Category: Science Fiction

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers

Oh no, this isn’t the last in the series, is it?! I mean, it’s not a bad way to end it, but there’s still so much more to explore of this amazing sci-fi universe. This installment tells us a bit more of the Rosk war, and further explores the cultures of the Quelin and Akarak …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/08/11/the-galaxy-and-the-ground-within-by-becky-chambers-2/

Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

As we sprint towards the deadline for Hugo voting and I, for the second year in a row, concede defeat over being able to read all the books in time, I wanted to make sure that I at least got to cover a book Doug was raving to me about (tho I see he hasn’t …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/08/09/light-from-uncommon-stars-by-ryka-aoki/

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers

The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers

Becky Chambers writes science fiction stories whose characters don’t necessarily save the world. If they’re fortunate, they save their own part of the world, and maybe make the overall shape of things a little bit better. I both like and respect that approach. I like it because if every story is about saving the whole …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/08/02/the-galaxy-and-the-ground-within-by-becky-chambers/

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Earth has a problem. But as Project Hail Mary begins, the protagonist and first-person narrator has no idea what the problem is. He knows a lot less than that, in fact. He doesn’t know where he is, doesn’t know how he got there, doesn’t even know his own name. Why is the room round? Why …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/07/31/project-hail-mary-by-andy-weir/

A Psalm For The Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

Ayfkm with this Eat, Pray, Love but make it sci-fi bullshit?! I saved the Becky Chambers novella for last on my Hugo nominations reading slate because I deeply love her full-length novels, even tho I was not a fan of her last novella, To Be Taught, If Fortunate. I found that effort too serious, too …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/07/27/a-psalm-for-the-wild-built-by-becky-chambers-2/

No Time Like the Past by Jodi Taylor

No Time Like the Past by Jodi Taylor

After tangling things forwards and backwards in A Trail Through Time, Jodi Taylor offers more straightforward adventures for the historians of St Mary’s in No Time Like the Past. Which is to say, there are calamities, dangers expected and otherwise, narrow escapes, and scuffles with university bureaucracy. I would say that Dr Madeleine Maxwell, first-person …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/07/16/no-time-like-the-past-by-jodi-taylor/

Count Zero by William Gibson

Count Zero by William Gibson, Ace paperback from 1987

How does Count Zero, William Gibson‘s second novel, hold up more than 35 years after its publication? That’s what I was thinking about, re-reading the book for the first time in at least a decade. At the end of Neuromancer, Gibson’s first, genre-defining novel, something happened to the AIs and the entirety of cyberspace, something …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/07/15/count-zero-by-william-gibson/

Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky

I think Doug liked this one a lot more than I did. Lynesse Fourth Daughter is a princess who still believes in the old chivalric tales of courage and oaths. When the lands adjoining her mother’s Lanessite Empire are overrun by what the refugees refer to as demons, she chafes at the prevailing wisdom that …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/07/06/elder-race-by-adrian-tchaikovsky-2/

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

Becky Chambers dedicates A Psalm for the Wild-Built to “anybody who could use a break,” and the novella is, on the whole, very restful. It’s not without conflict, but it is a break from the grim, from the horrible, and it shows people trying to be their best selves. That’s not easy, and one person’s …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/07/03/a-psalm-for-the-wild-built-by-becky-chambers/

Garden Of Earthly Bodies by Sally Oliver

I must say, the American title is much better than the painfully generic The Weight Of Loss this novel was saddled with across the pond. Garden Of Earthly Bodies at least hints at the speculative fiction plot contained within these pages. That plot is the story of Marianne, who is grieving the death of her …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/07/01/garden-of-earthly-bodies-by-sally-oliver/