Category: Review

Alias: Grace by Margaret Atwood

In the interest of disclosure, I have to say that I have never read a Margaret Atwood book that I didn’t like. There were some that disturbed me, made me think, made me wish such things didn’t exist to be written about, but I have always been glad for the experience. Part of her charm …

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Nightmare Ink and Bound by Ink by Marcella Burnard

I was hesitant about these books, to be honest. There’s so much urban fantasy out there and new ideas seem difficult to come up with, or doing the old ideas with a new twist. I’m glad that I read both books, however. Marcella Burnard has managed to take tattoos, demons, magic, and evil angels, and …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/22/nightmare-ink-and-bound-by-ink-by-marcella-burnard/

The Hienama, Student of Kyme, and The Moonshawl, a trilogy by Storm Constantine

Anyone who is familiar with Storm Constantine‘s Wraeththu Chronicles will enjoy these books. The first two are much shorter than the last, which was just released, but together they make a whole picture from three points of view, and tell a story that is more than just a story. These books delve deep not only …

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Carniepunk: Daughter of the Midway, the Mermaid, and the Open Lonely Sea by Seanan McGuire

This was a short story by Seanan McGuire that was part of the Carniepunk anthology released last year (2013). It is, like all of Seanan McGuire’s/Mira Grant’s books, an absolutely delectable piece of writing. I realize that I’m verging on the edge of hyperbole, but truly I have yet to read anything by Seanan McGuire …

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Oryx and Crake – Margaret Atwood

Let’s face it, Oryx and Crake is not a book you’d read for the plot. I mean, it’s there, vaguely. Mankind wiped from the world, a new species there to take its place. It is a story of what leads up to the end of man, and what it means to be alive afterwards.   …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/18/oryx-and-crake-margaret-atwood/

Odessa by Charles King

What I liked most about Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of Dreams is how clearly Charles King tells the early stories of Odessa’s founding. For while there had been a small settlement at the site under khans and Ottomans, none of the extant written records gives an unambiguous account of long-term settlement [at …

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The Days of Anna Madrigal by Armistead Maupin

In this ninth Tales of the City novel, The Days of Anna Madrigal, Armistead Maupin is content to show his characters being themselves. That’s no mean feat, for it requires creating characters who are both believable and interesting in themselves, and sustaining it over one or several books. Many authors do not appear to have …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/16/the-days-of-anna-madrigal-by-armistead-maupin/

The House of Hades by Rick Riordan

One of the nice things about not being in a book’s target audience is being able to stand back a bit more and see what the author is up to, what’s happening structurally within a book or series, to generally chew on it a bit more. The House of Hades reaches its main intended audience …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/15/the-house-of-hades-by-rick-riordan/

Finding Poland by Matthew Kelly

Did you know there was an Association of Poles in India? Did you even have the faintest idea that there had been Poles by the thousand in India during the Second World War and in the first few years afterward? I certainly didn’t, and I know a thing or two about Poles and Poland. Which …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/08/finding-poland-by-matthew-kelly/

The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss

What to say that Laura hasn’t already? This story is a week in the life of a minor character, minor in Rothfuss’ other works, that is, and I think that it’s a good example of a writer doing something interesting because he doesn’t feel constrained to follow that larger story. It isn’t trying to be …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/03/the-slow-regard-of-silent-things-by-patrick-rothfuss-2/