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/
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 25 2026
Come for the opening heist in a magician’s home, stay for the burgeoning civil war and Martha Wells’ willingness to keep changing the story. The Element of Fire was her first novel, originally published in 1993. (The current edition was revised in 2022, though her author’s note does not say anything about the extent of …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/04/25/the-element-of-fire-by-martha-wells/
Feb 18 2026
This Spring two of my favorite space opera series will be getting new books: the next book in the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, and the next book set in the universe of the Imperial Radch, by Ann Leckie! For me personally, either of these is a major event, and while I’ve already read them …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/02/18/space-opera-series-with-installments-coming-up/
Sep 30 2025
For me, it takes a certain amount of faith to read an ongoing series – I need to either know that I will feel satisfied after each installment, or I need to trust the author has a plan for the following books, which will stick the landing eventually. I absolutely trust T Kingfisher to do …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/09/30/next-up-in-beloved-speculative-series-from-tor/
Dec 21 2024
When I read for the Hugos, I like to write a full review for each novel and novella that I finish, but I also like to finish all of my reviews from a given calendar year by the end of that year, and so here I am. There’s not a whole lot of December left, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/12/21/hugo-awards-2024-wrapping-up/
Jun 07 2024
When I sat down to read City of Bones it was just what the doctor ordered: an immersive fantasy adventure that wasn’t too terribly obvious, but that wasn’t exploding with structural or thematic ambition, not trying to expand the genre or blow the reader away with stylistic genius. That willingness to let the book be …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/06/07/city-of-bones-by-martha-wells/
Dec 28 2023
System Collapse has a great ending, possibly the best yet in Martha Wells’ wonderfully engaging Murderbot series. I emphasize that because I was a little lost at the beginning of the short novel, though that was mostly my fault. The story in System Collapse picks up immediately after the end of Network Effect, which was …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/12/28/system-collapse-by-martha-wells/
Sep 24 2022
At the end of Rogue Protocol, the SecUnit otherwise known as Murderbot had incontrovertible evidence that its corporate nemesis GrayCris had been engaging in illegal activities involving alien technology. It had little faith that exposure of the activities had caused the corporation serious harm, but GrayCris’ reactions suggested that the company might take a different …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/09/24/exit-strategy-by-martha-wells/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
Emily Lauer
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire