James Nicoll Reviews

Well, that sure was a month. Nevertheless, James Nicoll Reviews preservers! How can you help? Well, if you’re an author, writing books and games for me to review is greatly appreciated. I am always happy when people read my reviews. If you wish to offer monetary support, there are several options:

Do you want ongoing say in what I review? Join my Patreon here.

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Do you languish under the burden of excess wealth? Spontaneous donations may be accomplished via my Paypal.

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A Rebel’s History of Mars by Nadia Afifi (June 2025)

Rocky Mountain Fiction Writer member’s striking new book of time travel and biological science fiction is a thrilling ride.

Kezza, an aerialist in the Martian circus, can never return to Earth – but she can assassinate the man she blames for her grim life on the red planet. Her murderous plans take an unexpected turn, however, when she uncovers a sinister secret. A thousand years into the future, Azad lives a safe but controlled life on the beautiful desert planet of Nabatea. His world is upended when he joins a crew of space-traveling historians seeking to learn the true reason that their ancestors left Mars. Separated by time and space, Kezza and Azad’s stories collide in the Martian desert. 

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January 2025

23 works reviewed. 12 by women (52%), 10 by men (43%), 1 by non-binary authors (4%), 0 by authors whose gender is unknown (5%), and 10 by POC (43%).

2025 to Date

23 works reviewed. 12 by women (52%), 10 by men (43%), 1 by non-binary authors (4%), 0 by authors whose gender is unknown (5%), and 10 by POC (43%).

Grand Total to Date

2814 works reviewed. 1567 by women (56%), 1178 by men (42%), 45 by non-binary authors (2%), 24 by authors whose gender is unknown (1%), and 887.25 by POC (31%).

Genre Count, Books Reviewed January 2025

6 fantasies (26%, 2 non-fiction (9%), 11 science fiction (48%), 2 mainstream (9%), and 2 mysteries (9%)of which 12 were series books (52%).

Genre Count, Books Reviewed, 2025 TD

6 fantasies (26%, 2 non-fiction (9%), 11 science fiction (48%), 2 mainstream (9%), and 2 mysteries (9%)of which 12 were series books (52%).

Genre Count, Books Received January 2025

41 books received, 25 fantasy (61%), 3 horror (7%), one mainstream (2%), one mystery (2%), one non-fiction (2%), 5 roleplaying game-related (12%), 4 science fiction (10%, of which 20 were series (49%), 15 non-series (37%), and 6 hard to classify (15%).

Genre Count, Books Received 2025 TD

41 books received, 25 fantasy (61%), 3 horror (7%), one mainstream (2%), one mystery (2%), one non-fiction (2%), 5 roleplaying game-related (12%), 4 science fiction (10%, of which 20 were series (49%), 15 non-series (37%), and 6 hard to classify (15%).

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The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World by J.R. Dawson (July 2025)

The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World is a powerful and poignant contemporary Queer fantasy perfect for fans of Hadestown and Under the Whispering Door

At the edge of Chicago, nestled on the shores of Lake Michigan, there is a waystation for the dead. Every night, the newly-departed travel through the city to the Station, guided by its lighthouse. There, they reckon with their lives, before stepping aboard a boat to go beyond.

Nera has spent decades watching her father — the ferryman of the dead — sail across the lake, each night just like the last.

But tonight, something is wrong.

The Station’s lighthouse has started to flicker out. The terrifying, ghostly Haunts have multiplied in the city. And now a person — a living person — has found her way onto the boat.

Her name is Charlie. She followed a song. And she is searching for someone she lost. 

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The Ashfire King by Chelsea Abdullah (April 2025)

A merchant and a prince trapped in the crumbling realm of jinn must figure out how to save one world to return to their own in The Ashfire King, the second book in the Sandsea Trilogy, perfect for fans of The City of Brass and The Bone Shard Daughter.

Neither here nor there, but long ago…

After fleeing a patricidal prince, legendary merchant Loulie al-Nazari and banished prince Mazen bin Malik find themselves in the realm of jinn. But instead of sanctuary, they find a world on the cusp of collapse.

The jinn cities, long sheltered beneath the Sandsea by the magic of its kings, are sinking. Amid the turmoil, political alliances are forming, and rebellion is on the rise. When Loulie assists a dissenter — one of her bodyguard’s old comrades — she puts herself in the center of a centuries-old war.

Trapped in a world that isn’t her own and wielding magic that belongs to a fallen king, Loulie must decide: Will she carry on someone else’s legacy or carve out her own? 

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Tonight, I Bleed by Katharine J. Adams (April 2025)

In this dark and decadent sequel to Tonight, I Burn, a witch finds herself face to face with death as she stands at the center of a magical rebellion and back to back with her enemies as she falls deeper into a seductive romance. 

Penny Albright has burned night after night to keep her soul free of Malin’s contract. Now, she’s at the stake again, and this time, it’s her freewill about to burn. As the ashes settle over the temple inferno, Halstett faces the Samhain ball and attendance is mandatory​. At midnight, when the veil between Life and Death is at its thinnest, the Warden means to destroy magic and the witches who wield it. With her family missing and her friends lost, Penny turns to the Sorcerer chained on the mysterious ninth floor of the library for aid.

He offers a deal: a legion to fight the Warden in exchange for her blood.

Just one drop into the eternal fires will end the Warden’s reign and set the Sorcerer free. But as Alice’s visions fail and Malin fights the lifeline bond Penny forged to save him, one drop of blood might destroy them all. And with the Warden using Penny’s circle of Resistance witch friends as a shield, Penny is forced to choose between the friends she loves and the covens she belongs to. 

A single night might spark a war that will tear the world — or Penny’s heart — apart. 

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The Mother by B. L. Blanchard (May 2023)

In a present-day Britain where the British Empire never existed, wives and mothers strive for deliverance in a novel about oppression, autonomy, and family secrets by the author of The Peacekeeper.

What if Europe had never colonized the world? It is a world that never had overseas empires, the transatlantic slave trade, or the Protestant Reformation. There is, however, in an obscure island nation called England, a woman running for her life. 

Marie, Duchess of Suffolk, has no choice. In this society, women are a reproductive commodity. Marriage is the only available occupation. And barren wives like Marie are expendable trade. After absconding with the family jewels, Marie fakes her own death and finds an underground network of women seeking sanctuary from similar abuse. When she reunites with her estranged sister, Emma, Marie reveals she has a greater mission: find their mother, long thought dead, and discover the truth behind her inexplicable disappearance. 

Hunted and chased across borders by those she fled, Marie has stolen more than the family jewels. She is escaping with secrets. And all that matters now, no matter the risk, is stealing freedom. 

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You may have wondered about the long list of categories into which my reviews are sorted. Have what I hope is a complete list of them all, along with short explanations. 

Each category header is a link, with the exception of Meetpoint and The Realized World because I don’t know how to link to a category with no posted reviews. I will have to come back and add links.

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Walter Jon Williams has been publishing books almost as long as C. J. Cherryh¹. Like Cherryh, he is prolific, with about three dozen books to his credit (unless I missed a few). Also, like Cherryh, he has been nominated for and in some case won many awards.

Unlike Cherryh, I have long been aware WJW’s public profile is less than one might expect. Some of that may be due to various publishing misadventures documented on his blog. Some might be because, as one might expect from someone who jumped genres early in his career, WJW is a mutable author whose varied works might be hard to market. Some readers prefer their genre boundaries clearly delineated, their peas kept well away from the carrots, and struggle to deal with any sort of ambiguity or novelty in their fiction. Their loss, as I will attempt to convince them.

I’ve only reviewed three of his novels so I am spoiled for choice.

1: Although he got his start in historical fiction.

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C. J. Cherryh has been publishing since the mid-1970s. I hesitate to put a number to the number of books she has published, as more might appear between the time I write this and its publication in a week. I would also hesitate to put a number on the number of awards she has won and for which she has been nominated, except to point out that she is a SFWA Grandmaster — which puts her in a class with Heinlein, Bradbury, Norton, and Le Guin — and has been nominated for the coveted Balrog award.

Imagine my surprise when someone referred to Cherryh as obscure¹. How could such a prolific, awarded author be obscure? I see no alternative but to shout at kids to get onto my lawn.

It’s true I’ve reviewed ten Cherryh works, and some of those works were her best-known pieces, books such as Downbelow Station and Cyteen². Nevertheless, there are still many books to consider. As you will see over the course of the Meetpoint reviews….

1: Paraphrase because I cannot find the conversation.

2: Which is a bit of a shame, as I’d like to complain about the ambiguity of Cyteen’s in-print status, not to mention its inexplicable lack of an ebook edition.

How is Cyteen not in my default dictionary?

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