James Nicoll Reviews

This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews (March 2026)

When Maggie wakes up cold, filthy, and naked in a gutter, it doesn’t take her long to recognize Kair Toren, a city she knows intimately from the pages of the famously unfinished dark fantasy series she’s been obsessively reading and re-reading while waiting years for the final novel.

Her only tools for navigating this gritty world of rival warlords, magic, and mayhem? Her encyclopedic knowledge of the plot, the setting, and the characters’ ambitions and fates. But while she quickly discovers she cannot be killed (though many will try!), the same cannot be said for the living, breathing characters she’s coming to love — a motley band that includes a former lady’s maid, a deadly assassin, various outrageous magical creatures, and a dangerously appealing soldier. Soon, instead of trying to get home, she finds herself enmeshed in the schemes — and attentions — of dueling princes, dukes, and villains, all while trying to save them and the kingdom of Rellas from the way she knows their stories will end: in a cataclysmic war. 

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May 2025

22 works reviewed. 12 by women (55%), 9 by men (41%), 0 by non-binary authors (0%), 1 by authors whose gender is unknown (5%), and 9 by POC (41%).

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Midnight on the Celestial by Julia Alexandra (March 2026)

Roe Damarcus has never been afraid of the dead. Her power to summon spirits has awed the guests of her esteemed family’s galas for as long as she can remember. Her future is certain, and her gift will be another shining jewel in the Damarcus legacy. 

But when she fails her realm’s trial to keep her magic and is deemed too dangerous for society, she faces a harrowing choice: give up her gift or serve a punishment sentence aboard the Celestial, a luxurious magical cruise ship where staff members compete for guest votes to earn a coveted retrial. 

As a concierge, Roe juggles the demands of affluent guests, cruel bosses, and the suspicion that an infuriatingly handsome silks performer, Ivander, is determined to keep her from a retrial. 

But the true dangers surface after her shift ends when the Celestial transforms into halls of nightmares that kill staff members after dark. Faced with the reality of serving aboard, Roe begins to question the ship, trials, and the system that put her there. But the moment Roe sinks into the ship’s dark history, she’s wrongly framed for a guest’s murder. Vowing to conjure her own second chance, Roe will use whatever power she has to uncover the secrets of the ship, her family, and their entwined bloody past… before she becomes the Celestial’s next victim. 

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After the Fall by Edward Ashton (February 2026)

Part alien invasion story, part buddy comedy, and part workplace satire, After The Fall by Edward Ashton, author of Mickey7 (inspiration for the film Mickey 17), asks an important question: would humans really make great pets?Humans must be silent. Humans must be obedient. Humans must be good. 

All his life, John has tried to live by those rules. Most days, it’s not too difficult. A hundred and twenty years after The Fall, and a hundred years after the grays swept in to pick the last dregs of humanity out of the wreckage of a ruined world, John has found himself bonded to Martok Barden nee Black Hand, one of the ​“good” grays. Sure, Martok is broke, homeless, and borderline manic, but he’s always treated John like an actual person, and sometimes like a friend. It’s a better deal than most humans get. 

But when Martok puts John’s bond up as collateral against an abandoned house in the woods that he hopes to turn into a wilderness retreat for wealthy grays, John learns that there are limits to Martok’s friendship. Soon he finds himself caught between an underworld boss who thinks Martok is something that he very much is not, a girl who was raised by feral humans and has nothing but contempt for pets like John, and Martok himself, whose delusions of grandeur seem to be finally catching up with him. Also, not for nothing, something in the woods has been killing people. 

John has sixty days before Martok’s loan comes due to unravel the mystery of how humans wound up holding the wrong end of the domestication stick and find a way to turn Martok’s half-baked plans into profit enough to buy back his life, all while avoiding getting butchered by feral humans or having his head crushed by an angry gray. Easy peasy, right? 

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The Age of Calamities by Senaa Ahmad (January 2026)

For fans of Karen Russell and Carmen Maria Machado, The Age of Calamities is a genre-defying, mind-bending collection of absurdist, funny, and speculative short stories.

In this bold and enchanting collection Senaa Ahmad takes license with history and its players, sending the reader on a thrilling ride. In ​“Let’s Play Dead,” Henry VIII wants Anne Boleyn gone, but there’s a tiny problem — she keeps coming back to life no matter what he does. ​“Choose Your Own Apocalypse” hurls readers back to 1945, where they assume the role of a technician for the Manhattan Project, surrounded by labyrinthine paths and harrowing outcomes. And ​“Inside the House of the Historian” invites us to a dinner party turned murder mystery full of figures like Nefertiti, Queen Victoria, John Adams, and Marilyn Monroe. These stories and others entice readers to confront the past, the present, and themselves all at once. Zany and haunting, inviting and brilliant, each poignant tale delves into surreal nature of today through the lens of yesterday, charting the tragicomic yet hopeful act of living.

The Age of Calamities is an evocation of life and death on history’s unsteady margins, of how to reckon with the blunt-force trauma of ill-fated times. Fiercely clever and wildly inventive, this debut establishes Senaa Ahmad as a literary force. 

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This is Free Trader Beowulf: A System History of Traveller by Shannon Appelcline (2024)

This is Free Trader Beowulf, calling anyone … Mayday, Mayday. 

A box emblazoned with those words went on sale for the first time on July 22, 1977, at the Origins III Game Fair, heralding the advent of the Traveller roleplaying game from GDW. It wasn’t the first science-fiction roleplaying game, but through its innovative design and through the development of its evocative universe of Charted Space, it would become the longest running SFRPG in the industry.

However, its path would not be simple. After Traveller reached its early apogee just four years in, it would face decades of increasing problems, raising many questions. Why did GDW decided to shatter their Imperium? What led them to seek outside help to produce the second edition of the game? Why did they abandon the Traveller game system with their next revision? How could such a popular publisher face bankruptcy just two decades on? Similarly, what happened to Imperium Games, QuikLink Interactive, and others who followed in GDW’s footsteps as the inheritors of the Traveller legacy? And finally, how did Mongoose Publishing reach into the past and bring Traveller back to its position as the industry’s best-loved SFRPG?

This volume answers those questions and more. It tracks Traveller from its inspirations in the early ​’70s, though its initial publication, and across seven distinct editions of its original 2d6 gaming system. It reveals the stories of Traveller’s three major publishers; GDW, Imperium Games, and Mongoose, as well many licensees. Most importantly, it tells how Traveller fell into increasing darkness before descending into a Long Night, and how it rose again as a phoenix.

From the author of Designers & Dragons, which told the story of the entire roleplaying industry, comes the intimate history of a single roleplaying game, culled from hundreds of primary sources and interviews.

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Eager to support Aurora-finalist James Nicoll Reviews? Here are your options:

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

Do you desire immediate gratification¹? Commission a review!

Do you languish under the burden of excess wealth? Spontaneous donations may be delivered via my Paypal. Steamer trunks filled to bursting with hundred-dollar bills delivered in the dark of night are also acceptable. Contact me for my mailing address.

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1: On a geological time scale. 

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April 2025

22 works reviewed. 12 by women (55%), 9 by men (41%), 0 by non-binary authors (0%), 1 by authors whose gender is unknown (5%), and 9 by POC (41%).

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The Nameless Land by Kate Elliott (November 2025)

Surprising betrayals, surprising alliances, and surprising discoveries of heritage abound in this energetic sequel to The Witch Roads. 

When the royal party finds themselves in a land they never believed they could access, it will take all of Prince Gevulin’s (admittedly impressive) diplomatic skills to forge a coalition with an unlikely group of would-be allies. 

Meanwhile, as Erin mourns her lost love, an unwelcome visit to the land of her birth brings back the traumatic memories of the childhood she shared with her sister. 

And a surprise visit from an unwelcome family member threatens to derail the plans of multiple opposing factions. 

Loyalty cannot be demanded, only won 

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