Jun 10 2026
Here in the northern hemisphere, as temperatures get hotter and hotter, and vacations get (hopefully) more and more imminent, don’t we all just want to relax with a cold beverage and a book in which people die at the hand of another? It can’t just be me. Luckily, publishers know we want this, and there …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/10/murder-summer/
Jun 09 2026
Getting a much earlier start with this year’s slate of Hugo nominees than I did last year’s, go me! And, as with last year’s short story slate, my favorite comes from Isabel J Kim, with her diabolical Wire Mother. Perhaps diabolical isn’t the best description, but after reading the bland obviousness of most of the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/09/hugo-awards-2026-best-short-story-nominees/
Jun 08 2026
translated from the original Swedish by Marlaine Delargy. I’m going to be so for real here and admit that the main reason I picked up this book off my TBR pile was because it’s Swedish like my beloved Viktor Gyokeres. When you’ve come out of Etsy Witch retirement to support a guy, it’s hard not …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/08/mount-verity-by-therese-bohman/
Jun 07 2026
The 2026 Hugo Award for Best Related Work — which isn’t called the Hugo Award for Everything Else but at this stage in its evolution maybe should be — hews closer to its bookish roots this time around. Four of six finalists are books, or at least very book-like, with a podcast and a spreadsheet rounding …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/07/hugo-awards-2026-best-related-work/
Jun 06 2026
A detective on a generation starship is an interesting premise. Olivia Waite has taken the venerable concept of a slower-than-light spaceship, the Fairweather, taking humans to another star system and given it several new aspects. She has moved the launch date into a medium-distant future. The people on the ship are not desperate refugees fleeing …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/06/murder-by-memory-by-olivia-waite/
Jun 05 2026
Happy June, everybody! The English Premier league season is over and the World Cup is right around the corner, with plenty of other things to celebrate in a world grown increasingly malevolent for people just trying to live our lives (in other words, Happy Pride!) In keeping with that thought, we have our first selection …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/05/tantalizing-tales-june-2026-part-one/
Jun 04 2026
First of all, best wishes to the author, who has hopefully overcome the bout of ill health that affected the completion of this fabulous book! I’m a huge fan of non-fiction for children, as it’s often the most elegant and efficient way of communicating a factual subject. Authors in this field, and especially the more …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/04/notre-dame-the-worlds-cathedral-by-lynn-curlee/
Jun 03 2026
Deeeeeep siiiiiiigh. I know I touted this as the seminal guide to understanding the Arsenal fan — as that’s how it’s long been sold to me — but after actually reading the book, I unhesitatingly recant my endorsement. This was the most excruciating nonsense I’ve read in a long time. And here’s the thing, as …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/03/fever-pitch-by-nick-hornby/
Jun 02 2026
Hello, dear readers! In conjunction with her birthday yesterday, today we have an immersive excerpt from a Young Adult novel featuring the ghost of Marilyn Monroe herself! From the publicity materials: “High school senior Lexa Donovan longs to be more than a bit player in her own drab life—and when she’s chosen to be part …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/02/channeling-marilyn-by-mima-tipper-excerpt/
Jun 01 2026
Plucky robots pluck up their pluck and, having stymied the dastardly review bombers, stay right the pluck where they are. This story was not for me. +++ Doreen liked Automatic Noodle more than I did; her review is here. This was the sixth of the Hugo finalists for Best Novella that I read, and the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/01/automatic-noodle-by-annalee-newitz-2/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
Emily Lauer
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire