James Nicoll Reviews

Motheater by Linda H. Codega (January 2025

After her best friend dies in a coal mine, Benethea ​“Bennie” Mattox sacrifices her job, her relationship, and her reputation to uncover what’s killing miners on Kire Mountain. When she finds a half-drowned white woman in a dirty mine slough, Bennie takes her in because it’s right — but also because she hopes this odd, magnetic stranger can lead her to the proof she needs.

Instead, she brings more questions. The woman called Motheater can’t remember her true name, or how she ended up inside the mountain. She knows only that she’s a witch of Appalachia, bound to tor and holler, possum and snake, with power in her hands and Scripture on her tongue. But the mystery of her fate, her doomed quest to keep industry off Kire Mountain, and the promises she bent and broke have followed her a century and half into the future. And now, the choices Motheater and Bennie make together could change the face of the town itself. 

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James Nicoll Reviews is supported by spontaneous donations, review commissions and Patreon subscribers. If you would like to commission a review, please see my guidelines. My Patreon is here. Spontaneous donations can be done via my Paypal. Advice on how to better promote my Patreon is also welcome.

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Late March, early April were as atypical as I expected. May did not feature the same award nomination per week. Or even any during the whole month.

Thanks to Facebook memories, I know May 30^th was the 10^th anniversary of my having the idea for the Because My Tears Are Delicious to You reviews. It took a full two days to turn the concept into reality.

May 2024

23 works reviewed. 15 by women (65%), 8 by men (35%), 0 by non-binary authors (0%), 0 by authors whose gender is unknown (0%), and 13 by POC (57%).

2024 to Date

109 works reviewed. 61 by women (56%), 45 by men (41%), 2 by
non-binary authors (2%), 1 by authors whose gender is unknown (1%), and 46 by POC (42%).

Grand Total to Date

2638 works reviewed. 1473 by women (56%), 1100 by men (42%), 42 by non-binary authors (2%), 23 by authors whose gender is unknown (1%), and 817.75 by POC (31%).

Government Types May 2024

Total 23, Not Applicable 1 (4%), Unclear 1 (4%), Anarchy 0 (0%), Pure democracy 0 (0%), Representative democracy 10 (43%), Oligarchy 11 (48%), Autocracy 0 (0%).

Government Type 2024 TD

Total 109, Not Applicable 14 (13%), Unclear 5 (5%), Anarchy 4 (4%),
Pure democracy 0 (0%), Representative democracy 37 (34%), Oligarchy 45 (41%), Autocracy 4 (5%).

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The Lies We Conjure by Sarah Henning (September 2024)

Knives Out meets The Inheritance Games with magic in this standalone supernatural thriller by Sarah Henning: thirteen witches, a locked-room murder, and two non-magical sisters trapped in a deadly game of Clue

Ruby and her sister, Wren, are normal, middle-class Colorado high school students working a summer job at the local Renaissance Fest to supplement their meager college savings.

So when an eccentric old lady asks them to impersonate her long-absent grandchildren at a fancy dinner party at the jaw-dropping rate of two grand — each — for a single night… Wren insists it’s a no-brainer. Make some cash, have some fun, do a good deed.

But less than an hour into the evening at the mysterious Hegemony Manor, Ruby is sure she must have lost her mind to have agreed to this.

The hostess is dead, the gates are locked, and a magical curse ensures no one can leave until they solve both her murder and the riddles she left behind — in just three days. Because everyone else at this party is a powerful witch. And if the witches realize Ruby and Wren are imposters? The sisters won’t make it out of Hegemony Manor alive. 

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Januaries by Olivie Blake (October 2024)

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six comes Januaries, a stunning collection of short fiction featuring fourteen magical ruminations on life, death, and the love — or desire for revenge — that outlasts both

Once upon a time in a land far, far away, a wish-granting spirit rapidly approaches burnout. Meanwhile, a banished fairy answers a Craigslist ad, a Victorian orphan navigates an occult situationship, and a multiverse assassin contemplates the one who got away.

With both iconic fan-favorite stories and entirely original pieces, Januaries features modified fairy tales, contemporary heists, absurdist poetry, and at least one set of actual wedding vows. Escape the slow trudge of mortality by diving into these enchanting new worlds with a master of imagination. 

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Fears: Tales of Psychological Horror edited by Ellen Datlow (September 2024)

Bestselling horror editor Ellen Datlow (Body Shocks) returns with twenty-one stories of extreme psychological dread from such horror icons as Stephen Graham Jones, Priya Sharma, Josh Malerman, Margo Lanagan, and more. The unsettling tales explore the nature of fear as it stirs in dysfunctional families, toxic friendships, and mismatched lovers, which culminates in relentless stalkers, remorseless killers, and perpetrators of savage rituals.

Far beneath the mere supernatural lives something worse: the depths of human depravity. Your child is sacrificed in compensation for your social misstep. You compete in a sick game to save your loved ones. Your mom is insane, your dad is dying, your brother is not your brother, and you’re stuck in the same house until one or all of you are dead. In her newest landmark anthology, Ellen Datlow has unearthed twenty-one exemplary tales of what people should fear the most: other people. 

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The Naming Song by Jedediah Berry (September 2024)

When the words went away, the world changed. 

All meaning was lost, and every border fell. Monsters slipped from dreams to haunt the waking while ghosts wandered the land in futile reveries. Only with the rise of the committees of the named — Maps, Ghosts, Dreams, and Names — could the people stand against the terrors of the nameless wilds. They built borders around their world and within their minds, shackled ghosts and hunted monsters, and went to war against the unknown. 

For one unnamed courier of the Names Committee, the task of delivering new words preserves her place in a world that fears her. But after a series of monstrous attacks on the named, she is forced to flee her committee and seek her long-lost sister. Accompanied by a patchwork ghost, a fretful monster, and a nameless animal who prowls the shadows, her search for the truth of her past opens the door to a revolutionary future — for the words she carries will reshape the world. 

The Naming Song is a book of deep secrets and marvelous discoveries, strange adventures and dangerous truths. It’s the story of a world locked in a battle over meaning. Most of all, it’s the perfect fantasy for anyone who’s ever dreamed of a stranger, freer, more magical world. 

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A huge shout-out to my donors, subscribers and audience, for their part in my nomination to the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association Hall of Fame¹.

James Nicoll Reviews is supported by spontaneous donations, review commissions and Patreon subscribers. If you would like to commission a review, please see my guidelines. My Patreon is here. Spontaneous donations can be done via my Paypal. Advice on how to better promote my Patreon is also welcome. 

1: Contrary to my expectation last month, the nomination high has not worn off. It helps that in addition to the CSFFA Hall of Fame nomination, Young People Read Old SFF is an Aurora Award finalist.

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April’s news: on the heels of the public announcement that I was a Hugo Award finalist, I discovered that I am a nominee for the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association Hall of Fame, and that my Young People Read Old SFF is a finalist for the Aurora Award. May will have to work very hard to top that.

This year, the Hugo Award Ceremony and the Aurora Award Ceremony are both on August 11^th, about two hours apart.

April marked the 10^th anniversary of my Rediscovery Reviews, which would in a few months time develop into James Nicoll Reviews. I should probably be thinking how I want to acknowledge that anniversary.

April 2024

21 works reviewed. 10 by women (48%), 9 by men (43%), 2 by non-binary authors (10%), 0 by authors whose gender is unknown (0%), and 8 by POC (38%).

2024 to Date

86 works reviewed. 46 by women (53%), 37 by men (43%), 2 by
non-binary authors (2%), 1 by authors whose gender is unknown (1%), and 33 by POC (38%).

Grand Total to Date

2615 works reviewed. 1458 by women (56%), 1092 by men (42%), 42 by non-binary authors (2%), 23 by authors whose gender is unknown (1%), and 804.75 by POC (31%).

Government Types April 2024

Total 22, Not Applicable 1 (5%), Unclear 2 (9%), Anarchy 2 (9%), Pure democracy 0 (0%), Representative democracy 6 (27%), Oligarchy 10 (45%), Autocracy 1 (5%).

Government Type 2024 TD

Total 86, Not Applicable 13 (15%), Unclear 4 (5%), Anarchy 4 (5%), Pure democracy 0 (0%), Representative democracy 27 (31%), Oligarchy 34 (40%), Autocracy 4 (5%).

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Metal From Heaven by August Clarke (October 2024)

For fans of The Princess Bride and Gideon the Ninth: a bloody lesbian revenge tale and political fantasy set in a glittering world transformed by industrial change – and simmering class warfare. 

Ichorite is progress. More durable and malleable than steel, ichorite is the lifeblood of a dawning industrial revolution. Yann I. Chauncey owns the sole means of manufacturing this valuable metal, but his workers, who risk their health and safety daily, are on strike. They demand Chauncey research the hallucinatory illness befalling them, a condition they call ​“being lustertouched.” Marney Honeycutt, a lustertouched child worker, stands proud at the picket line with her best friend and family. That’s when Chauncey sends in the guns. 

Only Marney survives the massacre. She vows bloody vengeance. 

A decade later, Marney is the nation’s most notorious highwayman, and Chauncey’s daughter seeks an opportune marriage. Marney’s rage and the ghosts of her past will drive her to masquerade as an aristocrat, outmaneuver powerful suitors, and win the heart of his daughter, so Marney can finally corner Chauncey and satisfy her need for revenge. But war ferments in the north, and deeper grudges are surfacing… 

H. A. Clarke’s adult fantasy debut, writing as August Clarke, Metal from Heaven is a punk-rock murder ballad tackling labor issues and radical empowerment against the relentless grind of capitalism. 

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