Category: Urban Fantasy

Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford

Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford

What would Jazz Age America be like if it had a large and powerful Native American state in the Midwest, with its capital a thriving city called Cahokia, descendant of the largest Indigenous settlement north of Mexico? In 1922, the great Mound is still the symbolic center of the city, as it has been for …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/03/03/cahokia-jazz-by-francis-spufford/

The Wandering Hour by Zack Loran Clark & Nick Eliopulos

I genuinely did not expect this first installment of the new middle grade horror series The Doomsday Archives to be quite as accomplished as it is but dang, what an impressive series debut! New Rotterdam is one of those creepy coastal New England towns that definitely inspired H. P. Lovecraft’s Innsmouth (OH! I wonder if …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/02/08/the-wandering-hour-by-zack-loran-clark-nick-eliopulos/

You Wish by Jeff Victor

I somehow managed to persuade my 13 year-old to read this with me, and we were both incredibly delighted by this sweet, spunky tale of a young girl living in the middle of nowhere who discovers that magic really does exist in her life. Ten year-old tomboy Avery helps her father run a gas station …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/01/22/you-wish-by-jeff-victor/

The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch

The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch

Peter Grant, one of two official wizards of the London police force, owes his life to Lady Tyburn, one of the genius loci of the city’s numerous rivers. So when she wakes him with a pre-dawn phone call to say that one of her daughter’s friends has had an accident — the “fatal” is unstated …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/12/29/the-hanging-tree-by-ben-aaronovitch/

Confetti Realms by Nadia Shammas, Karnessa, Hackto Oshiro & Micah Meyers

This somehow slipped through the cracks for me at Halloween, but it’s a really tremendous read for the end of the year — or any time of year if you’re struggling with your emotions, and especially if you’re LGBTQ+, teenager or otherwise. Confetti Realms starts in a diner on Halloween, with three high-school-age friends making …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/12/12/confetti-realms-by-nadia-shammas-karnessa-hackto-oshiro-micah-meyers/

Uncanny Vows (Huntsmen #2) by Laura Anne Gilman

Six months after the events chronicled in the debut novel of this series, siblings Rosemary and Aaron Harker are living on tenterhooks, wondering whether the omissions in their last report have been discovered and whether they’re being sidelined from their life’s work as Huntsmen as a result. Their latest assignment from the Circle doesn’t seem …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/11/30/uncanny-vows-huntsmen-2-by-laura-anne-gilman/

Explosive Chemistry by Paige E Ewing (EXCERPT)

Hi readers! As we head into the holiday weekend, check out this excerpt from a freshly published work of speculative fiction. Explosive Chemistry is an urban fantasy, paranormal slow-burn romance set 30 years into a hopeful future where fossil fuels are obsolete. Liliana, a reluctant spider-kin fortune teller, is faced with the task of solving …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/11/22/explosive-chemistry-by-paige-e-ewing-excerpt/

The Portable Door by Tom Holt

The Portable Door by Tom Holt

I hope The Portable Door is a cracking good movie — it’s an Australian feature released in early 2023 — because the premise is terrific. Young graduate Paul Carpenter lands a job at the venerable London firm of J.W. Wells & Co., though even after the job interview he’s not entirely clear what it is that …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/11/11/the-portable-door-by-tom-holt/

Two Graves, Vol. 1: Wish You Were Here by Genevieve Valentine, Ming Doyle & Annie Wu

Hunh, I didn’t even realize this was a volume one until I went to catalog it on my Goodreads. So this is a weird one for me. Sometimes, after reading a book, I’ll go check out other reviewers’ opinions on the afore-mentioned Goodreads because I feel like I should maybe be having a different reaction …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/10/30/two-graves-vol-1-wish-you-were-here-by-genevieve-valentine-ming-doyle-annie-wu/

What Abigail Did That Summer by Ben Aaronovitch

What Abigail Did That Summer by Ben Aaronovitch

All three Rivers of London novellas that have been published to date — The Furthest Station, The October Man, and now What Abigail Did That Summer — have left me wanting more, which is a fine recommendation for books that are meant as light, if occasionally spooky, entertainment. The stories all take place in and …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/10/29/what-abigail-did-that-summer-by-ben-aaronovitch/