James Nicoll Reviews

A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett (April 2025)

The eccentric detective Ana Dolabra matches wits with a seemingly omniscient adversary in this brilliant fantasy-mystery from the author of The Tainted Cup.

In the canton of Yarrowdale, at the very edge of the Empire’s reach, a Treasury officer has disappeared into thin air — vanishing from a room within a heavily guarded tower, its door and windows locked from the inside. 

To solve the case, the Empire calls on its most brilliant and mercurial detective, the great Ana Dolabra. At her side, as always, is her bemused assistant Dinios Kol.

Ana soon discovers that they are investigating not a disappearance but a murder — and one of surpassing cunning, carried out by an opponent who can pass through warded doors like a ghost. 

Worse still, the killer may be targeting the high-security compound known as the Shroud, where the Empire harvests fallen titans for the volatile magic found in their blood. Should it fall, the Empire itself will grind to a halt, robbed of the magic that allows its wheels of power to turn. 

Din has seen his superior solve impossible cases before. But as the death toll grows and their quarry predicts each of Ana’s moves with uncanny foresight, he fears that she has at last met an enemy she can’t defeat. 

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A Simple Twist of Fate by April Asher (May 2025)

A witch and a shifter get a second chance at love in this new paranormal romantic comedy from USA Today Bestselling author April Asher.

At the bright-eyed age of eighteen, witch Harlow ​“Harry” Pierce attended her first Fates Haven Finding Ceremony certain the Blue Willow Wisp would lead her to her Fated match, her cougar shifter boyfriend, Jaxon Atwood. But Fate had other plans, guiding her best friend to him instead. With a broken heart, all her belongings, and a vow to never return, Harry did the only thing a broken-hearted witch could do. Run.

Thirteen years later, she returns to her magical hometown — with her half-human, half-shifter goddaughter in tow — hoping that not only would the town work its magic on the troubled teenager, but that the local Alpha of the Rocky Mountain Pack could help Grace identify — and control — her fiery abilities.

Jaxon Atwood was a shifter of few words and even less patience… until his mother retired as Alpha of the Rocky Mountain Pack and left the running of things to him. It’s a headache he didn’t need, and one that brought the witch who’d ripped his heart from his chest knocking on his door.

Ever since the disappearance of the town’s Fate Witch over a decade ago, Fates Haven’s magic has been slowly going haywire. There hasn’t been a Fated Match made in thirteen years, putting the town in serious jeopardy of losing its title of Most Fated Mates Per Population. But now, something is stirring in Fates Haven, Colorado, and it smells like the past, tastes like change, and looks like A SIMPLE TWIST OF FATE. 

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Once Was Willem by M. R. Carey (March 2025)

Presenting an enthrallingly dark medieval fantasy – a fable of twisted folklore, macabre magic and the strangest of found families – from M. R. Carey, author of the million-copy bestseller, The Girl With All the Gifts.

Eleven hundred and some years after the death of Christ, in the kingdom that had but recently begun to call itself England, I, Once Was Willem, rose from the dead to defeat a great evil facing the humble village of Cosham. The words enclosed herein are true.

I speak of monsters and magic, battle and bloodletting, and the crimes of desperate men. I speak also of secret things, of that which lies beneath us and that which impends above. By the time you come to the end of this account you will know the truth of your own life and death, the path laid out for your immortal soul, your origin and your inevitable end.

You will not thank me. 

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That was certainly not the electoral news I wanted to wake up to. My sympathies to all who will suffer because of yesterday.

It is not in my nature to be a supportive, socially-engaged ray of sunshine but despair in these circumstances would only facilitate the descent of society further into darkness, I guess I will have to do my best to fake being the sort of responsible person needed at this time. As long as James Nicoll Reviews prevails, I will seek out ways in which to use my platform constructively.

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Chaos King by Kacen Callender (April 2025)

WHEN THE WORLD BURNS, ASH WILL RISE.

The explosive sequel to instant New York Times bestselling YA debut Infinity Alchemist by Kacen Callender.

The hardcover edition features a beautiful jacket with silver foil, a case stamp, an in-world map and illustrated endpapers.

Ever since he rose up against his father and saved New Anglia from destruction, Ash has been struggling to adapt to his new life. He has nightmares every night, haunted by strange black orbs and his screaming dead mother. Ash is sure she’s trying to warn him that the world is still in danger, and becomes determined to find a way to speak to her again — but communicating with the dead isn’t easy, even for an alchemist as powerful as Ash.

It doesn’t help that violent anti-alchemist sentiment is spreading across New Anglia. When Ash is captured by a radical alchemist group, inspired by his father’s legacy, he must decide if alchemist rights can be trusted in the hands of the Houses, along with his partners Callum and Ramsay — or if Ash must follow the path his father laid for him, and become the leader of an alchemist revolution. 

Can Ash keep his relationships together and stop the world from falling apart? 

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I just realized I used my Patreon boost image on my monthly stats round-up, so you’re getting the image I should have used yesterday even though it makes no sense whatsoever to use that painting in this context. I like that painting and want it to get all twelve uses here. 

James Nicoll Reviews is supported in part by Patreon subscribers, to whom I am very grateful. You can join my Patreon here. You too can have ongoing say in which books I review! 

For more immediate gratification, consider commissioning a review. Please see my guidelines here. Note that The Number of the Beast (under both titles) is a special case. 

Spontaneous donations can be done via my Paypal. Helpful suggestions may be left here. 

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Not a lot of thrilling news this month. Autocracy seems to have raced ahead in October. Let’s hope November fares better. 

October 2024

23 works reviewed. 11.5 by women (50%),11.5 by men (50%), 0 by non-binary authors (5%), 0 by authors whose gender is unknown (5%), and 10 by POC (43%).

2024 to Date

219 works reviewed. 119.5 by women (55%), 94.5 by men (42%), 3 by non-binary authors (1%), 2 by authors whose gender is unknown (1%), and 89.5 by POC (41%).

Grand Total to Date

2748 works reviewed. 1531.5 by women (56%), 1149.5 by men (42%), 43 by non-binary authors (2%), 24 by authors whose gender is unknown (1%), and 861.25 by POC (31%).

Government Types October 2024

Total 23, Not Applicable 3 (13%), Unclear 2 (9%), Anarchy 0 (0%), Pure democracy 0 (%), Representative democracy 5 (22%), Oligarchy 13 (57%), Autocracy 0 (0%).

Government Type 2024 TD

Total 219, Not Applicable 25 (11%), Unclear 15 (7%), Anarchy 6 (3%), Pure democracy 1 (0.5%), Representative democracy 71 (32%), Oligarchy 95 (43%), Autocracy 6 (3%).

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Reactor passed on this, probably because too many readers would miss the point and leave baffled, angry comments. Sarcasm and such often does not go over well. Inconvenient for me as most of my conversation is made of sarcasm, irony, and gallows humour.

Recently, the tabletop roleplaying game community has been aflame over accessibility within game worlds. The argument, as I understand it, is that worlds favorable to thrilling adventures are short on namby-pamby consideration for the less able. In such dog-eat-dog settings, entirely bereft as they are of any charitable sentiments, even minor disabilities would spell doom. Adventures are therefore the sole domain of physical paragons such as Captain Harlock, Zatoichi, and Götz von Berlichingen.

Although the argument seems superficially convincing, a curious pattern emerges when we examine adventure fiction. 

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Gifted & Talented by Olivie Blake (April 2025)

Where there’s a will, there’s a war.

Thayer Wren, the brilliant CEO of Wrenfare Magitech and so-called father of modern technology, is dead. Any one of his three telepathically and electrokinetically gifted children would be a plausible inheritor to the Wrenfare throne.

Or at least, so they like to think.

Meredith, textbook accomplished eldest daughter and the head of her own groundbreaking biotech company, has recently cured mental illness. You’re welcome! If only her father’s fortune wasn’t her last hope for keeping her journalist ex-boyfriend from exposing what she really is: a total fraud.

Arthur, second-youngest congressman in history, fights the good fight every day of his life. And yet, his wife might be leaving him, and he’s losing his re-election campaign. But his dead father’s approval in the form of a seat on the Wrenfare throne might just turn his sinking ship around.

Eilidh, once the world’s most famous ballerina, has spent the last five years as a run-of-the-mill marketing executive at her father’s company after a life-altering injury put an end to her prodigious career. She might be lacking in accolades compared to her siblings, but if her father left her everything, it would finally validate her worth — by confirming she’d been his favorite all along. 

On the pipeline of gifted kid to clinically depressed adult, nobody wins — but which Wren will come out on top? 

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The Outcast Mage by Annabel Campbell (January 2025)

In this glittering debut fantasy, a mage bereft of her powers must find out if she is destined to save the world or destroy it. Perfect for fans of Andrea Stewart, James Islington, and Samantha Shannon.

In the glass city of Amoria, magic is everything. And Naila, student at the city’s legendary academy, is running out of time to prove she can control hers. If she fails, she’ll be forced into exile, relegated to a life of persecution with the other magicless hollows. Or worse, be consumed by her own power. 

When a tragic incident further threatens her place at the Academy, Naila is saved by Haelius Akana, the most powerful living mage. Finding Naila a kindred spirit, Haelius stakes his position at the Academy on teaching her to harness her abilities. But Haelius has many enemies, and they would love nothing more than to see Naila fail. Trapped in the deadly schemes of Amoria’s elite, Naila must dig deep to discover the truth of her powers or watch the city she loves descend into civil war.

For there is violence brewing on the wind, and greater powers at work. Ones who could use her powers for good… or destroy everything she’s ever known.

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