James Nicoll Reviews

Mr. & Mrs. Witch: A Novel by Gwenda Bond (March 2023)

In Mr. & Mrs. Witch, the next novel from bestselling author Gwenda Bond, a couple discovers at the altar the surprising secret identities they’ve kept from each other. 

Savannah Wilde is a witch, a very powerful one — an identity that only her fellow witches know. Following a whirlwind romance that surprised herself and her family, Savvy is all set to marry the love of her life. But she isn’t the only one with a secret that needs to be kept, even from her soon-to-be husband. 

Griffin Carter is a top agent for a clandestine organization that, well, used to primarily hunt witches, but now mainly tries to shut down supernatural threats their own way. He can’t wait to lay his eyes on the woman he’s about to spend the rest of his life with. 

As Savvy walks down the aisle to Griffin, the wedding quickly goes from blessed day to shit show when their true identities are revealed. To say there’s bad blood between their factions is putting it mildly. Savvy and Griffin are tasked to take the other out, but when they discover a secret that could take down both of their agencies, they realize the only way to survive is to team up. With assassins hot on their trail, will Savvy and Griffin make it out alive to try again at ​‘I do’? 

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Promises Stronger Than Darkness by Charlie Jane Anders (April 2023)

Promises Stronger Than Darkness marks the final installment of the international bestselling author Charlie Jane Anders’s absolutely heart-stopping YA series, Unstoppable. 

They’re the galaxy’s most wanted — and our only hope.

When Elza became a space princess, she thought she’d be spending her time at the palace, wearing gorgeous couture and soaking up everything there is to know — but instead, she’s on the run, with everyone hunting for her and her friends. 

Rachael followed her best friend Tina on the adventure of a lifetime — but now Tina’s gone, and Rachael’s the only one keeping her friends together, as they go on a desperate quest to save everyone from an ancient curse. 

Rachael, Elza and their friends have found one clue, one shining mysterious chance to stop the end of the world. And that takes them back to the second-to-last place they’d want to be: enlisting the aid of Captain Thaoh Argentian, the woman who stole Tina’s body (and who now seems to be relishing a second chance at teenage chaos and drama, instead of living up to her legacy of an intrepid heroic commander). 

With only a ragtag band of misfits, crewmates, earthlings, friends, lovers (and one annoying frenemy), the Unstoppable Crew are up against the universe – and they soon find that in order to survive, they may have to cross a line they vowed never to cross. 

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James Nicoll Reviews – 2224 reviews and counting! – is funded 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.

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October 2022

21 works reviewed. 12 by women (57%), 9 by men (43%), 0 by a non-binary author (0%), 0 by authors whose gender is unknown (0%), and 8 by POC (38%)

Year to Date

216 works reviewed. 119.5 by women (55%), 89.5 by men (41%), 7 by a non-binary author (3%), 0 by authors whose genders are unknown (0%), and 83 by POC (38%).

Grand Total to Date

2224 works reviewed. 1243.5 by women (56%), 929.5 by men (42%), 33 by non-binary authors (1%), 18 by authors whose gender is unknown (1%), and 657.75 by POC (30%).

Government Types October

Total 21, Not Applicable 2 (10%), Unclear 2 (10%), Anarchy 0 (0%), Pure democracy (0%), Representative democracy 7 (33%), Oligarchy 10 (48%), Autocracy 0 (0%).

Government Type 2022 TD

Total 216, Not Applicable 35 (16%), Unclear 17 (8%), Anarchy 5 (2%), Pure democracy 1 (0.5%), Representative democracy 60 (28%), Oligarchy 78 (36%), Autocracy 20 (9%)

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The Last Beekeeper Julie Carrick Dalton (March 2023)

It’s been more than a decade since the world has come undone, and Sasha Severn has returned to her childhood home with one goal in mind―find the mythic research her father, the infamous Last Beekeeper, hid before he was incarcerated. 

There, Sasha is confronted with a group of squatters who have claimed the quiet, idyllic farm as a way to escape the horrific conditions of state housing. While she feels threatened by their presence at first, the friends soon become her newfound family, offering what she hasn’t felt since her father was imprisoned: security and hope. Maybe it’s time to forget the family secrets buried on the farm and focus on her future. 

But just as she settles into her new life, Sasha witnesses the impossible. She sees a honeybee, presumed extinct. People who claim to see bees are ridiculed and silenced for reasons Sasha doesn’t understand, but she can’t shake the feeling that this impossible bee is connected to her father’s missing research. Fighting to uncover the truth could shatter Sasha’s fragile security and threaten the lives of her new-found family―or it could save them all. 

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Although perhaps not quite as near to my heart as the 1970s (when I explored science fiction as an enthusiastic if not very discerning teen) or the 1980s (when I first encountered science fiction as an adult), the 1990s were nevertheless an interesting period in science fiction, one whose examples deserve better than to be consigned to ​“miscellaneous.”

Welcome to The End of History, which takes its title from Francis Fukuyama​’s visionary 1992 text, The End of History and the Last Man. Just as Fukuyama’s book celebrated the complete, eternal triumph of liberal democracy over other forms of government, so too will The End of History celebrate the science fiction of the 1990s. 

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Empire of the Feast by Bendi Barrett (October 2022)

In Empire of the Feast, we awaken with Riverson, 32^nd ruler of the Stag Empire, as he attempts to govern without the memories of his previous lives. To survive the ever-sharpening gears of war, he will need to mend the political schisms threatening to tear his empire apart while maintaining the erotic rituals holding off the eldritch horror known only as the Rapacious. 

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The Cuckoo by Leo Carew (December 2022)

Two fierce armies collide in the finale of the Under the Northern Sky trilogy, a thrilling and savagely visceral epic fantasy from Leo Carew, an author who ​“will remind readers of George R. R. Martin, David Gemmell, or … Joe Abercrombie. 

” (Booklist)Albion continues to be divided by revolt and bloodshed, as alliances collapse and are made anew. 

Driven obsessively for glory, the upstart Bellamus and his exiled queen Aramilla are marshalling resistance and building a powerful army. 

Returning to the Hindrunn, Keturah is forced to fend for herself, battling enemies on all sides just when she is most in need of a place of safety. 

And all the while, the young Black Lord must deal not only with the aftermath of a great betrayal, but the cold shadow of the Kryptea, threatening to destroy everything he has fought for…For more from Leo Carew, check out:The WolfThe SpiderThe Cuckoo 

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The Iron Gate: A Twenty Palaces Novel by Harry Connolly (September 2022)

Stormy Bay is a dying town nestled against an eerily placid ocean, and Ray Lilly is trapped in it. He can barely remember his name let alone his mission for the Twenty Palace society. Worse, he realizes that for some time now he’s been living as a puppet, his body and mind under the complete domination of an unknown power, and the townsfolk think this puppet is his real identity. 

And that power can still seize control of Ray’s body at any time, forcing him and the people around him to playact in nonsense stories that center around a mysterious boy and his monster dog. The town and its people shift and change, but only Ray seems to notice. He has no idea what sort of magic has imprisoned all these ordinary folks in Stormy Bay, but he does know he needs to get them, and himself, out. But that might mean crossing a line he has never crossed before. While Ray has certainly taken lives in his work for the society, it was always in self-defense or in the desperate moments before impending calamity. Can he bring himself to commit cold-blooded murder, even to save dozens of lives? 

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