Category: Fantasy

A Year of Diana Wynne Jones: The late 2000s!

Emily's photo of her bookcase shows her copies of all the Diana Wynne Jones books to be read in the readthrough. Many are tattered.

This month I reached the end of Diana Wynne Jones’s life in my year of reading all the books by Diana Wynne Jones! I read The Game, House of Many Ways, and Enchanted Glass. That’s one final book in Howl’s universe and two stand alones – three extremely strong books. The Game (2007) In The …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/07/03/a-year-of-diana-wynne-jones-the-late-2000s/

Arthur by Giles Kristian (EXCERPT)

Hello, dear readers! We have an excerpt from a retelling of a tale out of legend for you today, a surefire treat for fans of Ancient Briton. As the third book of Giles Kristian’s Arthurian Tales begins, the Saxons are now the lords of Britain. Yet the bards still sing of Arthur: In our darkest …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/07/02/arthur-by-giles-kristian-excerpt/

The Confessional by Paige Hender

I’m becoming a curmudgeon as I age, but I really do wish this book had explicitly stated at the outset that it’s set in New Orleans. I no longer have time to read blurbs or back matter, so when I realized partway through that this was set in historical America and not fantasy Europe, all …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/06/24/the-confessional-by-paige-hender/

Redcoat, Volume 1: Einstein & The Immortal by Geoff Johns & Bryan Hitch

With a tagline like “Immortal. Mercenary. Kind of a tool” this is the kind of book that is usually pure catnip to me. Tho I have to admit that by the fourth or fifth issue opener of “My name is Simon. Simon Pure. Though I’m anything BUT”, I was ready to cheerfully strangle someone, character, …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/06/09/redcoat-volume-1-einstein-the-immortal-by-geoff-johns-bryan-hitch/

A Year of Diana Wynne Jones: the mid 2000s!

Emily's photo of her bookcase shows her copies of all the Diana Wynne Jones books to be read in the readthrough. Many are tattered.

In my quest to read all of Diana Wynne Jones’s books in one year, this month I read The Merlin Conspiracy, Conrad’s Fate, and The Pinhoe Egg! We have now entered the era of Diana Wynne Jones books I read one time when they came out, and generally have not read since. It is an …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/06/03/a-year-of-diana-wynne-jones-the-mid-2000s/

Cousins In The Time Of Magic by Emma Otheguy

with delightful illustrations by Poly Bernatene. Bear with me while I tell you an anecdote here. I used to work in some decently nice restaurants, and at one of them had a manager of Mexican descent who loathed Cinco de Mayo. According to him, it’s a holiday made up by American beer companies that no …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/05/30/cousins-in-the-time-of-magic-by-emma-otheguy/

The Crimson Road by A G Slatter

Despite having one of my least favorite shared universe names, A G Slatter’s dark fantasy novels are one of my few can’t-miss series! And nowhere was I happier to have read almost all of the books in it than here in this latest installment, The Crimson Road. As the novel opens, heiress Violet Zennor is …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/05/14/the-crimson-road-by-a-g-slatter/

A Year of Diana Wynne Jones: The New Millennium!

Emily's photo of her bookcase shows her copies of all the Diana Wynne Jones books to be read in the readthrough. Many are tattered.

In my quest to read all of Diana Wynne Jones’s books in one year, this month I read Believing is Seeing, Year of the Griffin, Mixed Magics, and Unexpected Magic! That’s three collections of short stories and the sequel  to my deeply beloved Dark Lord of Derkholm. Believing is Seeing (1999) This is a story …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/05/09/a-year-of-diana-wynne-jones-the-new-millennium/

Three Thieves, Vol. 1: Tower of Treasure by Scott Chantler

What a terrific way to kick off a Middle Grade fantasy adventure comic series! Dessa Redd is a circus acrobat whose two closest friends are likely her co-workers: the juggler (and thief) Topper and the one-headed giant and strongman Fisk. Their circus isn’t super successful, barely scraping by with enough for all the hands to …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/04/28/three-thieves-vol-1-tower-of-treasure-by-scott-chantler/

Speculative Mysteries to Get Excited About

the cover of the executioners three by Susan Dennard shows birds flying against autumn leaves on a stylized moonlit night

As I’ve mentioned before, I love speculative mysteries! In the next few months, we can look forward to murders among scholars on far-future Jupiter, at a magical boarding school in England, and revolving around a small town high school rivalry in the U.S.A., all being published by Tor. If “dark academia” is the zeitgeist, these …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/04/23/speculative-mysteries-to-get-excited-about/