James Nicoll Reviews

July 2024

23 works reviewed. 13 by women (57%), 10 by men (43%), 0 by non-binary authors (0%), 0 by authors whose gender is unknown (0%), and 8 by POC (35%).

2024 to Date

153 works reviewed. 86 by women (56%), 64 by men (42%), 2 by non-binary authors (1%), 1 by authors whose gender is unknown (1%), and 61 by POC (40%).

Grand Total to Date

2682 works reviewed. 1498 by women (56%), 1119 by men (42%), 42 by non-binary authors (2%), 23 by authors whose gender is unknown (1%), and 832.75 by POC (31%).

Government Types July 2024

Total 23, Not Applicable 4 (17%), Unclear 2 (9%), Anarchy 0 (0%), Pure democracy 0 (%), Representative democracy 6 (26%), Oligarchy 11 (48%), Autocracy 0 (0%).

Government Type 2024 TD

Total 153, Not Applicable 18 (12%), Unclear 10 (6%), Anarchy 6 (4%), Pure democracy 1 (1%), Representative democracy 49 (32%), Oligarchy 64 (42%), Autocracy 5 (3%).

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Negative Girl by Libby Cudmore (September 2024)

For fans of Cottonmouths by Kelly J. Ford comes Negative Girl: an evocative, moody, neo-noir thriller that explores obsession and people dying across America’s forgotten spaces.

Martin Wade lived hard in his youth, but unlike many of his former bandmates and roadie friends, he didn’t die young. Instead he hit the recovery path, cleaned up his life, and became a private investigator in a dying city in upstate New York.

When his heavily tattooed and scarred assistant Valerie sets up an appointment with a young woman who needs help keeping her biological father away from her, none of the three realize that the father is Martin’s old bandmate, still using, and on a destructive path that will soon be headed straight for Martin’s clean life. As Martin struggles, Valerie becomes increasingly obsessed with their new client’s life.

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Hot Hex Boyfriend by Carly Bloom (September 2024)

When it comes to love, hex marks the spot in this enchanting romance that will delight fans of Practical Magic and The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches. 

As a child, Delia Merriweather believed with all her heart that she was a witch. Because all Merriweather women were witches. There was just one problem: they had no magic. As an adult, Delia no longer believes magic even exists. However, when she accidentally breaks a hex and restores her family’s powers, she’s forced to accept a new reality: she is a witch. And maybe that’s why the crushingly handsome guy next door has been looking at her like he’s expecting her to fly off on a broomstick, cackling into the night.

Just when Max thinks he’s done keeping an eye on the bumbling Merriweather women, now he must help his neighbors learn to control their magic before they out witches everywhere. But Delia can’t decide if Max is helping or hexing, and Max can’t tell whether his growing feelings for Delia are real, or if he’s come under the spell of the most powerful — and clueless — witch he’s ever known. And the last thing Max needs is to fall for the one witch who could rule the entire witching world by controlling the hearts of men. 

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Six Scorched Roses by Carissa Broadbent (September 2024)

A standalone fantasy romance set in the stunningly epic world of Carissa Broadbent’s New York Times bestselling Crowns of Nyaxia series. This short novel is perfect for readers of The Serpent & the Wings of Night and The Ashes & the Star-Cursed King and features beautiful case wrap art!

Six roses. Six vials of blood. Six visits to a vampire who could be her salvation… or her damnation.

Lilith has been dying since the day she was born. But while she long ago came to terms with her own imminent death, the deaths of everyone she loves is an entirely different matter. As her town slowly withers in the clutches of a mysterious god-cursed illness, she takes matters into her own hands.

Desperate to find a cure, Lilith strikes a bargain with the only thing the gods hate even more than her village: a vampire, Vale. She offers him six roses in exchange for six vials of vampire blood — the one hope for her town’s salvation. 

But when what begins as a simple transaction gradually becomes something more, Lilith is faced with a terrifying realization: It’s dangerous to wander into the clutches of a vampire…and in a place already suffering a god’s wrath, more dangerous still to fall in love with one. 

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I can now say one of my pieces became unpublishable via one of my usual venues due to a USSC decision. 

Democracy offers a thorough vetting of candidates, first by the party apparatus, then by the opposing party’s hostile opsec, the scrutiny of electoral officials, the diligent press, and finally the keen insight of the voting public. Were this not sufficient, state officials and courts are ever vigilant for official wrongdoing. It should be nigh-impossible for a head of government to be corrupt or if corrupt, to avoid punishment for any significant length of time. Indeed, as a noted philosopher once observed ​“when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal, by definition.”

Just as science fiction authors embrace impossible faster-than-light drives for the sake of plot, so too have a few embraced the clearly nonsensical prospect of a head of government who indulges in corruption or even more serious transgressions. American fiction of the 1970s and 1980s seemed particularly fascinated with the idea of presidents gone horribly wrong, a literary craze as inexplicable to modern minds as the popularity of pet rocks, mood rings, and the novel Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

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Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson (September 2024)

The highly anticipated return of Kate Atkinson’s ​“irresistible” (New York Times) private eye Jackson Brodie, whose newest adventure pays homage to Agatha Christie in the latest installment of a series described by The Washington Post as ​“Raymond Chandler meets Jane Austen.”

Marooned overnight by a snowstorm is a cast of characters and a setting that even Agatha Christie might recognize — a vicar, an Army major, a Dowager, a sleuth and his sidekick — except that the sleuth is Jackson Brodie, and the ​“sidekick” is DC Reggie Chase

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James Nicoll Reviews is supported by spontaneous donations, review commissions and Patreon subscribers, to whom I am very grateful. It turns out money can be exchanged for goods and services.

If you would like to commission a review, please see my guidelines here. Note that The Number of the Beast is a special case. I may add The Last Dangerous Visions as another special case, although TLDV may prove to be an irresistible train-wreck. I am as dizzy with anticipation as you are!

You can join my Patreon here.

Spontaneous donations can be done via my Paypal. In answer to a question I got in email, you cannot pay me to not review something. I just feel like that could easily go in bad directions. 

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