/
Dec 23 2014
Poland: A History by Adam Zamoyski
Adam Zamoyski began Poland: A History as an update and revision to his 1987 book, The Polish Way. He found that history had gotten in the way, and that just revising the older work would not be enough. In the early modern period, the Poles failed spectacularly to build an efficient centralised state structure and …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/23/poland-a-history-by-adam-zamoyski/
Dec 23 2014
Alias: Grace by Margaret Atwood
In the interest of disclosure, I have to say that I have never read a Margaret Atwood book that I didn’t like. There were some that disturbed me, made me think, made me wish such things didn’t exist to be written about, but I have always been glad for the experience. Part of her charm …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/23/alias-grace-by-margaret-atwood/
Dec 22 2014
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 …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/22/nightmare-ink-and-bound-by-ink-by-marcella-burnard/
Dec 22 2014
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 …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/22/the-hienama-student-of-kyme-and-the-moonshawl-a-trilogy-by-storm-constantine/
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/22/carniepunk-daughter-of-the-midway-the-mermaid-and-the-open-lonely-sea-by-seanan-mcguire/
Dec 18 2014
Oryx and Crake – Margaret Atwood
Let’s face it, Oryx and Crake is not a book you’d read for the plot. I mean, it’s there, vaguely. Mankind wiped from the world, a new species there to take its place. It is a story of what leads up to the end of man, and what it means to be alive afterwards. …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/18/oryx-and-crake-margaret-atwood/
Dec 18 2014
Odessa by Charles King
What I liked most about Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of Dreams is how clearly Charles King tells the early stories of Odessa’s founding. For while there had been a small settlement at the site under khans and Ottomans, none of the extant written records gives an unambiguous account of long-term settlement [at …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/18/odessa-by-charles-king/
Dec 16 2014
The Days of Anna Madrigal by Armistead Maupin
In this ninth Tales of the City novel, The Days of Anna Madrigal, Armistead Maupin is content to show his characters being themselves. That’s no mean feat, for it requires creating characters who are both believable and interesting in themselves, and sustaining it over one or several books. Many authors do not appear to have …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/16/the-days-of-anna-madrigal-by-armistead-maupin/
Dec 15 2014
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 …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/15/the-house-of-hades-by-rick-riordan/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
Emily Lauer
John Pitzel
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Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire