James Nicoll Reviews

Huh. I need to find a new header image for 2023.

December 2022

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

Year to Date

260 works reviewed. 143 by women (55%), 109 by men (42%), 8 by a non-binary author (3%), 0 by authors whose genders are unknown (0%), and 102 by POC (39%).

Grand Total to Date

2268 works reviewed. 1267 by women (56%), 949 by men (42%), 34 by non-binary authors (1%), 18 by authors whose gender is unknown (1%), and 676.75 by POC (30%).

Government Types December

Total 22, Not Applicable 3 (14%), Unclear 0 (0%), Anarchy 0 (0%), Pure democracy 1 (5%), Representative democracy 5 (23%), Oligarchy 11 (50%), Autocracy 2 (9%).

Government Type 2022 TD

Total 260, Not Applicable 40 (16%), Unclear 18 (8%), Anarchy 6 (2%), Pure democracy 2 (0.5%), Representative democracy 72 (28%), Oligarchy 99 (36%), Autocracy 23 (9%).

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Chasing Whispers by Eugen Bacon (September 2022) 

Chasing Whispers is a unique Afro-irrealist collection of Black speculative fiction in transformative stories of culture, longing, hybridity, unlimited futures, a collision of worlds and folklore. 

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Once again the calendar has ground around to that part of the year when the endless lengthening of the nights finally reverses, and the days begin to lengthen. We shall not freeze after all! Thematically appropriate holiday wishes!

Thanks to my editor Karen Lofstrom for turning my word-salad into sentences and paragraphs and to my web person Adrienne L. Travis for giving me a place to post my reviews. All 2,264 (to date) of them. 

Thank you to my audience of seven plus years! Thank you to all my patrons, on Patreon and here. And a big thank you to the creators everywhere who give me something to review..

While I experiment to see just how much food it takes to explode me, please enjoy Well Told Tale’s seasonally relevant reading of Arthur C. Clarke’s short story, The Star.

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Infinity Gate by M. R. Carey (March 2023)

INFINITY IS ONLY THE BEGINNING. 

The Pandominion: a political and trading alliance of a million worlds – except that they’re really just the one world, Earth, in many different realities. And when an AI threat arises that could destroy everything the Pandominion has built, they’ll eradicate it by whatever means necessary, no matter the cost to human life.

Scientist Hadiz Tambuwal is looking for a solution to her own Earth’s environmental collapse when she stumbles across the secret of inter-dimensional travel. It could save everyone on her dying planet, but now she’s walked into the middle of a war on a scale she never dreamed of.

And she needs to choose a side before it kills her. 

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The Woods Are Waiting by Katherine Greene (July 2023)

In the tradition of Lisa Jewell and Ruth Ware, Katherine Greene’s debut thriller is a dark descent into the sinister traditions and customs of a small town in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Yet no superstition will prepare childhood friends Cheyenne and Natalie for the macabre truth that awaits them. 

Cheyenne Ashby knows the dark and disturbing history of her hometown of Blue Cliff, Virginia, all too well. It’s why she left. Growing up deep within the woods with her eccentric mother, Constance, she was raised on the unusual customs and generational superstitions linked to the local legend of an evil entity that haunts the forest. 

Five years ago, the bodies of three children were found in the woods. It was a man — not a mythical beast — named Jasper Clinton who was convicted of these heinous crimes. For five years the town breathed just a bit easier with a real-life monster behind bars. 

But when another child goes missing, Cheyenne and Natalie are determined to discover the truth and uncover the town’s dangerous secrets rooted in its terrifying past. 

The two women must confront the reality of the superstitions they always believed in and their town’s complicated connection with who — or what — lives in the woods. 

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The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera (July 2023)

The Saint of Bright Doors sets the high drama of divine revolutionaries and transcendent cults against the mundane disappointments of modern life, resulting in a novel that is revelatory and resonant.

Fetter was raised to kill, honed as a knife to cut down his sainted father. This gave him plenty to talk about in therapy. He walked among invisible powers: devils and anti-gods that mock the mortal form. He learned a lethal catechism, lost his shadow, and gained a habit for secrecy. After a blood-soaked childhood, Fetter escaped his rural hometown for the big city, and fell into a broader world where divine destinies are a dime a dozen. 

Everything in Luriat is more than it seems. Group therapy is recruitment for a revolutionary cadre. Junk email hints at the arrival of a god. Every door is laden with potential, and once closed may never open again. The city is scattered with Bright Doors, looming portals through which a cold wind blows. In this unknowable metropolis, Fetter will discover what kind of man he is, and his discovery will rewrite the world.

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James Nicoll Reviews – 2247 reviews and counting! – is funded by commissions and by my Patreon.

Many thanks to my existing patrons! If you enjoy my endless rambles through the brambles of speculative fiction, please consider supporting my Patreon.

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