June 2017 archive

Hugo Voting 2017

Hugo Award Logo

I’ve finished marking up my Hugo ballot for 2017, and I’m satisfied with where my votes have gone. That doesn’t mean I have finished reading everything that’s on the ballot — far from it — but I have done enough in each work that I am going to read to have a sense of how …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2017/06/29/hugo-voting-2017/

Celine: A Novel by Peter Heller

I always love an older female crime solver, and Celine is hopefully the first in a series featuring such a heroine, loosely based on the author’s mother, who was also a blue blood debutante turned private investigator, handling primarily cases of family reunion. Hired by a beautiful middle-aged woman to investigate the disappearance of her …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2017/06/22/celine-a-novel-by-peter-heller/

This Census-Taker by China Miéville

This Census-Taker, by China Miéville, did not add up for me. If it were not a Hugo finalist, if I had not read and liked close to half a dozen of his other works, I would have pronounced the Eight Deadly Words and set the book aside. Miéville is aiming for the mythic, but mythic …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2017/06/21/this-census-taker-by-china-mieville/

Golden Son (Red Rising #2) by Pierce Brown

In an alternate universe, I’m a professional fiction author and Pierce Brown and I have beautiful literary babies together. I mean, what greater compliment can I give this series? It’s smart and beautiful and moving. It examines the compromises of society, and the ethics of war and love, and does it all with a stunning …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2017/06/17/golden-son-red-rising-2-by-pierce-brown/

Postwar by Tony Judt

Two things stand out for me about Postwar, by Tony Judt. First, it is a stupendous historical synthesis that aims to tell a mostly political history of all of Europe — East and West, North and South — from 1945 through its publication in 2005. Second, I should have been writing reflections about it as I …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2017/06/16/postwar-by-tony-judt/

The Ottoman Endgame by Sean McMeekin

“So far from a sideshow to the First World War, the Ottoman theater was central to both the outbreak of European war in 1914 and the peace settlement that truly ended it.” (p. xviii) In The Ottoman Endgame, Sean McMeekin makes a strong argument that understanding the First World War without understanding the part of …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2017/06/16/the-ottoman-endgame-by-sean-mcmeekin/

The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett

The dwarfs of Uberwald will soon be crowning a new Low King, and Ankh-Morpork needs to send an ambassador. In times past, the powers-that-be in the great city of Ankh-Morpork might not have noticed such a change in under-Uberwald, and if they had noticed they would not have felt any need to be involved. But …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2017/06/15/the-fifth-elephant-by-terry-pratchett/

Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat!, Volume 2: Don’t Stop Me-Ow by by Kate Leth, Brittney Williams & Megan Wilson

I so very much loved Volume 1, and Volume 2 was looking to continue the adorable shenanigans, but then Civil War II happened, and I hate big crossover events because they wreck the overarching narrative flow of books like these. But also, since I was only first introduced to Patsy and She-Huik’s friendship via this …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2017/06/15/patsy-walker-a-k-a-hellcat-volume-2-dont-stop-me-ow-by-by-kate-leth-brittney-williams-megan-wilson/

Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat!, Vol 1: Hooked On A Feline by Kate Leth & Brittney Williams

Freaking adorable. It’s less superheroics than woman-with-superpowers-tries-to-deal-with-the-real-world and I loved it. It reminded me a lot of old Archie comics, from the slightly more cartoony art style to the all-ages humor and storyline. I loved that it leaned more towards the original Patsy Walker romance comics than to the almost gratuitously tortured iteration of the …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2017/06/08/patsy-walker-a-k-a-hellcat-vol-1-hooked-on-a-feline-by-kate-leth-brittney-williams/

Captain Marvel (Marvel NOW!) #1 by Kelly Sue DeConnick & David López

Maybe this book just suffers in comparison with the very excellent Ms Marvel that I’d also recently finished reading, but as a space opera, I felt it only really took off (if you’ll pardon the horrible pun) in the last two issues. Everything before that was mildly interesting but not compelling, though Rocket Raccoon’s reaction …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2017/06/08/captain-marvel-marvel-now-1-by-kelly-sue-deconnick-david-lopez/