James Nicoll Reviews

Flight & Anchor by Nicole Kornher-Stace (June 2023)

Young SecOps operatives 06 and 22 were about to be sent out for their first military engagement. Just a few years earlier, they were child refugees of a corporate civil war; Stellaxis modified them into supersoldiers. But 06 and 22 have escaped their prison barracks and entered a city they can barely remember. In the dead of winter, they sleep in an abandoned shipping container and scavenge for resources. 

The Director of the Stellaxis supersoldier program knows that 06 and 22 are gone, where they are, and that she has no easy way of retrieving them. The Director also knows that if she sends anyone after them, there will be a bloodbath — or at least a great deal of bad press. But all operatives’ days are numbered. 06 and 22 must make a terrible choice: their freedom or each other

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Mother Howl by Craig Clevenger (June 2023)

Sixteen-year-old Lyle Edison recognizes the face of a murder victim on the nightly news – the waitress at his local diner. A place he often frequented with his dad. The following day his father is arrested and charged with her murder. And then eight further bodies are discovered. 

Following the revelation that his dad is in fact a serial killer, Lyle is outcast and shunned. Forced to abandon his family, illegally obtaining a new identity, he moves away to start all over again. 

Some years later, Lyle thinks he has finally moved on. But after several brushes with the law, Lyle’s past eventually catches up to him when a mysterious stranger known only as Icarus shows up and seems to know Lyle’s secret…

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James Nicoll Reviews –2291 reviews and counting! – is funded by commissions and by my Patreon.

Many thanks to my existing patrons! If you are not yet a patron and you enjoy my endless rambles through the brambles of speculative fiction, please consider supporting my Patreon. Encourage your friends to support it!

(Is it obvious I don’t enjoy this sort of self-promotion? But it is part of the job and I really should be better at it than I am)

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January 2023

22 works reviewed. 12 by women (55%), 9 by men (41%), 0 by a non-binary author (0%), 1 by authors whose gender is unknown (5%), and 8 by POC (36%).

2023 to Date

22 works reviewed. 12 by women (55%), 9 by men (41%), 0 by a non-binary author (0%), 1 by authors whose gender is unknown (5%), and 8 by POC (36%).

Grand Total to Date

2290 works reviewed. 1279 by women (56%), 958 by men (42%), 34 by non-binary authors (1%), 19 by authors whose gender is unknown (1%), and 684.75 by POC (30%).

Government Types January 2023

Total 22, Not Applicable 2 (9%), Unclear 1 (5%), Anarchy 0 (0%), Pure democracy 0 (0%), Representative democracy 5 (23%), Oligarchy 10 (45%), Autocracy 4 (18%).

Government Type 2023 TD

Total 22, Not Applicable 2 (9%), Unclear 1 (5%), Anarchy 0 (0%), Pure democracy 0 (0%), Representative democracy 5 (23%), Oligarchy 10 (45%), Autocracy 4 (18%).

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The Lost War by Justin Lee Anderson (May 2023)

Justin Lee Anderson’s sensational epic fantasy debut follows an emissary for the king as he gathers a group of strangers and embarks on a dangerous quest across a war-torn land. The war is over, but the beginnings of peace are delicate. Demons continue to burn farmlands, violent mercenaries roam the wilds, and a plague is spreading . The country of Eidyn is on its knees. In a society that fears and shuns him, Aranok is the first mage to be named King’s Envoy. And his latest task is to restore an exiled foreign queen to her throne. The band of allies he assembles each have their own unique skills. But they are strangers to each other, and at every step across the ravaged land, a new threat emerges, lies are revealed, and distrust threatens to destroy everything they are working for. Somehow, Aranok must bring his companions together and uncover the conspiracy that threatens the kingdom — before war returns to the realms again. 

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Tsalmoth by Steven Brust (April 2023) 

First comes love. Then comes marriage…

Vlad Taltos is in love. With a former assassin who may just be better than he is at the Game. Women like this don’t come along every day and no way is he passing up a sure bet. 

So a wedding is being planned. Along with a shady deal gone wrong and a dead man who owes Vlad money. Setting up the first and trying to deal with the second is bad enough. And then bigger powers decide that Vlad is the perfect patsy to shake the power structure of the kingdom. 

More’s the pity that his soul is sent walkabout to do it. 

How might Vlad get his soul back and have any shot at a happy ending? Well, there’s the tale… 

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For reasons that are sufficient, tor dot com sometimes passes on my essays. Here is one such rejected work.

Award season is on us once more, and with it a looming need to manage one’s susceptibility to praise. Praise can be intoxicating (and lead to hubris); it can be overwhelming (and lead to anxiety and imposter syndrome). Creatives who find themselves faced with praise may have little preparation for this intoxicating draught. How are you to deal with the possibly horrific consequences of egoboo?

Here are … can you guess the number… five effective methods creatives can use to manage praise.

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The Water Outlaws by S. L. Huang (June 2023)

Inspired by a classic of martial arts literature, S. L. Huang’s The Water Outlaws are bandits of devastating ruthlessness, unseemly femininity, dangerous philosophies, and ungovernable gender who are ready to make history — or tear it apart.

In the jianghu, you break the law to make it your own.

Lin Chong is an expert arms instructor, training the Emperor’s soldiers in sword and truncheon, battle axe and spear, lance and crossbow. Unlike bolder friends who flirt with challenging the unequal hierarchies and values of Imperial society, she believes in keeping her head down and doing her job. 

Until a powerful man with a vendetta rips that carefully-built life away. 

Disgraced, tattooed as a criminal, and on the run from an Imperial Marshall who will stop at nothing to see her dead, Lin Chong is recruited by the Bandits of Liangshan. Mountain outlaws on the margins of society, the Liangshan Bandits proclaim a belief in justice — for women, for the downtrodden, for progressive thinkers a corrupt Empire would imprison or destroy. They’re also murderers, thieves, smugglers, and cutthroats. 

Apart, they love like demons and fight like tigers. Together, they could bring down an empire. 

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Secondhand Daylight by Eugen Bacon & Andrew Hook (October 2023)

Something is happening to Green. He is an ordinary guy, time-jumping forward at a startling, uncontainable rate. He is grappling to understand his present; his relationship is wholly tattered; his ultimate destination is a colossal question mark. Zada is a scientist in the future. She is mindful of Green’s conundrum and seeks to unravel it by going backwards in time. Can she stop him from jumping to infinity? Their point of intersection is fleeting but memorable, each one’s travel impacting the other’s past or future. And one of them doesn’t even know it yet. Secondhand Daylight is a reverse story in alternate timelines between two protagonists whose lives must one day intersect. A titillating offering from World Fantasy Award-finalist Eugen Bacon, an Otherwise Fellowships honouree for ​‘doing exciting work in gender and speculative fiction’. In collaboration with three-time British Fantasy Society Award-winner Andrew Hook.

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James Nicoll Reviews – 2269 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.

(This is late because in the flurry of year beginning posts, I overlooked what should be a routine post)

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