Nov 20 2020
Q. Every book has its own story about how it came to be conceived and written as it did. How did The Book of Malachi evolve? A. I was living at a remove from society, feeling outrage at human cruelty and a dark, desperate humor at the time of writing TboM. Our suburb was close …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2020/11/20/an-interview-with-t-c-farren-author-of-the-book-of-malachi/
Nov 13 2020
I’m still thinking about this cleverly constructed fable set fifteen or so years in the future. Thirty year-old Malachi is hired to essentially be the groom for a stable of murderers whose bodies are being used as part of a top-secret organ-growing project run by Raizier Pharmaceuticals. The nutrients fed to the prisoners cause their …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2020/11/13/the-book-of-malachi-by-t-c-farren/
Nov 05 2020
With his smashingly successful translation of Liu Cixin’s The Three–Body Problem, Ken Liu introduced modern Chinese science fiction to a large English-speaking audience. The reception of the rest of Three-Body‘s trilogy, one translated by Joel Martinsen and the other by Ken Liu, showed that it was not a one-book phenomenon, and that English-speaking science fiction …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2020/11/05/invisible-planets-edited-and-translated-by-ken-liu/
Oct 12 2020
Bear with me for a moment while I serve up a relevant anecdote here. When I was 8 years old, on a layover in London, I climbed the stairs of the narrow house of the auntie who was hosting my mother and me, and turned on the TV in the bedroom. I was fresh out …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2020/10/12/greensmith-by-aliya-whiteley/
Oct 06 2020
Genuinely surprised after reading this to learn that Elizabeth Bear has no military/police background. Or, perhaps, like myself, she spent formative years around military, which would definitely explain the wholly authentic feel she brings to the ex-military protagonist and judiciary command structure of the universe she creates here in Machine which, while the second in …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2020/10/06/machine-a-white-space-novel-white-space-2-by-elizabeth-bear/
Sep 09 2020
With Gardner Dozois’ passing, science fiction lost not only a brilliant writer but also one of the most prominent editors in the genre. Since 1984, he’d presided over the premiere collection of sci-fi’s shorter works via his Year’s Best collections, which numbered thirty-five at the time of his demise. Two years on, Jonathan Strahan and …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2020/09/09/the-years-best-science-fiction-vol-1-the-saga-anthology-of-science-fiction-2020-edited-by-jonathan-strahan/
Sep 01 2020
Happy September, readers! We’re starting off the month with a slate of great books, including this one. ~~~~~~~ My only complaint about A Closed And Common Orbit is that it didn’t reunite us with the crew of the Wayfarer who featured so endearingly in the first novel of the series, A Long Way To A …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2020/09/01/a-closed-and-common-orbit-wayfarers-2-by-becky-chambers/
Aug 29 2020
I read Buffalo Soldier back in May when I was recovering from acute appendicitis, and it did exactly what I needed: took me far away, into imaginary lands where people had thrilling adventures full of reversals and narrow escapes. The circumstances of my reading mean that I have not retained details as well as I …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2020/08/29/buffalo-soldier-by-maurice-broaddus/
Aug 17 2020
There’s going to be a bit of rambling before my review actually begins, so I apologize for that now. I went out to my Sharing Library the other day to replenish the contents, which had been looking a little low recently. Imagine my surprise when I found it stuffed to the gills with children’s books, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2020/08/17/vaders-little-princess-star-wars-darth-vader-and-kids-by-jeffrey-brown/
Aug 12 2020
With a book titled Dark Age in a futuristic series that consciously bases itself on Roman history, you know the contents are going to be pretty grim. Our hero from the start, Darrow of Lykos, is fighting a losing campaign on Mercury against the treacherous Gold-elevating Society led by the depraved Atalantia au Grimmus. His …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2020/08/12/dark-age-red-rising-saga-5-by-pierce-brown/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
Emily Lauer
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire