Sep 13 2026
“But life works in such a way that social progress and a better future can only be achieved if a certain number of people are willing to pay the price for their right to have their own beliefs. The more of them there are, the less everyone has to pay. And the day will come …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/09/13/patriot-by-alexei-navalny/
Aug 30 2026
As a relatively uninformed reader of The Odyssey — one trip through it unaccompanied while traveling across Central Europe in the mid-1990s; I don’t even remember which translation I read, only that I was mesmerized — I was happy to read all of Emily Wilson’s introductory material before embarking on the poem itself. What is known about …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/08/30/crossing-the-wine-dark-sea-by-emily-wilson/
Aug 22 2026
I picked up A Parish Chronicle because I had never read anything by Halldór Laxness, and this looked short enough to be a low-investment place to start. Mission accomplished, then, for the publisher Vintage Classics, who issued the book as part of their “Brief Encounters” series, which they flag as “Short books. Timeless stories.” Other …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/08/22/a-parish-chronicle-by-halldor-laxness/
Aug 15 2026
Like its predecessor The Element of Fire, The Death of the Necromancer begins with a heist. Wells gives the first line to Madeline, an actress and singer who is rising in the theatrical world of Ile-Rien’s capital city, Vienne. She is also tightly entwined with a leading figure in the city’s criminal underworld. “The most …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/08/15/the-death-of-the-necromancer/
Aug 02 2026
The Slow Horses series is ostensibly about the fuck-ups and cast-offs of British intelligence, gathered together in Slough House and given make-work designed to push them into resigning, while they hope for redemption and a chance to re-join the regular Service. Nevermind that that plan has never worked for anyone; each hopes to be the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/08/02/real-tigers-by-mick-herron/
Aug 01 2026
In contrast to Cinder House, The Summer War is not a classic fairy tale re-told in a more modern idiom but a re-working of fairytale elements, a new story told entirely in the register of a fairy tale. Thus the kingdom that is the setting for a bit more than half of the story is …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/08/01/the-summer-war-by-naomi-novik-2/
Jul 25 2026
At the beginning of In the Time of Five Pumpkins, Botswana is waiting for the rainy season to begin. The days are hot, the nights do not offer enough relief. People are on edge and prone to be short with each other. That tendency shows up in the novel’s first case, a husband who is …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/07/25/in-the-time-of-five-pumpkins-by-alexander-mccall-smith/
Jul 19 2026
A Long and Speaking Silence, the seventh in Nghi Vo‘s Singing Hills cycle, takes Cleric Chih back to one of their first assignments as a chronicler, a gatherer of stories. On their way to the riverside city of Luntien a moment of inattention led to their being relieved of their purse and stipend, so as …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/07/19/a-long-and-speaking-silence-by-nghi-vo/
Jul 18 2026
Having taken the first two volumes of his Transylvanian Trilogy to immerse readers in the sometimes glittering, sometimes earthy world of Hungarian aristocracy prior to the First World War, Milos Banffy brings his stories to their immutable end in They Were Divided. The concluding book was published in Hungarian in 1940, and there could hardly …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/07/18/they-were-divided-by-miklos-banffy/
Jul 12 2026
Among this year’s Hugo finalists in the four headline fiction categories — short story, novelette, novella and novel — no author has more than one nomination. I don’t think I have a particular view about this distribution. On the one hand, it’s neat when a writer has a banner year and gathers up two or even three …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/07/12/hugo-awards-2026-best-novelette-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