James Nicoll Reviews

Tonight, I Bleed by Katharine J. Adams (April 2025)

In this dark and decadent sequel to Tonight, I Burn, a witch finds herself face to face with death as she stands at the center of a magical rebellion and back to back with her enemies as she falls deeper into a seductive romance. 

Penny Albright has burned night after night to keep her soul free of Malin’s contract. Now, she’s at the stake again, and this time, it’s her freewill about to burn. As the ashes settle over the temple inferno, Halstett faces the Samhain ball and attendance is mandatory​. At midnight, when the veil between Life and Death is at its thinnest, the Warden means to destroy magic and the witches who wield it. With her family missing and her friends lost, Penny turns to the Sorcerer chained on the mysterious ninth floor of the library for aid.

He offers a deal: a legion to fight the Warden in exchange for her blood.

Just one drop into the eternal fires will end the Warden’s reign and set the Sorcerer free. But as Alice’s visions fail and Malin fights the lifeline bond Penny forged to save him, one drop of blood might destroy them all. And with the Warden using Penny’s circle of Resistance witch friends as a shield, Penny is forced to choose between the friends she loves and the covens she belongs to. 

A single night might spark a war that will tear the world — or Penny’s heart — apart. 

Read more ➤

The Mother by B. L. Blanchard (May 2023)

In a present-day Britain where the British Empire never existed, wives and mothers strive for deliverance in a novel about oppression, autonomy, and family secrets by the author of The Peacekeeper.

What if Europe had never colonized the world? It is a world that never had overseas empires, the transatlantic slave trade, or the Protestant Reformation. There is, however, in an obscure island nation called England, a woman running for her life. 

Marie, Duchess of Suffolk, has no choice. In this society, women are a reproductive commodity. Marriage is the only available occupation. And barren wives like Marie are expendable trade. After absconding with the family jewels, Marie fakes her own death and finds an underground network of women seeking sanctuary from similar abuse. When she reunites with her estranged sister, Emma, Marie reveals she has a greater mission: find their mother, long thought dead, and discover the truth behind her inexplicable disappearance. 

Hunted and chased across borders by those she fled, Marie has stolen more than the family jewels. She is escaping with secrets. And all that matters now, no matter the risk, is stealing freedom. 

Read more ➤

You may have wondered about the long list of categories into which my reviews are sorted. Have what I hope is a complete list of them all, along with short explanations. 

Each category header is a link, with the exception of Meetpoint and The Realized World because I don’t know how to link to a category with no posted reviews. I will have to come back and add links.

Read more ➤

Walter Jon Williams has been publishing books almost as long as C. J. Cherryh¹. Like Cherryh, he is prolific, with about three dozen books to his credit (unless I missed a few). Also, like Cherryh, he has been nominated for and in some case won many awards.

Unlike Cherryh, I have long been aware WJW’s public profile is less than one might expect. Some of that may be due to various publishing misadventures documented on his blog. Some might be because, as one might expect from someone who jumped genres early in his career, WJW is a mutable author whose varied works might be hard to market. Some readers prefer their genre boundaries clearly delineated, their peas kept well away from the carrots, and struggle to deal with any sort of ambiguity or novelty in their fiction. Their loss, as I will attempt to convince them.

I’ve only reviewed three of his novels so I am spoiled for choice.

1: Although he got his start in historical fiction.

Read more ➤

C. J. Cherryh has been publishing since the mid-1970s. I hesitate to put a number to the number of books she has published, as more might appear between the time I write this and its publication in a week. I would also hesitate to put a number on the number of awards she has won and for which she has been nominated, except to point out that she is a SFWA Grandmaster — which puts her in a class with Heinlein, Bradbury, Norton, and Le Guin — and has been nominated for the coveted Balrog award.

Imagine my surprise when someone referred to Cherryh as obscure¹. How could such a prolific, awarded author be obscure? I see no alternative but to shout at kids to get onto my lawn.

It’s true I’ve reviewed ten Cherryh works, and some of those works were her best-known pieces, books such as Downbelow Station and Cyteen². Nevertheless, there are still many books to consider. As you will see over the course of the Meetpoint reviews….

1: Paraphrase because I cannot find the conversation.

2: Which is a bit of a shame, as I’d like to complain about the ambiguity of Cyteen’s in-print status, not to mention its inexplicable lack of an ebook edition.

How is Cyteen not in my default dictionary?

Read more ➤

With Shockwave Reader winding down, it’s time to replace that project with something new. Two somethings new, each one focused on a specific author. If there’s something that James Nicoll Reviews lacks, it’s enough review projects. Replacing one ongoing project with two will help address that.

The two authors have some common elements. Both are prolific. Both have won multiple awards. Both have been reviewed on James Nicoll Reviews, but not to the extent that I might have expected ten years on. Both authors appear to be more obscure now than they should be.

One can either curse a candle or set fire to the darkness. As I have a handy jerrycan of gasoline in the form of a review site, I will do the latter.

Which authors have I in mind? I am so glad you asked.

Read more ➤

I have many cool reviews planned for 2025, all of which are dependent on funding from patrons, on-going and otherwise. You too can support the site:

Do you want ongoing say in what I review? Join my Patreon here.

Is immediate gratification your jam? Commission a review!

Do you languish under the burden of excess wealth? Spontaneous donations may be accomplished via my Paypal.

Read more ➤

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. 

Read more ➤

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.

Read more ➤

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!

Read more ➤