Sep 14 2024
As the fortieth anniversary of its publication approaches, I suppose it’s fair to call Shards of Honor an old-fashioned space opera, although the series it kicked off is open-ended and its most recent work appeared just six years ago. Somehow I missed the Vorkosigan saga when it was becoming a big thing in science fiction …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/09/14/shards-of-honor-by-lois-mcmaster-bujold/
Sep 13 2024
“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 03 2024
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 20 2024
with art by ChrisCross and Loyiso Mkize, and colors by Andrew Dalhouse. Imagine waking up in the middle of a video game, and not a fun one with multiple save points and animal friends either. Okay, so there are animal companions to be found in the titular Tower where the game takes place, but our …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/08/20/tower-vol-1-by-camrus-johnson-kelsey-barnhart/
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/08/11/hugo-awards-2024-best-novelette/
Aug 02 2024
I should have read the description of The Language of the Night more closely because when it arrived I was a little irritated to discover that it’s a collection of essays mostly from the early and mid-1970s, with some footnoted and additional remarks that Le Guin added to a new edition of the book in …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/08/02/the-language-of-the-night-by-ursula-k-le-guin/
Jul 27 2024
This is the fifth year that I have been a reader and a voter for the Hugo Award, a practice I began when I fulfilled a long-time dream and attended a World Science Fiction Convention. Finances and geography, among other things, have conspired to keep me away in the years since, but maybe I will …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/07/27/hugo-awards-2024-general-and-some-novellas/
Jul 19 2024
On the plus side, with this I’ve finally read all the nominees for Best Novella for the 2024 Hugos! That said, what a strange set of entries for this year. As Doug has opined elsewhere, this was not a good year for the category Jo Walton considers an excellent barometer of the speculative fiction zeitgeist. …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/07/19/the-mimicking-of-known-successes-by-malka-older/
Jul 17 2024
translated into English by Alex Woodward. I guess I should start by attempting to summarize this story, but it’s just so weirdly — if not outright poorly — written (or perhaps translated? I’m sorry for throwing you under the bus here Mr Woodward but this story was just so bafflingly not good) that I don’t …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/07/17/life-does-not-allow-us-to-meet-by-he-xi/
Jul 16 2024
a graphic adaptation of Liu Cixin’s bestselling sci-fi novel of the same name, which I adored. This, tho… I very much did not love this. A large part of the problem with this adaptation of The Three-Body Problem is the fact that it strips out much of Mr Liu’s writing save the dialog, which was …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/07/16/the-three-body-problem-part-one-by-cai-jin-ge-wendi-bo-mu-caojijiuridong/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire