James Nicoll Reviews

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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I have many cool reviews planned for 2025, all of which are dependent on funding from patrons, on-going and otherwise. You too can support the site:

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With Shockwave Reader winding down, it’s time to replace that project with something new. Two somethings new, each one focused on a specific author. If there’s something that James Nicoll Reviews lacks, it’s enough review projects. Replacing one ongoing project with two will help address that.

The two authors have some common elements. Both are prolific. Both have won multiple awards. Both have been reviewed on James Nicoll Reviews, but not to the extent that I might have expected ten years on. Both authors appear to be more obscure now than they should be.

One can either curse a candle or set fire to the darkness. As I have a handy jerrycan of gasoline in the form of a review site, I will do the latter.

Which authors have I in mind? I am so glad you asked.

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I am going to miss that reclining woman and her scandalous novel in the header for the In Review Posts. Ah, well. I hope the image that will replace it will amuse.

December 2024 is the December with the lowest number of books by POC reviewed since 2018 (in part due to a quirk in my tracking system) but 2024 overall had more books by POC reviewed than any previous year. Huh. On the other hand, I did a crappy job making time for non-binary authors. Again. What I need to do is sit down and list a dozen books by NB authors, then actually review them.

As far as SFFnal politics go, representative democracy made a last-minute attempt to catch up with oligarchy but was unable to overcome the lead already established. Ah, well.

2024 saw two new review projects begun: What’s the Worst That Could Happen? and History’s Actors. The first is a tour of SFF’s problematic, opaque, and astonishing works and the second a catch-all for early 21^st century SFF. For some reason, I spotlighted more books in Worst than I did in Actors.

2024 also saw the completion of another category. Shockwave Reader featured novels by John Brunner. I began this in 2022 and 27 novels in, it feels like time to spotlight other authors. More on that in 2025. 

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Thanks again to my editor Karen Lofstrom for transforming my word-salad into standard English. Thanks again to my web person Adrienne L. Travis for giving me a place to post almost 2800 reviews… so far. On track for review 3000 some time in 2025.

Thank you to all my patrons, on Patreon and elsewhere, to my audience and especially to the creators everywhere who give me something to review.

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Magica Riot by Kara Buchanan (October 2024)

Claire always wanted to be a girl.

She never dreamed she’d be a magical girl.

The last night of Claire Ryland’s old life was pretty normal, aside from the alley fight with interdimensional monsters. Fortunately, the drummer of her favorite local band transformed into a magical girl and saved her.

Then Claire became a magical girl as well. Things got a little complicated after that.

Now Claire is juggling two new lives: living as a girl and as a member of Portland’s super-secret supernatural defense squad, the hard-rocking magical girls known as Magica Riot!

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New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine: Volume I, Number 3 edited by Oliver Brackenbury (December 2024)

Issue 3 of New Edge Sword & Sorcery

Eight stories and four non-fiction pieces, paired with B&W illustrations. 

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Level: Unknown by David Dalglish (January 2025)

The magical world of Yensere holds the key to saving humanity from a horrific apocalypse. Too bad Nick can only get there in his dreams. 

When an ancient alien artifact chooses research cadet Nick to explore the world stored within it — a place full of forgotten empires, heroes with strange powers, and monstrous creatures that he is automatically transported to when he sleeps — he finds he has no choice but to grow stronger within the realm of Yensere to uncover its mysteries. 

But Yensere isn’t all fun exploration. In this land guided by statistics and levels, Nick is seen as a demonic threat by its diseased inhabitants and always killed on-sight. When he dies in Yensere, he awakens in his bed upon the research station, his body in a state of panic; when he sleeps again, Yensere drags him back for another life…and another death. 

Nick can only keep this up for so long before he dies for real. But there’s a good chance Yensere holds the key to saving humanity from a terrible fate, and so he ventures on, getting stronger and stronger with each new enemy defeated. And there are a LOT of enemies to defeat… 

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If you’re interested in marketing your Patreon, take heed of my methods, as they don’t seem to be effective at all. You should probably try other tactics.

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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