Sep 06 2024

Tantalizing Tales — September 2024 — Part One

A surprisingly short round-up column to start off September, likely due to the fact that I think I actually have a better than decent shot at reading all the other books I’ve yet to talk about here!

First up, we have An Honorable Assassin by Steve Hamilton. This third book in the Nick Mason series finds our hero on a plane to Jakarta, promoted to lead assassin for a vast shadow organization that reaches every corner of the globe. This time, there’s only one name on his list: Hashim Baya — otherwise known as the Crocodile — international fugitive and #1 most wanted on Interpol’s Red Notice list. Baya is the most dangerous and elusive criminal Mason has ever faced.

Which makes it that much worse when, for the first time in his career, Mason fails his mission and Baya gets away alive.

There’s only one thing Mason can do now. To save himself, his ex-wife and his daughter, he must make this mission his life, hunting down the target on his own. But Mason isn’t alone in his search. For Interpol agent Martin Sauvage, apprehending Baya has become a personal vendetta. Sauvage is a man just as haunted as Mason is, and just as determined.

Never have the stakes been so high for Mason, or the forces surrounding him so great. Sauvage wants Baya in prison. Mason needs him in a body bag. Assassin and cop are on a five-thousand-mile collision course, leading to a brutal final showdown.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/09/06/tantalizing-tales-september-2024-part-one/

Sep 05 2024

Big Bear And Little Bear Go Fishing by Amy Hest & Erin Stead

This is going to sound a little random, but this is one of the best-smelling books I’ve read in years! I got it in the mail just the other day and it’s been sitting on my desk ever since, so I was pleased to finally be able to crack it open, then even more pleased to catch the fragrance of whatever heady concoction they’ve got going on between the pages and binding. It’s like the much cherished old book smell, only fresher (a verdict my eldest child also came to independently of my own!)

The contents, too, feel like classic children’s literature, but updated ever so slightly for modern readers. The story is of Big Bear and Little Bear, a father and son (or really any male duo in the roles of guardian and ward.) Big Bear wakes up one day in the mood to go fishing. Little Bear, ofc, proclaims the exact same, so off they go to prepare for a nice long day of trying to catch a fish. There are quite a few steps, including baking scones for the trip and packing their wagon, and then there is, ofc, a long time out on the water, before ending the day with a sweet, snuggly nap in a hammock.

The story is understated but powerful. I really appreciated how Big Bear and Little Bear made scones for their trip together, showing an admirable competence in the kitchen that underscores how cooking isn’t a primarily female task. Little Bear’s love for and idolization of Big Bear was also palpable throughout, as was Big Bear’s care for his little shadow. I also liked how catching a fish was clearly not the ultimate goal of the bears’ endeavors. Spending time together was the point, whether it be through cooking, reading or just enjoying the outdoors (or snoozing: one of my favorite pastimes, shared or otherwise.)

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/09/05/big-bear-and-little-bear-go-fishing-by-amy-hest-erin-stead/

Sep 04 2024

The Little Witch’s Oracle Deck by Ariel Kusby & Olga Baumert

subtitled Symbols, Spells, and Rituals for the Young Witch.

While I’ve tried to slow down in my acquisition of Tarot and Oracle decks (I mean, really, how many does a person actually need?)(and don’t ask me how many I have, I’ve stubbornly stopped counting,) I was so pleased when this oracle deck, aimed at young readers, landed on my desk. It is absolutely the kind of thing I would have thirsted for as a child learning about the occult and esoteric.

As an adult with an active interest in both mindfulness and spirituality, I wish I could go back in time and hand this deck to my younger self. While the cards and their accompanying guidebook do touch ever so lightly on the religious practice of witchcraft, as a whole it’s a kit for getting in touch with your subconscious and working on manifesting the ideals of kindness and growth in your everyday life through ritual, no matter what age you are.

The deck itself consists of 48 cards, with an invaluable 100+ page guidebook accompanying it. The deck is divided into 4 parts, with representations of Creatures, People, Tools and Places making up the loose categories. Each card is printed on sturdy stock, tho my deck did come slightly bowed, if that matters to you (it does not to me.) The presentation box comes with a sky-blue ribbon in the deck recess to help lift out the cards. The box itself is adorned with imagery from the deck, as well as with charming nature and geometric prints. Olga Baumert’s whimsical style here draws from folk art to perfectly match the gentle, thoughtful nature of the kit.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/09/04/the-little-witchs-oracle-deck-by-ariel-kusby-olga-baumert/

Sep 03 2024

Crypt Of The Moon Spider by Nathan Ballingrud

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 seem written to hit an imaginary value-for-money size instead of focusing on an actually interesting story devoid of bloat. But as someone who definitely used to worry about value for money when it came to buying books, part of me frets at not getting enough quantity with my quality. Would it have been better to get all three parts of the Lunar Gothic trilogy in one volume that combines economy with immediacy?

These are all issues that remind me of why I’ve never been interested in going into publishing. I don’t care about other people’s money. I have little enough of my own as it is to want to worry about others’. So, devoid of any concerns regarding format and marketing, I can safely say that this is an excellent story and that I’m glad that there’ll be more of it to be had in the very near future.

The story itself takes place in an alternate past, where the moon is not an arid rock but a satellite with a breathable atmosphere, complete with forests that speckle its surface. Some of these forests are still blanketed in the gossamer webs of the giant spider that once lived in the moon. The moon webs, are they’re called, have all sort of interesting properties, some of which have led to their use in the treatment of mental illness.

It’s because of this that Veronica Brinkley has been brought to the moon by her concerned husband. It’s 1923, and the Barrowfield Home For Treatment Of The Melancholy has gained a sterling reputation for restoring health and happiness to its (wealthy) patients. Dr Barrington Cull is at the cutting edge of neurosurgery, carving away all bad thoughts and memories from sufferers’ brains and replacing the excised matter with moon webs, which have the remarkable property of being able to both replace neural connections and foster the growth of more, in presumably healthier directions.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/09/03/crypt-of-the-moon-spider-by-nathan-ballingrud/

Aug 30 2024

The Sherlock Society by James Ponti

Does anyone write about smart, funny, quirky middle school kids as well as James Ponti does? I genuinely do not think so, especially when it comes to placing them in exciting, crime-solving adventures.

Mr Ponti’s latest series centers on siblings Alex and Zoe Sherlock, who are inspired by their last name to start a detective agency. It actually begins with Alex deciding to start a school club with his best friend Yadi, revolving around puzzles and mysteries. They’re joined by new girl Lina, and are enjoying an Escape Room party planned for them on the next-to-last day of school by the librarian when Zoe barges in. Alex tricks her into playing with them but she soon discovers that she actually likes puzzles. Almost as importantly, she thinks that she now has the perfect plan to monetize their skills over the summer.

Zoe desperately wants to make enough money to go to summer camp with her friends, so proposes starting a detective agency to the rest of the Sherlock Society. They’re enthused, and recruit the Sherlocks’ Grandpa to be their Director of Transportation and Logistics. Unfortunately for the budding agency’s plans, Alex and Zoe’s lawyer mom quickly shuts down the private investigation for hire part of their business as being unlicensed and far too dangerous. She relents, however, when it comes to investigating historical mysteries that may or may not come with hefty cash rewards.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/08/30/the-sherlock-society-by-james-ponti/

Aug 29 2024

Laozi’s Dao De Jing translated by Ken Liu

subtitled A New Interpretation for a Transformative Time.

I probably would never have picked up this book if it weren’t for the fact that Ken Liu is the translator. I have so many books and so little time, and reading about religion in my free time is not high on my list of priorities. However, I really enjoyed what he did with Liu Cixin’s The Three Body Problem, and while I haven’t had time to read his original speculative fiction yet, I very much want to. When I heard that he was tackling a classic of Chinese literature and philosophy, I absolutely had to take a look at the result.

I freely admit that I did not know much about the original Dao De Jing before starting this, so my reading of this book comes entirely from the perspective of a novice who is only mostly familiar with East Asian culture, having grown up in Southeast Asia myself (yes, there is a difference. Yes, I am better positioned to discuss the subject than the average Westerner. Yes, there is still so much I have to learn.) I also realized as I was reading this that I have no interest in critiquing the content of what’s basically a foundational text for a major world religion. While such commentary may occasionally creep into this review, I really only want to talk about the experience of reading Mr Liu’s interpretation, as well as the insight he gives to his own process of translation, in addition to the choices he makes to interject other anecdotes of Daoism into the text. For adequate compensation, I’d definitely take the considerable time I’d need to think out the parallels between my work as a reviewer navigating that challenge with the translator’s as a conduit for messages left by the great. Alas that this website is primarily a labor of love of the written word, and not something that (yet, I hope) pays a living wage.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/08/29/laozis-dao-de-jing-translated-by-ken-liu/

Aug 28 2024

Smalltown Tales by Iain McCaig

I am genuinely vexed that this is the first time that I, a pop culture maximalist, have ever heard of Iain McCaig. Ofc, as I was just discussing with another Learned League Llama yesterday, my mind dwells more on story than on details, but it still seems bizarre to me that this name has never stuck in my brain as being well worth noticing, the way so many other artists’ and storytellers’ have. Have I just never encountered him before, or at least not in a context where his name was ever given?

Regardless, I love how the back bio of this book describes Mr McCaig as someone who encourages people to draw and tell stories, because that is 100% what I felt like doing after finishing this book. Between this, Zoje Stage’s Dear Hanna and Tim Hutchings’ A Collection Of Improving Exercises, I am starting to want to get back into sketching again. My art has definitely fallen by the wayside this summer — and who has time! Not me! — but the gorgeous pencil and charcoal works in this book remind me of how much I enjoy drawing, even tho my art is nowhere near the level of this author’s.

Pencil and charcoal aren’t the only mediums he uses tho. Inks, pastels and watercolors are all applied to excellent effect here, along with other techniques that I couldn’t necessarily pinpoint. But whether drawing mermaids, aliens, dinosaurs or ghosts, all the work is phenomenal, with an uncanny eye for light, especially, that sets his work apart. Even his grotesque drawings are possessed of an uncanny beauty, the kind of majesty that compels the gaze and refuses to let you look away.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/08/28/smalltown-tales-by-iain-mccaig/

Aug 27 2024

Red Tundra by Mike Pohjola

a story for Werewolf: The Apocalypse. With illustrations by Krzysztof Bieniawski, Gabriel de Goes Figueiredo and Maichol Quinto.

Not only did I manage to snag a copy of this adventure on Free RPG Day 2024, I also had the good luck to have someone run it for me so I could get a better feel for the game! I’ve always loved the World Of Darkness titles, whether giggling over people’s Vampire: The Masquerade stories, getting to actually play in a Changeling: The Dreaming LARP, or watching the brilliant treatment of Mage: The Ascension by Mikaela Sims. It’s just so hard nowadays to find people who want to play anything but D&D. Yes, I know I was super spoiled in being able to play multiple systems twice weekly throughout my mid-twenties to -thirties. And scheduling games nowadays is hard enough without building a learning curve into the process. I just get a little wistful sometimes, wishing I could RP something that isn’t high fantasy, as much fun as that is with my usual gaming circles (and yes, I know I’m lucky in that I have more than zero of those!)

Which is all to say that when the one guy stepped up and offered to run this adventure for me and another forlorn soul at Game Kastle College Park on Free RPG Day, we were overjoyed. Neither of us players were familiar with the game itself but our Storyteller was well prepared, even bringing reusable character sheets then showing us how to use clear tape and whiteboard markers to make our own! While those sheets were copied directly from the Red Tundra booklet, he also had handy player aids on the basic mechanics of W:tA for us, that were super useful when we were making decisions over the course of the game. I’m not sure where he got them from, tho they did look pretty official. I couldn’t find anything like them on the publisher’s website, alas. Perhaps they came in a download packet specific to STs for the event? Regardless, I rather wish Red Tundra was available as a download from Renegade Game Studios too — for free or otherwise — as other publishers do with their Free RPG Day offerings.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/08/27/red-tundra-by-mike-pohjola/

Aug 26 2024

An Honest Woman: A Memoir Of Love And Sex Work by Charlotte Shane

Being a complicated woman who tries to deal with myself honestly, it wasn’t a surprise to me that a lot of what Charlotte Shane has to say in her memoir about sex work is stuff I’ve already thought about. Honestly, it’s stuff that most, if not all, thoughtful non-sex-worker-exclusionary feminists have grappled with too. At the heart of the issue, ofc, is the role of marriage in a patriarchal society, and how the concepts of sex and fidelity are deeply bound to it within those structures.

Ms Shane examines these concepts through the lens of her own time as a sex worker, and what led her to choose it as a profession. Unsurprisingly, there is a terrible father in her background. More intriguingly is the relatively good luck she’s had with men otherwise, from the boys she befriended and messed around with in high school, to the clientele she cultivated (or blocked when they behaved badly) as her career grew and changed from cam girl to exotic masseuse to escort.

Tho she’s undoubtedly undergone some unpleasant encounters with awful men, what’s most striking about her account is how the stories from her professional life mirror the love lives of modern women who don’t have purely transactional relationships with men. While she doesn’t congratulate herself on how she’s at least made money off of experiences that have left most women with, at best, bittersweet memories — she does an excellent job of evading anything even remotely close to smugness throughout, thank goodness — it’s impossible to read her book and not feel like women who aren’t sex workers too easily give away their time and care and emotions to men who just aren’t worth it.

At the heart of this injustice is the assumption that emotional labor is something that women should provide for the men in their lives regardless of what they receive in return. In her memoir, Ms Shane is clear-eyed about what she gets out of the company of the men she chooses to spend time with, before and after embarking on her career path. It’s honestly refreshing. Relationships should always have give and take, and even when both parties aren’t sure of what they really want, they should always strive to treat each other fairly, as the author and most of her men in this book do.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/08/26/an-honest-woman-a-memoir-of-love-and-sex-work-by-charlotte-shane/

Aug 23 2024

Tantalizing Tales — August 2024 — Part Two

We have a bumper issue for the second part of our monthly roundup this August, beginning with a book that I did get to read this month but didn’t feel quite merited an entire post of its own.

Yahgz Vol 2: The Gwash War by Art Baltazar of Tiny Titans and Itty Bitty Hellboy fame was another vivid, humorous installment of the children’s graphic novel series. A lot of stuff happens in it as our intrepid heroes traverse the planet, hoping to save the capital city from their mortal enemies. Even as some of them attempt to hold the vengeful Gwash at bay, the others seek out twin objects that could hold the secret to stopping the Gwash for good.

Despite the abundant plot, I felt that this installment felt far more like a bridge from the interesting first volume to whatever is planned for Book 3. Mr Baltazar’s art is kinetic, fun and cartoony, but so much is crammed into this book that none of it feels important as anything more than a means to an end. I’ll definitely be interested in seeing where he goes in the next volume: hopefully, it will have enough meaningful content for me to be able to devote an entire review to!

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/08/23/tantalizing-tales-august-2024-part-two/