Category: Stinker

Die Olympiasiegerin by Herbert Achternbusch

There’s a scene in “Before Sunrise” where the young couple encounters two Austrian guys who tell the visitors about a play they are putting on, an eye-rolling bit of Continental pretension. Man with tie: This is a play we’re both in, and we would like to invite you. Céline: You’re actors? Man with tie: No, …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/03/21/die-olympiasiegerin-by-herbert-achternbusch/

Die Schule der Nackten by Ernst Augustin

You have better things to do with your time than read this book, or at least the latter two-thirds of it. The first-person narrator, Alexander, is interesting, and a bit odd in an interesting way. He’s a historian of sorts, unattached to any academic institute, specializing in the ancient Near East: Chaldean studies, Aramaic studies, …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2020/06/27/die-schule-der-nackten-by-ernst-augustin/

Muse of Fire by Dan Simmons

This was the book that made me wonder whether I just wasn’t enjoying reading books on the smartphone. Bridge of Birds would be terrific in any format, but I had had lukewarm or only just better than lukewarm reactions to two authors I normally quite like, Connie Willis and John Scalzi. Then I tried an …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/04/21/muse-of-fire-by-dan-simmons/

Method 15/33 by Shannon Kirk

Product Details: Hardcover: 258 pages Reading Level: Age 18+ Publisher: Oceanview Publishing (May 5, 2015) ISBN-10: 1608091457 ISBN-13: 978-1608091454 Publisher’s Description: Imagine a helpless, pregnant 16-year-old who’s just been yanked from the serenity of her home and shoved into a dirty van. Kidnapped…Alone…Terrified. Now forget her… Picture instead a pregnant, 16-year-old, manipulative prodigy. She is …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/03/02/method-1533-by-shannon-kirk/

The Stolen: An American Faerie Tale by Bishop O’Connell

I’m not entirely sure why I picked this book up. I have an enormous To Be Read (TBR) pile that’s 400+ books and counting, and so when I finally get to a book, I often have trouble remembering how or when it got into the pile. In the spirit of trying to reconcile my need …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/01/02/the-stolen-an-american-faerie-tale-by-bishop-oconnell/

The Powerless Series Omnibus (Books 1-3) by Jason Letts

A friend once gave me some good advice: life is too short to read bad books. She’s right. The three books in this trilogy are The Synthesis, The Shadowing, and The Stasis. I got halfway through the second chapter of the first book and began wondering if I had the fortitude to continue through all …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/09/30/the-powerless-series-omnibus-books-1-3-by-jason-letts/

Terence, This Is Stupid Stuff

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single quotation on the cover of a book is not a reliable guide to its contents. Nevertheless, when the quotation clearly comes from a review, and the review comes from a reasonably reputable newspaper, for such I imagine the Independent to be, some credence could be allowed. …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2005/12/18/terence-this-is-stupid-stuff/

49 Great Ones and a Stinker

Not too long ago, I noted that the Sueddeutsche Zeitung was publishing a set of 50 great novels of the twentieth century. I got into the game a little bit late, but since then I have been more-or-less keeping up with their pace of one a week, largely by the not terribly edifying expedient of …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2004/07/07/49-great-ones-and-a-stinker/