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/
Jan 27 2026
Hello, dear readers! Today we have an excerpt from a centuries-spanning novel of science fantasy that will appeal to lovers of the esoteric and the technological. I’m gonna let the publicity materials for this latest book in a series speak for themselves, for fear of accidentally giving anything away with my own writing: “A twelfth …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/27/initial-condition-by-ian-domowitz-excerpt/
Jan 26 2026
with colors by Matt Hollingsworth and letters by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. There’s no escaping the fact that Ian Bertram’s art is far and away the most arresting aspect of this project. The best way for me to describe it would be horror manga through a 70s psychedelic lens, as a far-future America where body modifications are …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/26/precious-metal-by-darcy-van-poelgeest-ian-bertram/
Jan 08 2026
Jamie lives in a city of perpetual winter. Snow and ice blanket the island of Fairharbour, where he survives by scavenging for materials that he can use to make pretty trinkets he can subsequently trade for food and fuel. But when he puts together a kaleidoscope and tests it out, he catches an impossible glimpse …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/08/city-of-all-seasons-by-oliver-k-langmead-aliya-whiteley/
Dec 27 2025
I’m glad someone told me that nothing much happens in Orbital, Samantha Harvey’s novella that won the 2024 Booker Prize. If I had been expecting action — anything from a mechanical crisis as six astronauts in the ISS orbit the earth to an alien encounter – I might have been disappointed. The book relates one …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/12/27/orbital-by-samantha-harvey/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
Emily Lauer
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire