Sep 09 2026
This was the only Hugo Awards 2026 nominee for Best Novel that didn’t come in the Voter’s Packet, so I got on the waitlist for it at the library, thereby ensuring that I’d actually read the book this year, lol. So on the one hand, I was unsurprised that not being in the packet meant …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/09/09/shroud-by-adrian-tchaikovsky/
Aug 06 2026
I vastly overestimated the number of books I still had to read for the 2026 Hugo for Best Graphic Story, so this is the last and, dare I say, my favorite of the slate! Full ranking at the bottom, once I’m done discussing this utterly charming graphic novel that reimagines the life of Nnedi Okorafor’s …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/08/06/the-space-cat-by-nnedi-okorafor-tana-ford/
Aug 04 2026
That has got to win the prize for unwieldiest title going. But yes, I came to this graphic novel adaptation of Ursula K Le Guin’s classic because it’s been nominated for the 2026 Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story. Fred Fordham has done an incredible job here and I’m grateful that this book was nominated, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/08/04/a-wizard-of-earthsea-a-graphic-novel-by-ursula-k-le-guin-adapted-by-fred-fordham/
Aug 01 2026
In contrast to Cinder House, The Summer War is not a classic fairy tale re-told in a more modern idiom but a re-working of fairytale elements, a new story told entirely in the register of a fairy tale. Thus the kingdom that is the setting for a bit more than half of the story is …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/08/01/the-summer-war-by-naomi-novik-2/
Jul 28 2026
Comic books, y’all. Ngl, I bailed from being a regular comics reader — I even had a box with a weekly pull list at my local comics store up till that point — around the time of Marvel’s House Of M fiasco in 2005, because I was so tired of reboots (and crossovers, but that’s …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/07/28/absolute-wonder-woman-vol-1-the-last-amazon-by-kelly-thompson-hayden-sherman-mattia-de-iulis-jordie-bellaire/
Jul 23 2026
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 …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/07/23/what-stalks-the-deep-by-t-kingfisher-2/
Jul 12 2026
Among this year’s Hugo finalists in the four headline fiction categories — short story, novelette, novella and novel — no author has more than one nomination. I don’t think I have a particular view about this distribution. On the one hand, it’s neat when a writer has a banner year and gathers up two or even three …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/07/12/hugo-awards-2026-best-novelette-2/
Jul 08 2026
Ooh, boy, is Doug gonna be surprised when he reads my voting slate for this year’s Hugo Awards nominees for Best Novelette! Presented, as usual, in descending order of preference. Top of my list this year is Catherynne M Valente’s When He Calls Your Name. Perhaps oddly, it is one of the two nominees on …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/07/08/hugo-awards-2026-best-novelette/
Jun 29 2026
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
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/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
Emily Lauer
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire