James Nicoll Reviews

Tonight, I Burn by Katharine J. Adams (November 2023)

A thorn witch with the power to walk between the realms of Life and Death finds herself at the center of a magical rebellion — and a dangerous romance — that could destroy her coven and her soul in this dark and decadent debut. Thorns, Tides, Embers, Storms, and Ores. All five covens are bound in servitude to the tyrant High Warden of Halstett. Penny Albright is a daughter of the thorn coven, forced to patrol the veil between the realms of Life and Death. Each night, one thorn witch — and only one — must cross the veil by burning at the stake. Each morning, that witch draws on their magic to return. Failure to follow the rules risks the veil and risks them all. But one morning, Penny’s favorite sister Ella doesn’t return. And that night, determined to find her, Penny breaks the rules. She burns in secret. And she discovers that all isn’t as it seems in Life or Death. Her journey leads her to Malin, a devastating lord with too many secrets; to Alice, a mysterious captive prophet; and to a rebellion brewing in the shadows beneath the city. And as Penny’s world splits, she’ll face a devastating choice. Because it’s not just her sister’s life that hangs in the balance. It’s the fate of all magic. All it takes is one witch — and one spark — to set the world ablaze. 

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A Winter’s Rime: A Novel by Carol Dunbar (September 2023)

A harrowing and emotional novel set in rural Wisconsin — A Winter’s Rime explores the impact of generational trauma, and one woman’s journey to find peace and healing from the violence of her past. Mallory Moe is a twenty-five-year-old veteran Army mechanic, living with her girlfriend, Andrea, and working overnights at a gas station store while figuring out what’s next. Andrea’s off-grid cabin provides a perfect sanctuary for Mallory, a synesthete with a hypersensitivity to sound that can trigger flashbacks from her childhood. The getaway that’s largely abandoned during the off season starts out idyllic, until Andrea’s once-loving behavior turns controlling and abusive, and Mallory once again finds herself not wanting to go home. After a particularly disturbing altercation, Mallory escapes into the subzero night and stumbles into Shay, a teenage girl, injured and asking for help. But it isn’t long before she realizes that Shay isn’t the only one who needs saving. A story about sisterhood and second chances, A Winter’s Rime looks to nature to find what it can teach us about bearing hardship and expanding our capacity to forgive — not just others, but ourselves. 

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Another 22 works read and reviewed, despite the considerable distraction presented by dance season and other events. On the plus side, I now have a new benchmark against which to compare challenging encounters in Hagey Hall. May nobody feel a need to exceed it.

Continued thanks to those who commissioned reviews and to my legion of patrons, for whose continued support over the last nine or so years I am very grateful. Onward to what I hope will be a less exciting July.

Next big project: reboxing and properly cataloging the thousand or so books still in storage at my brother’s farm.

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June 2023

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%)

2023 to Date

130 works reviewed. 74 by women (57%), 54 by men (42%), 1 by a non-binary author (1%), 1 by authors whose gender is unknown (1%), and 53 by POC (41%).

Grand Total to Date

2398 works reviewed. 1341 by women (56%), 1003 by men (42%), 35 by non-binary authors (1%), 19 by authors whose gender is unknown (1%), and 729.75 by POC (30%).

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To Shape a Dragon’s Breath: The First Book of Nampeshiweisit by Moniquill Blackgoose (May 2023)

The remote island of Masquapaug has not seen a dragon in many generations — until fifteen-year-old Anequs finds a dragon’s egg and bonds with its hatchling. Her people are delighted, for all remember the tales of the days when dragons lived among them and danced away the storms of autumn, enabling the people to thrive. To them, Anequs is revered as Nampeshiweisit — a person in a unique relationship with a dragon. Unfortunately for Anequs, the Anglish conquerors of her land have different opinions. They have a very specific idea of how a dragon should be raised, and who should be doing the raising — and Anequs does not meet any of their requirements. Only with great reluctance do they allow Anequs to enroll in a proper Anglish dragon school on the mainland. If she cannot succeed there, her dragon will be killed. For a girl with no formal schooling, a non-Anglish upbringing, and a very different understanding of the history of her land, challenges abound — both socially and academically. But Anequs is smart, determined, and resolved to learn what she needs to help her dragon, even if it means teaching herself. The one thing she refuses to do, however, is become the meek Anglish miss that everyone expects. Anequs and her dragon may be coming of age, but they’re also coming to power, and that brings an important realization: the world needs changing — and they might just be the ones to do it. 

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Is on a one-week, theatre-related, ​“I signed up for how many dance shifts?” pause. 

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The Ghost-Wrangler by Matthew Hughes (June 2023)

In a world of wizards and walled cities, Galabras Nachecko is a necromancer in the seaport metropolis of Golathreon, connecting the living with deceased relatives and associates to answer questions left unresolved at the time of death.

Then he is tasked by Duke Simisson’s conniving seneschal to capture the ghost of a notorious land pirate scheduled for execution. He snags the spirit but finds that the assignment has made him a man who knows too much.

Nachecko is propelled into a new career — secret agent segueing into diplomat — that leads him far from home, plunges him into perilous adventures, and brings him both true love and tragedy.

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Alone With You in the Ether: A Love Story by Olivie Blake (October 2023)

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six comes an intimate and contemporary study of time, space, and the nature of love. Alone with You in the Ether explores what it means to be unwell, and how to face the fractures of yourself and still love as if you’re not broken. 

CHICAGO, SOMETIME – Two people meet in the armory of the Art Institute by chance. Prior to their encounter, he is a doctoral student who manages his destructive thoughts with compulsive calculations about time travel; she is a bipolar counterfeit artist undergoing court-ordered psychotherapy. By the end of the story, these things will still be true. 

But this is not a story about endings. 

For Regan, life is a finish line of mutually assured disappointment. Her method of coping with the dreariness of existence is to project herself into imagined multipotency, spinning new threads of destiny with every impulsive decision she makes. For Aldo, life is a plague of constancy – a structure of rules and formulas that keep him going, without which the entire frame of his existence would collapse. 

For both of them, life is a matter of resigning themselves to the blueprints of inevitability, until six conversations with a stranger form the variable that glitches the entire simulation. 

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Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree (November 2023)

First loves. Second-hand books. Epic adventures. Viv’s career with the renowned mercenary company Rackam’s Ravens isn’t going as planned. Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she’s packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of Murk — so far from the action that she worries she’ll never be able to return to it. What’s a thwarted soldier of fortune to do? Spending her hours at a struggling bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted. Even though it may be exactly what she needs. Still, adventure isn’t far away. A suspicious traveller in grey, a gnome with a chip on her shoulder, a summer fling and an improbable number of skeletons prove Murk to be more eventful than Viv could have ever expected. Sometimes, right things happen at the wrong time. Sometimes, what we need isn’t what we seek. And sometimes, we find ourselves in the stories we experience together. Set twenty years before the events of Legends & Lattes, Bookshops & Bonedust is a standalone cosy fantasy by BookTok sensation Travis Baldree about the power of good bookshops, great friends and the unexpected choices along the way. 

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Another month, another 22 reviews! All thanks to commissioned reviews and my legion of patrons, for whose continued support over the last nine or so years I am very grateful.

Brazen Head, my new Framework laptop, continues to function without issue. Granted, that is how new laptops are supposed to work but by this time in my previous laptop’s life, I’d exchanged it for a replacement twice. 

This months’ big news is that my related site, Young People Read Old SFF, is up for an Aurora Award for a third time! Third time lucky, I hope. I would have posted this news on the Young People site’s blog… if I’d had the foresight to have one.

If you’d like to join my patreon, the link is here. If you would prefer to commission an individual review, the link is here. If you’d just care to throw money at me¹, that link is here.

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