Category: Urban Fantasy

Initial Condition by Ian Domowitz (EXCERPT)

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 …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/27/initial-condition-by-ian-domowitz-excerpt/

The Bizarre Bazaar: Down A Dark Path by Daniel Nayeri & Lesley Vamos

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 …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/15/the-bizarre-bazaar-down-a-dark-path-by-daniel-nayeri-lesley-vamos/

Steeple, Volumes 1, 2 & 3 by John Allison

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 …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/07/steeple-volumes-1-2-3-by-john-allison/

How To Free A Jinn by Raidah Shah Idil (Guest Post)

Hello, readers! Today, I’m super thrilled to be able to bring you a guest post from debut author Raidah Shah Idil, whose middle grade novel How To Free A Jinn was only recently published this past November. Like myself, Pn Raidah is a member of the Malay diaspora. In her guest post, she talks about …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/12/05/how-to-free-a-jinn-by-raidah-shah-idil-guest-post/

Kill All Immortals, Vol 1 by Zack Kaplan, Fico Ossio, Thiago Rocha & Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

One of the closest comics in feel to a popular action movie, tho that’s not necessarily a compliment coming from me. Kill All Immortals Vol 1 has a very specifically cinematic, Christopher-Nolan-filming-in-the-semi-dark vibe, and if that’s your thing, then you’re going to love this graphic novel, too. The action starts with a cadre of Fortune …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/11/05/kill-all-immortals-vol-1-by-zack-kaplan-fico-ossio-thiago-rocha-hassan-otsmane-elhaou/

A World Worth Saving by Kyle Lukoff

I can understand why all this was crammed into one volume but I’m also kinda wishing that the copious amounts of personal growth A had to undergo here had been stretched out to at least two. Which, I know, is one of my most complimentary criticisms, that I liked something so much that I wish …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/11/04/a-world-worth-saving-by-kyle-lukoff/

The Betrayal by Heather Ogden (EXCERPT)

Hello, readers! Today we have a scene-setting excerpt for you from Heather Ogden’s debut Young Adult dystopian novel, The Betrayal. This first book of the The Lies We Fear series centers on Angelette Arabella, the seventeen year-old daughter of the most powerful man in Libertis, a megalopolis large enough to be considered a nation. From …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/10/07/the-betrayal-by-heather-ogden-excerpt/

Three from T. Kingfisher

Swordheart by T. Kingfisher

One of the things about living in a country where English is not the dominant language is that when books turn up at your local English-language bookstore, you snag them because there may not be another chance any time soon. (People will say that a quarter of the way through the twenty-first century, I am …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/10/04/three-from-t-kingfisher/

Don’t Sleep With The Dead by Nghi Vo

I didn’t super love the book for which this novella is a sequel. The Chosen And The Beautiful was Nghi Vo’s somewhat uneven, I felt, retelling of The Great Gatsby. But I do enjoy Ms Vo’s writing, as well as the novella form, so was happy to dive in here. Don’t Sleep With The Dead …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/10/01/dont-sleep-with-the-dead-by-nghi-vo/

Lizard Boy #2: The Most Perfect Summer Ever by Jonathan Hill

Readers who’ve already enjoyed Book 1 will likely warm up to this quicker than I did, but once I realized this wasn’t just escapist (sub)urban fantasy, I was all in! The Lizard Boy series revolves around the titular middle schooler, Tommy Tomkins, who fled with his mom and older sister Tiffany from the underground realm …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/09/29/lizard-boy-2-the-most-perfect-summer-ever-by-jonathan-hill/