Jun 13 2026
This year’s list of Hugo Award finalists in the category of Best Graphic Story of Comic is unusual in that for the first time since 2016 neither Saga nor Monstress is among them. The balance between one-offs and continuing characters/series is a little more usual, with three volumes from each. The ongoing series are a …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/13/hugo-awards-2026-best-graphic-story-or-comic/
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 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/
May 30 2026
I should have caught on much faster than I did that this novella is a retelling of Cinderella. I mean, “Cinder” is right there in the title, and the story’s very first word is “Ella,” as in “Ella’s father died of the poison in their tea.” Ella drank less tea and might have survived, except …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/05/30/cinder-house-by-freya-marske/
May 18 2026
Here at The Frumious Consortium, we are always excited to scrutinize the list of Hugo Finalists! Doug: I’ve read one of the Best Novel finalists! And one in Novella! And I think I tried to read one in Best Short Story. I’ve forgotten whether I bounced or just suffered tab overload and closed that one …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/05/18/hugo-awards-2026-chat/
May 16 2026
Here are some of the good bits from the new Murderbot novel, Platform Decay. I’m leaving out context, so I hope no big plot points are revealed. I looked at Farai, and she said, “They’re looking for rogue SecUnits. Rogue SecUnits are always alone.” Well, fuck. I hate it when the humans are right. I …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/05/16/platform-decay-by-martha-wells/
May 09 2026
At the end of January, I wrote that I was not sure I was going to finish Ehen in Philippsburg (Marriages in Philippsburg). It’s not that the book was bad, as such, it’s just that more than six months had elapsed since I had started reading, and that was a good indicator that the novel …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/05/09/ehen-in-philippsburg-by-martin-walser/
Apr 26 2026
In the world of the White Rat, the gods call clergy and paladins to their service. Clergy are straightforward enough; they minister to the faithful, they administer the affairs of people and property affiliated with the deity, they perform the necessary rites, and so forth. Paladins are holy warriors for their faith; filled with the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/04/26/paladins-strength-by-t-kingfisher/
Apr 25 2026
Come for the opening heist in a magician’s home, stay for the burgeoning civil war and Martha Wells’ willingness to keep changing the story. The Element of Fire was her first novel, originally published in 1993. (The current edition was revised in 2022, though her author’s note does not say anything about the extent of …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/04/25/the-element-of-fire-by-martha-wells/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
Emily Lauer
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire