January 2026 archive

Ghost Town by James R Gregory (EXCERPT)

Hello, readers! Today we have a charming excerpt for you from a historical novel. While James R Gregory’s Ghost Town is billed as a psychological thriller, at its heart, it’s a story about leadership, love and connection, as ambition clashes with isolation to potentially devastating result. In the late 1800s, the small town of Sulphur …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/13/ghost-town-by-james-r-gregory-excerpt/

Trans History by Alex L Combs & Andrew Eakett

subtitled From Ancient Times To The Present Day. Because no, being trans is not a new thing, and it’s important that we not pretend that it is. Y’all, I’m tired. Twelve days into the new year and I’m at the point where I can never know what new horrors to expect from this administration and …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/12/trans-history-by-alex-l-combs-andrew-eakett/

Tantalizing Tales — January 2026 — Part Two

Hello, dear reader! This week, we’re featuring one upcoming book and five backlist titles, beginning with a collaboration involving one of my favorite authors of contemporary speculative fiction. Rob Hart teams up with Jeff Rake for Detour, a high stakes sci-fi thriller with a Planet Of The Apes-like twist. It’s all in a day’s work …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/09/tantalizing-tales-january-2026-part-two/

City Of All Seasons by Oliver K Langmead & Aliya Whiteley

Jamie lives in a city of perpetual winter. Snow and ice blanket the island of Fairharbour, where he survives by scavenging for materials that he can use to make pretty trinkets he can subsequently trade for food and fuel. But when he puts together a kaleidoscope and tests it out, he catches an impossible glimpse …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/08/city-of-all-seasons-by-oliver-k-langmead-aliya-whiteley/

Steeple, Volumes 1, 2 & 3 by John Allison

For quite a long time there, I’d treat myself every Christmas by reading a new volume of John Allison’s Bad Machinery while the kids played with their new toys. I eventually ran out of volumes (there are only ten, after all) so decided to go ahead and read all three books of the Steeple series …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/07/steeple-volumes-1-2-3-by-john-allison/

Looking Back On 2025

Y’all, I read my Looking Back On 2024 column in preparation for writing this one and have never been more depressingly reminded of the French aphorism “Plus ce change, plus c’est la meme chose” or as we say in English “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Ofc, not everything has been …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/06/looking-back-on-2025/

Winnie-The-Pooh, 100th Anniversary Edition by A. A. Milne & Ernest H. Shepard

collecting both the original Winnie-the-Pooh short story collection as well as its follow-up, The House At Pooh Corner, in one delightfully velour-covered volume reminiscent of a particularly huggable (and decidedly yellow) stuffed animal friend. I did not, unfortunately, have a Winnie the Pooh childhood. I only really came to the property in my adolescence, after …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/05/winnie-the-pooh-100th-anniversary-edition-by-a-a-milne-ernest-h-shepard/

Taking Stock of 2025

2025 turned out to be a year of reading easily. I remember thinking at the end of 2024 that I was going to make sure I read for enjoyment at least as much as for satisfaction or a sense of accomplishment. My reading, especially in the first half of the year, reflected that desire. I …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/04/taking-stock-of-2025/

Tantalizing Tales — January 2026 — Part One

Happy New Year, readers! I hope you had a delightful celebration ringing in a year that is hopefully no worse than the last… tho given the state of the country I live in and the absolutely infuriating refusal of large swathes of it to take note of history’s lessons, who even knows any more. Apologies …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/02/tantalizing-tales-january-2026-part-one/