James Nicoll Reviews

Jane Hawkins lives on a floating space port where she tries to help her mothers run a failing inn. Every day she watches starships land from far-off places, bound for exotic adventures.

But a new occupant under their roof is about to change everything. His name is Villem Osteonides. More machine than man, he’s crewed aboard ships that sail through the universe faster than light.

And he has a secret that will change Jane’s life forever.

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My venerable laptop has been displaying disturbing behavior of the sort that suggests it’s time to replace it. Accordingly, any reviews commissioned between now and August 15, 2018 are half off! Fifty dollars will buy you a book review by yours truly! Multiples of fifty will buy you multiple reviews!

(Because I don’t want my loyal patreon supporters to feel short-changed, any Patreon review credits claimed between now and the 15^th are also doubled.). 

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July

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

Works by POC: 4 (20%)

Year to Date

151 books read. 82.5 by women (55%), 61.5 by men (41%), 2 by NB (1%). 5 by persons whose gender is unknown (3%).

Works by POC: 52 (34%)

And now, the meaningless table. 

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Liv Burnham thinks nobody knows Morgan Frost like she does, but a terrible accident pushes her down the rabbit hole where Morgan’s secrets hide and she’ll be lucky to make it out alive.…

On a hot summer night, Liv, Morgan, Clay and Nathan are on the way home from a party in Clay’s convertible. Best friends dating brothers? It doesn’t get better than that. But the joyride ends in sudden impact, a screech of brakes, and shattering glass. On that lonely country road, four lives change forever. 

Liv wakes in the hospital. At first she’s confused when they call her Morgan, but she assumes it’s a case of mistaken identity. Yet when the bandages come off, it’s not her face inthe mirror anymore. It’s Morgan’s. 

Morgan always seemed to have the perfect life. But as Liv tries to fit herself into Morgan’s world, she discovers endlessly disturbing secrets of the criminal and murderous variety and a dark task to finish…if she doesn’t lose her mind first. 

Forced to confront the disturbing truths that Morgan kept hidden in life, Liv must navigate a world of long-buried murder, a dangerous love affair―and a romance that feels like a betrayal. 

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I got behind…

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Only days have passed since a freak accident granted four college students superhuman powers. Now Jools and her friends (who haven’t even picked out a name for their superhero team yet) get caught up in the hunt for a Mad Genius’s misplaced super-weapon. But when Jools falls in with a modern-day Robin Hood and his band of super-powered Merry Men, she finds it hard to sort out the Good Guys from the Bad Guys―and to figure out which side she truly belong on. 

Especially since nobody knows exactly what the Gun does .… 

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An eccentric noblewoman scientist’s journey into a hostile environment will change her world forever, in this enthralling fantasy novel.Rhia Harlyn is a noble in Shen, one of the dozens of shadowlands which separate the bright, alien skyland. She has a missing brother, an unwanted marriage proposal and an interest in science considered unbecoming in her gender. Her brother’s disappearance coincided with a violent unsolved murder, and Rhia impulsively joins the search party headed into the skyland — a place whose dangers and wonders have long fascinated her. The dangerous journey brings her into conflict with a young rebel stuck between the worlds of shadow and light, and a charismatic cult leader who believes he can defeat death itself.

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June

21 books read. 11 by women (52%), 9 by men (43%). One by a person whose gender is unknown (5%)

Works by POC: 6.5 (31%)

Year to Date

129 books read. 69.5 by women (54%), 52.5 by men (41%), 2 by NB (2%). 5 by persons whose gender is unknown (4%).

Works by POC: 48 (37%)

And now, the meaningless table. 

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Asimov combines many of his science fiction favorites from the thirties with his personal reflections on his early years, interests, and influences 

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Theo Mackey only remembers one thing for certain about the fire that destroyed his home: he lit the match. 

Sure, it was an accident. But the blaze killed his mom and set his dad on a path to self-destruction. Everything else about that fateful night is full of gaping holes in Theo’s mind, for good reason. Maybe it’s better that way. As captain of the Ellis Hollow Diving Team, with straight A’s and solid friends, he’s only one semester away from securing a scholarship, and leaving his past behind. 

But when a family history project gets assigned at school, new memories come rushing to the surface, memories that make Theo question what he really knows about his family, the night of the fire, and if he can trust anyone―including himself. 

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