So I was trying to explain to a friend why I think this book is important for the generation of YA readers who may encounter it, thinking, much like Gilded Cage’s Abi does (and I did, tbh, when I first picked it up,) that it’ll be a romantic Upstairs/Downstairs sort of novel with magical powers, …
Tag: Dystopia
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2017/02/11/gilded-cage-dark-gifts-1-by-vic-james/
Jan 31 2017
Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel
Ugh, I’m so fucking tired of “literary” writers slumming it in genre fiction. Authors, if you’re going to attempt dystopian fiction or science fiction or fantasy, understand: the most important thing is the world-building. You HAVE to build a convincing setting that makes sense and works according to a) rules of internal logic, and b) …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2017/01/31/station-eleven-by-emily-st-john-mandel/
Dec 24 2016
Fables: Werewolves Of The Heartland (Fables #17) by Bill Willingham et al
Not a great jumping on point for new readers, no matter what the press may say. I enjoyed it as a bit of filler story for Bigby on the road, and it answers a few questions raised by his time fighting in WWII, but I didn’t feel it was an essential part of the Fables …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2016/12/24/fables-werewolves-of-the-heartland-fables-17-by-bill-willingham-et-al/
Oct 01 2016
The Girl With All The Gifts by M. R. Carey
This is another one of those books where I saw that a movie was coming out, and the trailer looked good enough that I felt I ought to read the book before I was inadvertently spoiled as to what happens. And then I was puzzled to discover that M. R. Carey is the pseudonym of …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2016/10/01/the-girl-with-all-the-gifts-by-m-r-carey/
Mar 08 2016
The Beautiful Beaureaucrat by Helen Phillips
You’d think a book this slim wouldn’t be so hard to properly review. There were things I really, really liked about it, primary among them being the all too realistic depiction of frustration and desperation at joblessness and alienation in a city that should be providing opportunities but is, instead, serving primarily as an exhausting …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2016/03/08/the-beautiful-beaureaucrat-by-helen-phillips/
Apr 26 2015
Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
As probably one of the slowest readers in this group, I, perhaps, shouldn’t have chosen a book that was almost 600 pages long. With the heavy academic reading I do for work, and the last two books I read being emotionally hard and challenging, I just wanted something fun to read. Mistborn filled that role …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/04/26/mistborn-the-final-empire-by-brandon-sanderson/
Mar 10 2015
Material Girls by Elaine Dimopoulos
I would likely have considered this YA novel just a smidge above average, if not for that thoughtful, bittersweet ending. I thought it was entertaining overall, but at times it felt a little too self-consciously political. The Hunger Games trilogy trod that line (mostly) successfully when dealing with its anti-war and anti-propaganda narratives in books …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/03/10/material-girls-by-elaine-dimopoulos/