And with this, I finish reading a very strong novella slate for this year’s Hugo Awards! I actually haven’t read any of the other books in the Sworn Soldier series, a deficit I should rectify but definitely don’t have the time to at present. The Sworn Soldier of the series’ name is Alex Easton, a …
Category: Novella
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/07/23/what-stalks-the-deep-by-t-kingfisher-2/
Jul 19 2026
A Long and Speaking Silence by Nghi Vo
A Long and Speaking Silence, the seventh in Nghi Vo‘s Singing Hills cycle, takes Cleric Chih back to one of their first assignments as a chronicler, a gatherer of stories. On their way to the riverside city of Luntien a moment of inattention led to their being relieved of their purse and stipend, so as …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/07/19/a-long-and-speaking-silence-by-nghi-vo/
Jul 15 2026
The Summer War by Naomi Novik
Ooh, Naomi Novik, you crafty little devil of a writer, you! I’m always so impressed when an author sets the reader up to intensely dislike a character, only for that same character to eventually and successfully capture our hearts later on. And I get it, there were a ton of mitigating factors for why our …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/07/15/the-summer-war-by-naomi-novik/
Jun 29 2026
The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar
accompanied in the volume I received by the short story Johnny Hollowback And The Witch, which I actually preferred. Which isn’t to say that the main novella here is at all bad! I very much preferred it to the last thing of hers I read, the wildly overrated This Is How You Lose The Time …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/29/the-river-has-roots-by-amal-el-mohtar/
Jun 24 2026
Cinder House by Freya Marske
Unlike Doug, I knew that this would be a variation on Cinderella from the very first page, steeped as I am in my love for all fairy tale and mythological retellings. But like him I was immediately hooked by the premise that Ella, our heroine, essentially shuffles off her mortal coil on that very same …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/24/cinder-house-by-freya-marske-2/
Jun 06 2026
Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite
A detective on a generation starship is an interesting premise. Olivia Waite has taken the venerable concept of a slower-than-light spaceship, the Fairweather, taking humans to another star system and given it several new aspects. She has moved the launch date into a medium-distant future. The people on the ship are not desperate refugees fleeing …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/06/murder-by-memory-by-olivia-waite/
Jun 01 2026
Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
Plucky robots pluck up their pluck and, having stymied the dastardly review bombers, stay right the pluck where they are. This story was not for me. +++ Doreen liked Automatic Noodle more than I did; her review is here. This was the sixth of the Hugo finalists for Best Novella that I read, and the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/01/automatic-noodle-by-annalee-newitz-2/
May 30 2026
Cinder House by Freya Marske
I should have caught on much faster than I did that this novella is a retelling of Cinderella. I mean, “Cinder” is right there in the title, and the story’s very first word is “Ella,” as in “Ella’s father died of the poison in their tea.” Ella drank less tea and might have survived, except …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/05/30/cinder-house-by-freya-marske/
May 26 2026
Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
I was feeling very intellectually chipper last week and decided to get a head start on some of my Hugo 2026 Awards reading, beginning with a nominated novella from a podcaster I adore. Automatic Noodle is the story of a restaurant’s robot employees in a California that has successfully seceded, at some cost, from the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/05/26/automatic-noodle-by-annalee-newitz/
Apr 21 2026
More Spring Speculative Fiction by Beloved Authors!
The Genie Game by Jordan Ifueko comes out today! It’s extremely exciting to have the start of a new middle grade series from this beloved author. Joining it this Spring, we also have The Somewhat Wicked Witch of Brigandale, a cozy new standalone from C.M. Waggoner, and A Long and Speaking Silence, a new installment in …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/04/21/more-spring-speculative-fiction-by-beloved-authors/
Contributors
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Al Singh
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Doug Merrill
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Doreen Sheridan
- Murder On Vacation by Rosie A Point & Charles Timmerman
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- The Invisible Parade by Leigh Bardugo & John Picacio
- Tantalizing Tales — July 2026 — Part Four
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Emily Lauer
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John Pitzel
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Lars N. Goldschlager
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L.M. Davenport
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Laura Eilers
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Professor X
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Robert Maedgen
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Sylvere Ap Leanan
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The Shire