James Nicoll Reviews

Chaos King by Kacen Callender (April 2025)

WHEN THE WORLD BURNS, ASH WILL RISE.

The explosive sequel to instant New York Times bestselling YA debut Infinity Alchemist by Kacen Callender.

The hardcover edition features a beautiful jacket with silver foil, a case stamp, an in-world map and illustrated endpapers.

Ever since he rose up against his father and saved New Anglia from destruction, Ash has been struggling to adapt to his new life. He has nightmares every night, haunted by strange black orbs and his screaming dead mother. Ash is sure she’s trying to warn him that the world is still in danger, and becomes determined to find a way to speak to her again — but communicating with the dead isn’t easy, even for an alchemist as powerful as Ash.

It doesn’t help that violent anti-alchemist sentiment is spreading across New Anglia. When Ash is captured by a radical alchemist group, inspired by his father’s legacy, he must decide if alchemist rights can be trusted in the hands of the Houses, along with his partners Callum and Ramsay — or if Ash must follow the path his father laid for him, and become the leader of an alchemist revolution. 

Can Ash keep his relationships together and stop the world from falling apart? 

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I just realized I used my Patreon boost image on my monthly stats round-up, so you’re getting the image I should have used yesterday even though it makes no sense whatsoever to use that painting in this context. I like that painting and want it to get all twelve uses here. 

James Nicoll Reviews is supported in part by Patreon subscribers, to whom I am very grateful. You can join my Patreon here. You too can have ongoing say in which books I review! 

For more immediate gratification, consider commissioning a review. Please see my guidelines here. Note that The Number of the Beast (under both titles) is a special case. 

Spontaneous donations can be done via my Paypal. Helpful suggestions may be left here. 

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Not a lot of thrilling news this month. Autocracy seems to have raced ahead in October. Let’s hope November fares better. 

October 2024

23 works reviewed. 11.5 by women (50%),11.5 by men (50%), 0 by non-binary authors (5%), 0 by authors whose gender is unknown (5%), and 10 by POC (43%).

2024 to Date

219 works reviewed. 119.5 by women (55%), 94.5 by men (42%), 3 by non-binary authors (1%), 2 by authors whose gender is unknown (1%), and 89.5 by POC (41%).

Grand Total to Date

2748 works reviewed. 1531.5 by women (56%), 1149.5 by men (42%), 43 by non-binary authors (2%), 24 by authors whose gender is unknown (1%), and 861.25 by POC (31%).

Government Types October 2024

Total 23, Not Applicable 3 (13%), Unclear 2 (9%), Anarchy 0 (0%), Pure democracy 0 (%), Representative democracy 5 (22%), Oligarchy 13 (57%), Autocracy 0 (0%).

Government Type 2024 TD

Total 219, Not Applicable 25 (11%), Unclear 15 (7%), Anarchy 6 (3%), Pure democracy 1 (0.5%), Representative democracy 71 (32%), Oligarchy 95 (43%), Autocracy 6 (3%).

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Reactor passed on this, probably because too many readers would miss the point and leave baffled, angry comments. Sarcasm and such often does not go over well. Inconvenient for me as most of my conversation is made of sarcasm, irony, and gallows humour.

Recently, the tabletop roleplaying game community has been aflame over accessibility within game worlds. The argument, as I understand it, is that worlds favorable to thrilling adventures are short on namby-pamby consideration for the less able. In such dog-eat-dog settings, entirely bereft as they are of any charitable sentiments, even minor disabilities would spell doom. Adventures are therefore the sole domain of physical paragons such as Captain Harlock, Zatoichi, and Götz von Berlichingen.

Although the argument seems superficially convincing, a curious pattern emerges when we examine adventure fiction. 

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Gifted & Talented by Olivie Blake (April 2025)

Where there’s a will, there’s a war.

Thayer Wren, the brilliant CEO of Wrenfare Magitech and so-called father of modern technology, is dead. Any one of his three telepathically and electrokinetically gifted children would be a plausible inheritor to the Wrenfare throne.

Or at least, so they like to think.

Meredith, textbook accomplished eldest daughter and the head of her own groundbreaking biotech company, has recently cured mental illness. You’re welcome! If only her father’s fortune wasn’t her last hope for keeping her journalist ex-boyfriend from exposing what she really is: a total fraud.

Arthur, second-youngest congressman in history, fights the good fight every day of his life. And yet, his wife might be leaving him, and he’s losing his re-election campaign. But his dead father’s approval in the form of a seat on the Wrenfare throne might just turn his sinking ship around.

Eilidh, once the world’s most famous ballerina, has spent the last five years as a run-of-the-mill marketing executive at her father’s company after a life-altering injury put an end to her prodigious career. She might be lacking in accolades compared to her siblings, but if her father left her everything, it would finally validate her worth — by confirming she’d been his favorite all along. 

On the pipeline of gifted kid to clinically depressed adult, nobody wins — but which Wren will come out on top? 

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The Outcast Mage by Annabel Campbell (January 2025)

In this glittering debut fantasy, a mage bereft of her powers must find out if she is destined to save the world or destroy it. Perfect for fans of Andrea Stewart, James Islington, and Samantha Shannon.

In the glass city of Amoria, magic is everything. And Naila, student at the city’s legendary academy, is running out of time to prove she can control hers. If she fails, she’ll be forced into exile, relegated to a life of persecution with the other magicless hollows. Or worse, be consumed by her own power. 

When a tragic incident further threatens her place at the Academy, Naila is saved by Haelius Akana, the most powerful living mage. Finding Naila a kindred spirit, Haelius stakes his position at the Academy on teaching her to harness her abilities. But Haelius has many enemies, and they would love nothing more than to see Naila fail. Trapped in the deadly schemes of Amoria’s elite, Naila must dig deep to discover the truth of her powers or watch the city she loves descend into civil war.

For there is violence brewing on the wind, and greater powers at work. Ones who could use her powers for good… or destroy everything she’s ever known.

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Usurpation by Sue Burke (October 2024)

After her rollicking standalone Dual Memory, Sue Burke returns to her Semiosis series and the world of Pax in Usurpation, which combines the thrill of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening with the eco-empowerment of VanderMeer’s Dead Astronauts.

Stevland, the dominant sentient lifeform of Pax, has clandestinely sent some of its progeny to Earth. To explore, to spread, to report back.

Since their germination, Earth has been a powder keg. Human rebellion, robot uprisings, and global pandemics have created chaos, distrust, and deaths.

As more and more conflicts break out across Earth, Stevland’s children work in the background, in an attempt to control human behavior and perhaps, bring peace to the planet. Stevland took control of Pax. Earth shouldn’t be too difficult…

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James Nicoll Reviews is supported in part by Patreon subscribers, to whom I am very grateful. You can join my Patreon here. You too can have ongoing say in which books I review! 

For more immediate gratification, consider commissioning a review. Please see my guidelines here. Note that The Number of the Beast (under both titles) is a special case. 

Spontaneous donations can be done via my Paypal.

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Fabula Ultima Core Rules 1.02 by Emanuele Galletto (October 2022)

This is your world,
this is your story.

Make a choice
and fight for what you believe in.

FABULA ULTIMA is a Tabletop Roleplaying Game inspired by Japanese-style console RPGs, or JRPGs. In Fabula Ultima, you and your friends will tell epic stories of would-be heroes and fearsome villains, set in fantasy worlds brimming with magic, wondrous locations, and uniquely bizarre monsters!

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September saw an uptick in works featuring representative democracies. Not sure why, as I didn’t seek them out in particular. I also added a new review category, History’s Actors, because if there’s one thing this site needs, it is another review category.

September 2024

21 works reviewed. 10 by women (48%), 9 by men (43%), 1 by non-binary authors (5%), 1 by authors whose gender is unknown (5%), and 9 by POC (43%).

2024 to Date

196 works reviewed. 108 by women (55%), 83 by men (42%), 3 by non-binary authors (2%), 2 by authors whose gender is unknown (1%), and 79.5 by POC (41%).

Grand Total to Date

2725 works reviewed. 1520 by women (56%), 1138 by men (42%), 43 by non-binary authors (2%), 24 by authors whose gender is unknown (1%), and 851.25 by POC (31%).

Government Types September 2024

Total 21, Not Applicable 2 (10%), Unclear 1 (5%), Anarchy 0 (0%), Pure democracy 0 (%), Representative democracy 10 (48%), Oligarchy 8 (38%), Autocracy 0 (0%).

Government Type 2024 TD

Total 196, Not Applicable 22 (11%), Unclear 13 (7%), Anarchy 6 (3%), Pure democracy 1 (0.5%), Representative democracy 66 (34%), Oligarchy 82 (42%), Autocracy 6 (3%).

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