Sep 20 2025
The Tomb of Dragons is that rare third book of a trilogy that makes me view the first two books very differently. All three of the “Cemeteries of Amalo” share a world and time with Addison’s classic, The Goblin Emperor. The first-person narrator of the trilogy is Thara Celehar, a cleric of Ulis and a …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/09/20/the-tomb-of-dragons-by-katherine-addison/
Sep 14 2025
Peter Grant and Beverly Brook have survived the first two years as parents of twins, and unsurprisingly they are in need of a vacation. Peter’s family being what it is, and his job being what it is, the trip up to Scotland more closely resembled a circus caravan than a cozy family outing. To be …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/09/14/stone-sky-by-ben-aaronovitch/
Aug 10 2025
I’ve read that The Innkeeper’s Song is Peter S. Beagle’s favorite among his novels, and I think I can understand why. He writes the novel from no less than ten points of view — including a shapeshifting fox — allowing him to show events from numerous different perspectives, to show how the same actions have …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/08/10/two-short-takes/
Aug 07 2025
This graphic novel took Emil Ferris something like seven years to write and draw, and it was honestly worth every minute. My only quibble with it is the idea that it somehow serves as a conclusion. Sure, it solves the murder, presented in the first volume, of who killed Anka. But the emotions are still …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/08/07/my-favorite-thing-is-monsters-vol-2-by-emil-ferris/
Jun 24 2025
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 …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/06/24/the-confessional-by-paige-hender/
May 30 2025
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 …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/05/30/cousins-in-the-time-of-magic-by-emma-otheguy/
Apr 22 2025
with Clayton Cowles and Rian Hughes on letters and design. Am I getting jaded? I love mythologies and the ways that comic books spin up brand new gods and pantheons and legends and dramas, but reading this book — that feels very much like a cross between Kieron Gillen’s prior The Wicked + The Divine …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/04/22/the-power-fantasy-volume-1-the-superpowers-by-kieron-gillen-caspar-wijngaard/
Feb 22 2025
Since Rivers of London was first published in 2011, the series has grown to nine novels, five novellas, and 12 graphic novels. Along the way, Aaronovitch wrote a fair number of shorter stories that were set in the world of the series; sometimes he was asked to write them, as when Waterstone’s published special editions …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/22/tales-from-the-folly-by-ben-aaronovitch/
Jan 09 2025
I usually read a Bad Machinery book each Christmas, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it this past year. Book 10 is the very last book of the series, and I was not in the correct frame of mind to face the end of the stories featuring my favorite teen mystery solvers, not …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/01/09/the-case-of-the-severed-alliance-bad-machinery-10-by-john-allison/
Dec 28 2024
I have more than a sneaking suspicion that Ben Aaronovitch wrote Amongst Our Weapons to deliver one particular joke. People who recognize the source of the book’s title will expect that some variation on the joke is coming, but they will have to wait until page 287. Nightingale delivers the setup in Latin, though he …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/12/28/three-in-the-rivers-of-london-series-by-ben-aaronovitch/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
Emily Lauer
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire