Tag: Science Fiction

Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi

Like Doreen, I initially thought that Riot Baby was an imperative phrase, not a descriptive one. Instead of getting his characters to riot, Onyebuchi has them bide their time and keep absorbing the hits that life, in this particular instance life as working-class Black Americans, gives them. Those hits start early, and keep coming. Riot …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/11/28/riot-baby-by-tochi-onyebuchi-2/

Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi

Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi

I don’t remember the last time a novella, oh heck, any book, has been so strong and thoughtful before totally collapsing for me in the last two pages. “Riot Baby” is not a directive, as I’d mistakenly believed: it’s a nickname. Kev is born during the L.A. riots that blaze in the aftermath of the …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/11/19/riot-baby-by-tochi-onyebuchi/

E.X.O. – The Legend Of Wale Williams, Part One by Roye Okupe, Sunkanmi Akinboye & Raphael Kazeem

I have super enjoyed the other books in the YouNeek YouNiverse so far but this, I feel, is the best of them yet! Set in a near future Nigeria, Wale Williams is the son of a workaholic scientist, Dr Tunde Williams, whose absorption in his work leads to a tragedy that tears their family apart. …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/11/09/e-x-o-the-legend-of-wale-williams-part-one-by-roye-okupe-sunkanmi-akinboye-raphael-kazeem/

Octavia E Butler’s Parable Of The Sower: A Graphic Adaptation by Damian Duffy and John Jennings

I actually hadn’t read the original text of Parable Of The Sower before this, but I have read and loved Parable Of The Talents. I’ve also read and, in retrospect, disliked Kindred — I had good things to say about it at the time, but the way Sarah treated her ancestress feels more selfish and …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/11/03/octavia-e-butlers-parable-of-the-sower-a-graphic-adaptation-by-damian-duffy-and-john-jennings/

Invisible Kingdom Vol. 2: Edge Of Everything by G. Willow Wilson & Christian Ward

I sincerely love it when I jump into a series arc at the midpoint without any prior introduction, but end the book free of any nagging questions as to things that might have come to pass before. I feel like this is the hallmark of a good writer, and certainly not a trait every author …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/11/01/invisible-kingdom-vol-2-edge-of-everything-by-g-willow-wilson-christian-ward/

Premature Evaluation: Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, generally and more pronounceably known as Harrow the Ninth, is one weird chickadee. Even among advanced necromancers, a company not generally known for bland probity, Harrow stands out. Readers of this book’s predecessor, Gideon the Ninth, know it; anyone wandering in on this book as the starting point in the Locked Tomb series …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/10/30/premature-evaluation-harrow-the-ninth-by-tamsyn-muir/

Space Case (Moon Base Alpha #1) by Stuart Gibbs

My ten year-old brought this home from his school library and recommended I read it, too! Fortunately, he warned me that he hadn’t actually finished it when I handed it back to him, else I would have likely dropped some major spoilers, but I could tell him that it was a fun read with at …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/10/29/space-case-moon-base-alpha-1-by-stuart-gibbs/

Hugo Awards 2021: Best Novelette Nominees

There was an incredibly strong field in this category this year! I’m going to go ahead and review these from my least favorite to the one I hope will win, starting with Aliette de Bodard’s The Inaccessibility Of Heaven. In all honesty, her overuse of the em dash is a pet peeve of mine: it’s …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/10/28/hugo-awards-2021-best-novelette-nominees/

Stolen Earth by J. T. Nicholas

Firefly meets The Expanse is a really good way to describe this solar system-based space opera, as a ragtag crew of outlaws discover sinister secrets hidden from them by their political overlords. Living in SolComm, the solar system community that houses the refugees from a now uninhabitable Earth, is all Gray Lynch has ever known. …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/10/26/stolen-earth-by-j-t-nicholas/

Hugo Awards 2021: Best Short Story Nominees

There was a wealth of authors I very much enjoy reading in this slate, and new-to-me authors I was pleased to make acquaintance of! On reflection, I don’t feel that this year’s list was as good as last year’s, tho was still solidly entertaining. As with last year, I’ll go over each (mostly) alphabetically. A …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/10/21/hugo-awards-2021-best-short-story-nominees/