James Nicoll Reviews

Rubicon by J. S. Dewes (March 2023)

J. S. Dewes, author of The Last Watch and The Exiled Fleet, returns with another science fiction space opera, Rubicon, that melds elements of Scalzi’s Old Man’s War with Edge of Tomorrow. 

Sergeant Adrienne Valero wants to die. 

She can’t.

After enduring a traumatic resurrection for the ninety-sixth time, Valero is reassigned to a special forces unit and outfitted with a cutting-edge virtual intelligence aid. They could turn the tide in the war against intelligent machines dedicated to the assimilation, or destruction, of humanity. 

When her VI suddenly achieves sentience, Valero is drawn into the machinations of an enigmatic major who’s hell-bent on ending the war―by any means necessary. 

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On this day, eight years and 2,189 reviews ago, James Nicoll Reviews went live. Thank you, Adrienne, for creating and maintaining the site, Karen for editing, all my patrons for funding it, author for giving me books to review, and my readers for reading my reviews. 

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Meru by S. B. Divya (February 2023)

One woman and her pilot are about to change the future of the species in an epic space opera about aspiration, compassion, and redemption by Hugo and Nebula Award finalist S. B. Divya. For five centuries, human life has been restricted to Earth, while posthuman descendants called alloys freely explore the galaxy. But when the Earthlike planet of Meru is discovered, two unlikely companions venture forth to test the habitability of this unoccupied new world and the future of human-alloy relations. For Jayanthi, the adopted human child of alloy parents, it’s an opportunity to rectify the ancient reputation of her species as avaricious and destructive, and to give humanity a new place in the universe. For Vaha, Jayanthi’s alloy pilot, it’s a daunting yet irresistible adventure to find success as an individual. As the journey challenges their resolve in unexpected ways, the two form a bond that only deepens with their time alone on Meru. But how can Jayanthi succeed at freeing humanity from its past when she and Vaha have been set up to fail? Against all odds, hope is human, too. 

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August 2022

22 works reviewed. 11 by women (50%), 10 by men (45%), 1 by a non-binary author (5%), 0 by authors whose gender is unknown (0%), and 9 by POC (41%)

Year to Date

173 works reviewed. 95.5 by women (55%), 71.5 by men (41%), 6 by a non-binary author (3%), 0 by authors whose genders are unknown (0%), and 66 by POC (38%).

Grand Total to Date

2181 works reviewed. 1219.5 by women (56%), 911.5 by men (42%), 32 by non-binary authors (1%), 18 by authors whose gender is unknown (1%), and 640.75 by POC (29%).

Government Types August

Total 22, Not Applicable 3 (14%), Unclear 2 (9%), Anarchy 1 (5%), Pure democracy 0 (0%), Representative democracy 3 (14%), Oligarchy 10 (45%), Autocracy 3 (14%)

Government Type 2022 TD

Total 173, Not Applicable 29 (17%), Unclear 12 (7%), Anarchy 5 (3%), Pure democracy 1 (1%), Representative democracy 47 (27%), Oligarchy 60 (35%), Autocracy 19 (11%)

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