James Nicoll Reviews

HEAVEN IS A PRISON. HELL IS A PLAYGROUND.Ross Baker is an overworked scientist developing medical technology for corporate giant Neurosphere, but he’d rather be playing computer games than dealing with his nightmare boss or slacker co-workers.He volunteers as a test candidate for the new tech — anything to get out of the office for a few hours. But when he emerges from the scanner he discovers he’s not only escaped the office, but possibly escaped real life for good. He’s trapped in Starfire — a video game he played as a child — with no explanation, no backup and, most terrifyingly, no way out.

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As always, something happened to inspire me. This year it was this tweet by award-winning author Silvia Moreno-Garcia:

So I’ve been wondering if I should say something here because I am busy and tired and I don’t need the attention, but I think I must: the WFC guest of honor lineup for 2019 is sad. The con takes place in Los Angeles but all the GOHs are white. The theme is Fantasy Noir.

I could rebuke the WFC, but this might undermine my justly earned reputation for genial tolerance. Better that I should set aside any expressions of disappointment and irritation. Surely if the WFC could do better, they would be doing better. I shall embrace this problem as the inspiration for 2019’s major reviewing project, offered in the spirit of community-building and good will: 

Doing What the WFC Cannot Do, being an incomplete survey of POC currently active in speculative fiction. I will review 52 recent works by 52 different POC in 52 weeks. 

I don’t anticipate any particular difficulty in doing this. But then, I am not the WFC. 

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CONTENTS:

Prose –

THE ISHOLOGU // Jonathan Kincade

What truly separates good from evil? When a senseless act of violence unleashes an ancient evil on a community, it’s up to one bokor – an his undead accomplice – to make things right. 

GLOSS // Kola Heyward-Rotimi

For Ace and zeal, The Clipper is more than a glitch; it’s an escape, a refuge from reality. But when developers patch their refuge out of existence, Ace has to figure out how to break reality one more time. 

THE DAEMON KING OF ENGIM // Rafeeat Aliyu

Saya is a talented wizard who has dreams of being a fighter, but there’s a problem: women aren’t allowed to fight. She makes a deal with a capricious deity who says that they can make her dreams real…but is Saya prepared to pay the cost? 

NOTES ON THE PLAGUE // Shamar Harriott

A mysterious plague is killing black people. Amidst this tragedy, a small group of hopeful survivors tries to figure out how to retain their will to survive without the ability to touch – or trust. 

THE RAT KING OF SPANISH HARLEM // Nicky Drayden

A sweeping viral epidemic is changing the very fabric of humanity, and Alicia is one of the few unaffected humans remaining. In the midst of Humanity’s change, will she find a place to belong? 

Poetry –

NEST // B. Sharise Moore

THE BASKET WEAVER // Soonest Nathaniel

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Short version: I produced about as many reviews as the median reviewer on the Strange Horizons count might over about half a century, about as many reviews of books by women and non-binary authors as the median reviewer on the Strange Horizons list might over the course of about a century and about as many reviews of books by POC as as the median reviewer on the Strange Horizons count might over about one hundred and seventy-five years. Let’s see if I cannot at least make that last number a fifth of a millennium next year.

December

21 books read. 12 by women (57%), 8 by men (38%). 1 by an author whose gender is unknown (5%).

Works by POC: 5 (24%)

Year to Date 259 books read. 144 by women (56%), 105 by men (41%), 3 by NB (1%). 7 by persons whose gender is unknown (3%). Works by POC: 82.5 (32%) And now, the meaningless table.

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There’s nothing like a celebratory meal shared with friends and family! May you all enjoy!

Thanks to my editor Karen Lofstrom and my web person Adrienne L. Travis. Thank you all of my readers for sticking around for four and a bit years! Especially everyone who has commissioned a review or been part of my Patreon. And a big thanks to all of you authors, without whom writing book reviews would be very challenging.

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One of the most important and blazingly original writers of his generation, George Saunders is an undisputed master of the short story, and Tenth of December is his most honest, accessible, and moving collection yet.

In the taut opener, ​“Victory Lap,” a boy witnesses the attempted abduction of the girl next door and is faced with a harrowing choice: Does he ignore what he sees, or override years of smothering advice from his parents and act? In ​“Home,” a combat-damaged soldier moves back in with his mother and struggles to reconcile the world he left with the one to which he has returned. And in the title story, a stunning meditation on imagination, memory, and loss, a middle-aged cancer patient walks into the woods to commit suicide, only to encounter a troubled young boy who, over the course of a fateful morning, gives the dying man a final chance to recall who he really is. A hapless, deluded owner of an antiques store; two mothers struggling to do the right thing; a teenage girl whose idealism is challenged by a brutal brush with reality; a man tormented by a series of pharmaceutical experiments that force him to lust, to love, to kill — the unforgettable characters that populate the pages of Tenth of December are vividly and lovingly infused with Saunders’s signature blend of exuberant prose, deep humanity, and stylistic innovation.

Writing brilliantly and profoundly about class, sex, love, loss, work, despair, and war, Saunders cuts to the core of the contemporary experience. These stories take on the big questions and explore the fault lines of our own morality, delving into the questions of what makes us good and what makes us human.

Unsettling, insightful, and hilarious, the stories in Tenth of December—through their manic energy, their focus on what is redeemable in human beings, and their generosity of spirit — not only entertain and delight; they fulfill Chekhov’s dictum that art should ​“prepare us for tenderness.”

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Five hundred years ago, magi created a weapon they couldn’t control. An infestation that ate magic — and anything else it came into contact with. Enemies and allies were equally filling. 

Only an elite team of non-magical humans, known as sweepers, can defuse and dispose of infestations before they spread. Most die before they finish training. 

Laura, a new team member, has stayed alive longer than most. Now, she’s the last — and only — sweeper standing between the city and a massive infestation. 

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The author of The Last Unicorn presents thirteen fantastical and mystical stories celebrating the most beloved mythical creature by some of today’s top fantasy authors, including an original tale by Janet Berliner written especially for this edition.

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November

21 books read. 12 by women (57%), 8 by men (38%). 1 by NB (5%).

Works by POC: 5 (24%)

Year to Date

238 books read. 132 by women (55%), 97 by men (41%), 3 by NB (1%). 6 by persons whose gender is unknown (3%). Works by POC: 77.5 (33%) And now, the meaningless table. Numbers drawn from the most recent Strange Horizons Count, which isn’t all that recent anymore. 

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Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining Station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn’t an accident — or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court. 

Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her Station from Teixcalaan’s unceasing expansion — all while navigating an alien culture that is all too seductive, engaging in intrigues of her own, and hiding a deadly technological secret — one that might spell the end of her Station and her way of life — or rescue it from annihilation. 

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