James Nicoll Reviews

Beneath the Sugar Sky, the third book in McGuire’s Wayward Children series, returns to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children in a standalone contemporary fantasy for fans of all ages. At this magical boarding school, children who have experienced fantasy adventures are reintroduced to the ​“real” world.

When Rini lands with a literal splash in the pond behind Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, the last thing she expects to find is that her mother, Sumi, died years before Rini was even conceived. But Rini can’t let Reality get in the way of her quest – not when she has an entire world to save! (Much more common than one would suppose.)

If she can’t find a way to restore her mother, Rini will have more than a world to save: she will never have been born in the first place. And in a world without magic, she doesn’t have long before Reality notices her existence and washes her away. Good thing the student body is well-acquainted with quests…

A tale of friendship, baking, and derring-do.

Warning: May contain nuts.

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September

22 books read. 13 by women (59%), 9 by men (41%)

Works by POC: 6 (27%)

Year to Date

190 works reviewed. 104.5 by women (55%). 80.5 by men (42%). 4 by non-binary authors (2%). 1 by N/A (0.5%)

Works by POC: 57.5 (30%)

And now, the meaningless table.

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The book gods were very kind to me this week.

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As with the previous core lists, here are twenty Speculative Fiction Works about psionics and other mental gifts chosen entirely on the basis of merit and significance to the field¹. No implication is intended that these are the only twenty works you should consider².

• Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold
• Wildseed by Octavia E. Butler
• Enchantress From the Stars by Sylvia Louise Engdahl
• The Clairvoyant Countess by Dorothy Gilman
• Ingathering by Zenna Henderson
• Zero Sum Game by S.L. Huang
• The Man With Six Senses by Muriel Jaeger
• The Journal of Nicholas the American by Leigh Kennedy
• Shin Sekai Yori (From Another World) by Yusuke Kishi
• Deryni Rising by Katherine Kurtz
• A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L’Engle
• City of Illusions by Ursula Le Guin
• Adaptation by Malinda Lo
• The Birthgrave by Tanith Lee
• “The Lady in the Tower” by Anne McCaffrey
• Northwest of Earth by C. L. Moore
• Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg
• Children of the Atom by Wilmar H. Shiras
• Gray Lensman by E. E. Smith
• Psion by Joan D. Vinge

Persons unfamiliar with one or two of the works, congratulations! You’re one of today’s Ten Thousand!

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1: There are two filtering rules: 

• Only one work per author per list

• Any given work by a particular author can appear on only one list. A given author may, however, have works on various lists but each instance of their work will be unique. 

2: NO IMPLICATION IS INTENDED THAT THESE ARE THE ONLY TWENTY BOOKS YOU SHOULD CONSIDER.

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In a world where any act of magic could open a portal to hell, the Order insures that no wizard will live to summon devils, and will kill as many innocent people as they must to prevent that greater horror. After witnessing a horrendous slaughter, the village girl Heloise opposes the Order, and risks bringing their wrath down on herself, her family, and her village.

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This is a work in progress. Open to suggestions. In 2015 and 2016, I devoted Fridays to Norton and Lee, respectively. That led to a certain level of fatigue towards the end of the projects. In 2017, I focused on authors from Waterloo Region, which side-stepped the fatigue issue at the cost of causing problems with the gender ratio of authors reviewed¹. In 2018, my idea is to

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Three thousand years from now, galactic transportation relies on the
sentient energy field known as the Deep. Its immortal human emissaries call
themselves Witches, and they control how the Deep is used. When
eight-year-old Tembi Moon wakes on an unfamiliar world, she knows the Deep
has to be involved, but to leave her home planet and become a Witch
herself? No, that life isn’t for her.

Or so she thought.

At sixteen, Tembi takes her rightful place with the other Witches. They
believe the Deep is a tool; Tembi knows it’s a person with its own hopes
and dreams, and a *wicked* sense of humor! With a war coming that could
cost the lives of millions, Tembi has to find a way to convince the Witches
that the Deep wants them to join the fight.

Because something worse than war is coming, and the Deep needs its Witches
to be ready.

STONESKIN is a prelude to the DEEP WITCH TRILOGY, coming soon.

An odd Eritrean coin travels from lovers to thieves, gathering stories before meeting its match. Google becomes sentient and proceeds toward an existential crisis. An idealistic dancer on a generation ship makes an impassioned plea for creativity alongside survival. Three Irish siblings embark on an unlikely quest, stealing enchanted items via bad poetry, trickery, and an assist from the Queen of Cats. 

In her first collection, multi-award-winning novelist Jo Walton (Among Others, Farthing, Necessity, The King’s Peace) delivers subtle myths and wholly reinvented realities. She soars with eclectic stories, subtle vignettes, inspired poetry, and more — rising from the everyday into the universe itself.

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As with the previous core lists, here are twenty Cyberpunk Speculative Fiction Works chosen entirely on the basis of merit and significance to the field¹. No implication is intended that these are the only twenty books you should consider².

• iD by Madeleine Ashby

• Hammered by Elizabeth Bear

• Moxyland by Lauren Beukes

• Synners by Pat Cadigan

• The Fortunate Fall by Raphael Carter

• When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger

• Exit to Reality by Edith Forbes 

• Web of Angels by John M. Ford

• The Many Selves of Katherine North by Emma Geen

• Neuromancer by William Gibson

• Winterlong by Elizabeth Hand

• God’s War by Kameron Hurley

• Arachne by Lisa Mason

• Glass Houses by Laura J. Mixon

• Spin State by Chris Moriarty

• Outlaw School by Rebecca Ore

• Chimera by Mary Rosenblum

• Trouble and Her Friends by Melissa Scott

• The Matrix by Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski

• All Systems Red by Martha Wells

Persons unfamiliar with one or two of the works, congratulations! You’re one of today’s Ten Thousand!

1: There are two filtering rules: 

• Only one work per author per list

• Any given work by a particular author can appear on only one list. A given author may, however, have works on various lists but each instance of their work will be unique. 

2: NO IMPLICATION IS INTENDED THAT THESE ARE THE ONLY TWENTY BOOKS YOU SHOULD CONSIDER.

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The Only Harmless Great Thing is a heart-wrenching alternative history by Brooke Bolander that imagines an intersection between the Radium Girls and noble, sentient elephants.

In the early years of the 20^th century, a group of female factory workers in Newark, New Jersey slowly died of radiation poisoning. Around the same time, an Indian elephant was deliberately put to death by electricity in Coney Island.

These are the facts.

Now these two tragedies are intertwined in a dark alternate history of rage, radioactivity, and injustice crying out to be righted. Prepare yourself for a wrenching journey that crosses eras, chronicling histories of cruelty both grand and petty in search of meaning and justice.

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Vada’s To-Do List:

- Turn 18 (check!)
- Register super name
- Order supersuit
- Attend superhero indoctrination
- Graduate high school
- Start kicking criminal tail

Vada Lawson can’t wait to be a superhero. Born into a family with special powers, she’s been training to fight criminals and villains her whole life. But her indoctrination into the underground super community is derailed when normals start breaking out in superpowers themselves.

Not trained to control their new abilities, the normals are frightened and vulnerable. Then their mutilated corpses begin turning up all over town. What the heck?

Somehow, with the help — and hindrance — of an annoying newly-minted super named Orion, Vada has to stop the chaos before it destroys her and everything she holds dear…and ruins her superhero debut.

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The September issue features interviews with Matt Ruff and Karin Tidbeck, a column by Cory Doctorow, an obituary and appreciations of Brian Aldiss, lists of forthcoming books through June 2018, and reviews of short fiction and books by Annalee Newitz, Josh Malerman, Kat Howard, Linda Nagata, and many others.

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August

22 books read. 12.5 by women (57%), 8.5 by men (37%), 1 by N/A (5%)

Works by POC: 5 (23%)

Year to Date

168 works reviewed. 91.5 by women (54%). 71.5 by men (43%). 4 by non-binary authors (2%). 1 by N/A (0.6%)

Works by POC: 51.5 (31%)

And now, the meaningless table.

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