James Nicoll Reviews

The Last Crown by Elzbieta Cherezinska

Across Baltic shores, English battlegrounds, and the land of Northen Lights, The Last Crown is the follow up to The Widow Queen, and the epic conclusion of Swietoslawa’s journey from Polish princess to Queen of Denmark & Sweden and Queen Mother of England. 

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March 2022

23 works reviewed. 13 by women (57%), 9 by men (39), 1 by a non-binary author (4%), 0 by authors whose genders are unknown (0%), and 9 by POC (39%).

Year to Date

64 works reviewed. 36 by women (56% ), 27 by men (42%), 1 by a non-binary author (2%), 0 by authors whose genders are unknown (0%), and by 24 POC (37%).

Grand Total to Date

2072 works reviewed. 1160 by women (56%), 867 by men (42%), 27 by non-binary authors (1%), 18 by authors whose gender is unknown (1%), 598.75 by POC (29%).

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Imagine for the moment you have invested mucho bucks in a treasured speculative fiction series. Imagine further than one morning you peruse Twitter and discover that the author of said series eats babies. On the one hand, baby-eating is probably bad and certainly unpopular¹. On the other, nobody likes to walk away from something in which one has invested time and money. Is there some way to somehow justify to one’s judgmental peers continuing with the series²?

In fact, there are at least five. In no particular order…

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Ion Curtain by Anya Ow

A bold new space opera from Aurealis Awards shortlisted author of The Firebird’s Tale and Cradle and Grave.

The AI is brutal, vicious and efficient and humanity has to fight to survive.“Citizens of the Federation. Greetings from the Core.”Lieutenant Kalina Sokolova is aid to Counter-Admiral Kasparov the major strategist for the Russian navy.

Kalina is also an agent of the Jinyiwei, an elite spy working for the UN. She is tasked with watching the Counter-Admiral, and assassination is not out of the question.

For decades the UN and the Russian military have navigated a tense interstellar Cold War. Peace is on the knife’s edge and events are coming ever closer to open conflict.

Solitaire Yeung is a corsair, a scavenger, a pirate, In the heart of a destroyed Russian battleship, his salvage crew discovers a mysterious device they shouldn’t have, the brain of the ship’s top secret artificial intelligence. And against all better sense they take it and run.The UN wants it and the Russians want it back. Solitaire and his crew are on the run from the most powerful forces in the system, but they are not the only ones hunting the AI brain. An even more powerful foe grows in the darkness of space. Now all of humanity has to fight to survive… 

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Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey

Just Like Home is a darkly gothic thriller from nationally bestselling author Sarah Gailey, perfect for fans of Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House as well as HBO’s true crime masterpiece I’ll Be Gone in the Dark.“Come home.” Vera’s mother called and Vera obeyed. In spite of their long estrangement, in spite of the memories — she’s come back to the home of a serial killer. Back to face the love she had for her father and the bodies he buried there, beneath the house he’d built for his family.Coming home is hard enough for Vera, and to make things worse, she and her mother aren’t alone. A parasitic artist has moved into the guest house out back and is slowly stripping Vera’s childhood for spare parts. He insists that he isn’t the one leaving notes around the house in her father’s handwriting… but who else could it possibly be?There are secrets yet undiscovered in the foundations of the notorious Crowder House. Vera must face them and find out for herself just how deep the rot goes. 

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A Sh*tload of Crazy Powers by Jackson Ford

Telekinetic government operative Teagan Frost is back in a new fast and furious adventure that will blow your tiny mind. Teagan Frost has enough sh*t to deal with, between her job as a telekinetic government operative and a certain pair of siblings who have returned from the dead to wreak havoc with their powers. But little does she know, things are about to get even more crazy … Teagan might have survived the flash flood of the century, but now she’s trapped in a hotel by a bunch of gun-toting maniacs. And to make matters worse, her powers have mysteriously disappeared. Faced with certain death at every turn, Teagan will need to use every resource she has to stop a plot that could destroy Los Angeles — maybe even the entire world. 

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The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison

In The Grief of Stones, Katherine Addison returns to the world of The Goblin Emperor with a direct sequel to The Witness For The Dead…Celehar’s life as the Witness for the Dead of Amalo grows less isolated as his circle of friends grows larger. He has been given an apprentice to teach, and he has stumbled over a scandal of the city — the foundling girls. Orphans with no family to claim them and no funds to buy an apprenticeship. Foundling boys go to the Prelacies; foundling girls are sold into service, or worse.At once touching and shattering, Celehar’s witnessing for one of these girls will lead him into the depths of his own losses. The love of his friends will lead him out again.At the Publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

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February 2022

20 works reviewed. 12 by women (60%), 8 by men *40%), 0 by a non-binary author (0%), 0 by authors whose genders are unknown (0%), and 7 by POC (33%).

Year to Date

41 works reviewed. 23 by women (56% ), 18 by men (44%), 0 by a non-binary author (0%), 0 by authors whose genders are unknown (0%), and by 15 POC (37%).

Grand Total to Date

2049 works reviewed. 1147 by women (56%), 858 by men (42%), 26 by non-binary authors (1%), 18 by authors whose gender is unknown (1%), 589.75 by POC (29%).

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[Every once in a while Tor turns a piece down. Enjoy an example of such a piece written despite advice that it was probably a bad idea]

As one scans the shelves for new fantasy and science fiction to read, there is an absence. An absence usually overlooked, as absence is not as obvious as presence. The peculiar void that occasions this essay? The lack of authors surnamed Smith.

Now, at first glance this may seem inexplicable. Smith is said to be a common surname. However, while being an online pundit keeps me too busy to do even the most rudimentary research (not even a quick click on ISFDB), pure reason unsullied by mere factual evidence (or even the ability to bent over slightly to look at lower bookshelves) hints at reasons why SF author Smiths might be uncommon¹.

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Of Charms, Ghosts and Grievances by Aliette de Bodard

From the author of the critically acclaimed Dominion of the Fallen trilogy comes a sparkling new romantic adventure full of kissing, sarcasm and stabbing. 

It was supposed to be a holiday, with nothing more challenging than babysitting, navigating familial politics and arguing about the proper way to brew tea. 

But when dragon prince Thuan and his ruthless husband Asmodeus find a corpse in a ruined shrine and a hungry ghost who is the only witness to the crime, their holiday goes from restful to high-pressure. Someone is trying to silence the ghost and everyone involved. Asmodeus wants revenge for the murder; Thuan would like everyone, including Asmodeus, to stay alive.

Chased by bloodthirsty paper charms and struggling to protect their family, Thuan and Asmodeus are going to need all the allies they can — and, as the cracks in their relationship widen, they’ll have to face the scariest challenge of all: how to bring together their two vastly different ideas of their future… 

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