James Nicoll Reviews

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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