Jun 13 2026
This year’s list of Hugo Award finalists in the category of Best Graphic Story of Comic is unusual in that for the first time since 2016 neither Saga nor Monstress is among them. The balance between one-offs and continuing characters/series is a little more usual, with three volumes from each. The ongoing series are a …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/13/hugo-awards-2026-best-graphic-story-or-comic/
Jun 07 2026
The 2026 Hugo Award for Best Related Work — which isn’t called the Hugo Award for Everything Else but at this stage in its evolution maybe should be — hews closer to its bookish roots this time around. Four of six finalists are books, or at least very book-like, with a podcast and a spreadsheet rounding …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/07/hugo-awards-2026-best-related-work/
Jun 06 2026
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
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 26 2026
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/
May 18 2026
Here at The Frumious Consortium, we are always excited to scrutinize the list of Hugo Finalists! Doug: I’ve read one of the Best Novel finalists! And one in Novella! And I think I tried to read one in Best Short Story. I’ve forgotten whether I bounced or just suffered tab overload and closed that one …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/05/18/hugo-awards-2026-chat/
May 16 2026
Here are some of the good bits from the new Murderbot novel, Platform Decay. I’m leaving out context, so I hope no big plot points are revealed. I looked at Farai, and she said, “They’re looking for rogue SecUnits. Rogue SecUnits are always alone.” Well, fuck. I hate it when the humans are right. I …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/05/16/platform-decay-by-martha-wells/
Apr 09 2026
For whatever reason, I had this book’s publication date misfiled, but oh what a perfect time to read it, as the Artemis II mission reminds millions of people worldwide why so many of us initially fell in love with the idea of outer space. And space is, obviously, the setting for Ami Moon And The …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/04/09/ami-moon-and-the-galactic-peacekeepers-by-frances-lee/
Apr 02 2026
Oh, boy, am I the worst person to send a speculative fiction mystery to when the mystery is, at best, mid. And that’s the thing: these mysteries could be so good, and have so much to say about the human condition as we hurtle into infinity, if the ideas were at all fleshed out and …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/04/02/murder-by-memory-nobodys-baby-by-olivia-waite/
Mar 25 2026
Alright, I’m going to straight up admit that I haven’t read any of Rebecca Roanhorse’s Sixth World novels, so I was definitely not as invested in what is likely to be the biggest draw of this book for fans of hers: the novella that closes the collection and gives it its name. River Of Bones …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/03/25/river-of-bones-and-other-stories-by-rebecca-roanhorse/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
Emily Lauer
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire