Jan 27 2026
Hello, dear readers! Today we have an excerpt from a centuries-spanning novel of science fantasy that will appeal to lovers of the esoteric and the technological. I’m gonna let the publicity materials for this latest book in a series speak for themselves, for fear of accidentally giving anything away with my own writing: “A twelfth …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/27/initial-condition-by-ian-domowitz-excerpt/
Jan 20 2026
The next few months are giving us a lot to look forward to, book-wise! Authors we already know and love are coming out with new works in new worlds, offering that delightful combination of known quality in form with exciting novelty in content. Nightshade and Oak by Molly O’Neill coming in February, Wolf Worm by …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/20/upcoming-speculative-fiction-by-beloved-authors/
Jan 15 2026
This is a positive review, I promise, I just need to get something (not necessarily negative) about the publishing industry off my chest first. The titling of kids’ series books, and especially kids’ graphic novels, continues to confuse me. Should we call it first by the series’ name and number as we do with most …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/15/the-bizarre-bazaar-down-a-dark-path-by-daniel-nayeri-lesley-vamos/
Jan 07 2026
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 …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/07/steeple-volumes-1-2-3-by-john-allison/
Dec 29 2025
As 2025 fades around us, Frumious Consortiumists Doreen, Doug and Emily are thinking about our reading plans for 2026! Whether we make official resolutions or not, we all have some definite goals. Emily: Okay, let’s chat new year! Do you make reading resolutions? Anything you’re planning or particularly looking forward to in 2026? Starting in …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/12/29/reading-resolutions-roundtable-2026-edition/
Dec 28 2025
In the two most recent Singing Hills books — The Brides of High Hill and A Mouthful of Dust — Nghi Vo takes her protagonist, the historian Cleric Chih, to much darker places than in the three previous books of this series that I have read. (Those are, in order, The Empress of Salt and Fortune, When …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/12/28/two-from-the-singing-hills-cycle-by-nghi-vo/
Dec 24 2025
Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge’s name was good upon ’Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/12/24/thats-dickens-with-a-c-and-a-k-the-well-known-english-author-5/
Dec 21 2025
I like seeing authors trying new things, and seeing Travis Baldree, who writes in a corner of fantasy that sometimes strikes me as authors and readers trying to connect over a menu of tags — “I’ll have a found-family, sapphic, friends-to-lovers tale with a side order of hidden magic, hold the prophecies and the Chosen One, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/12/21/two-short-reviews-for-december/
Dec 14 2025
Hemlock & Silver is T. Kingfisher’s latest novel, and the sixth of her works that I have read this year. I’ve already bought six more, and I have a list of which of works are being published or re-published in 2026, so I have a lot of Kingfisher to look forward to. I’m looking forward …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/12/14/hemlock-silver-by-t-kingfisher/
Dec 13 2025
The thing about The Incandescent by Emily Tesh as a novel about a magic boarding school in England is that it’s told from the adults’ point of view, adults who take their responsibilities seriously, and who have real lives that are separate from what is happening to the students. Boarding-school stories often assign the teachers …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/12/13/an-unrelated-pair-of-books-by-emily-tesh-and-lois-mcmaster-bujold/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
Emily Lauer
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire