James Nicoll Reviews

28 books reviewed. 22 by women, 6 by men. F/T = 0.79

Thus far in 2015, I have reviewed more books by women than all of the sites that made Strange Horizon’s round up for 2014: Tor, SFX, Romantic Times (specfic only), Strange Horizons, Interzone, io9, F&SF, Vector, Analog, Asimov’s, NYRSF, Science Fiction Studies, Foundation, CSZ, and LARB .

Thus far in 2015, I have reviewed more books in general than any of the following: SFX (199), Romantic Times (127-specfic only), Strange Horizons (115), Interzone (79), io9 (74), F&SF (59), Vector (59), Analog (58), Asimov’s (47), NYRSF (45), Science Fiction Studies (43), Foundation (29), CSZ (22), LARB (17). Beating the numbers for Locus (299), and Tor (271) remains in my future.

My totals for writer of colour remains both dismal and competitive: 5/28 (18%) for August and 18 or 19/216 (9%) for 2015 to date.

Read more ➤

The James Tiptree, Jr. Award is an ​“annual literary prize for science fiction or fantasy that expands or explores our understanding of gender.” Details on its history and why it has the name it does, as well as a list of winners, the honor lists and other notable works can be found here.

I had the privilege to be a jurist in 2011. For that and other reasons, this is an award for which I have a personal interest, as should you all. Accordingly, over the next year or so, I will be reviewing the Tiptree winners in the chronological order in which they won, more or less [1], as copies fall into my hand.

Read more ➤

28 books reviewed. 17 by women, 11 by men. F/T = 61%

Year to date: 188 books, 110 by women, 78 by men. This means that I have exceeded the number of books I reviewed here in 2014, as well as the number of spec fic books reviewed in 2014 by the following review sources Strange Horizons deigned to acknowledge in their annual round up: Romantic Times (127), Strange Horizons (115), Interzone (79), io9 (74), F&SF (59), Vector (59), Analog (58), Asimov’s (47), NYRSF (45), Science Fiction Studies (43), Foundation (29), CSZ (22), LARB (17). Beating the numbers for Locus (299), Tor (271) and SFX (199) remains in my future (near future for SFX).

Where books by women are concerned, however, of all the review sources named above, only Locus edges me out and only narrowly: about 118 to my 110. Thus far. 

Read more ➤

At some point there will an actual suggestion box but until then I will try a monthly request. 

Which books do you think should go onto my ​“consider for non-sponsored review” list? In particular, which new or upcoming books come to mind? Feel free to explain why you picked the book or books that you chose.

Read more ➤

28 books reviewed. 16 by women. 12 by men. F/T = 0.57

Read more ➤

28 books reviewed. 14 by women. 14 by men. F/T = 0.50

Read more ➤

Graveyard Orbits will be a very irregular series of reviews of noteworthy books that were also their author’s final books due to Author Existence Failure.

Read more ➤

26 books reviewed. 18 by women. 8 by men. F/T = 0.62

Read more ➤

How to Commission a Review

A: You can buy a review for a book for $100 or by supporting my Patreon: see its page for specific details. I am very open to various media of payment. 

B: Authors may not buy reviews of their own books nor can their family members, publishers or agents. This is for two reasons: Yog’s Law and also the possibility that a confused minority might expect if they pay me to read their book they are then entitled to a positive review.

Authors may point out to me that their qualifying books are now out (or back in print) and while I cannot promise to read said books, there will not be a charge if I do.

C: I have the right to decline any book; this is not to be taken as a negative comment on the author or book. 

D: Generally, I am not willing to review any book where I would not then allow the author right of reply. I think writers commenting on reviews can go south pretty precipitously but I leave it to their judgement.

I reserve the right to break my own rules except for B because, wow, can authors buying reviews go horribly wrong fast.

Read more ➤

Yeah, that’s not my original name for this series of reviews but it occurred to me my original choice could be censored by nannyware.

There are lots of books that fall under either military science fiction or military fantasy; the first is generally shortened to MilSF and the second runs into very similar nannyware issues as the original series title. Most published MilSF and MilF embodies Sturgeon’s Law: 90% of everything is crud (1). I will be reviewing military speculative fiction I believe falls into that last 10%, MilSpecFic that isn’t an egregious insult to the reader’s sensibilities.

I will be using two rules of thumb to determine if something is MilSpecFic:

A: rec.arts.sf.written’s old definition (expanded to include fantasy): Military sf is sf about people who are in a chain of command.

B: I know it when I see it.

Personally, I draw a distinction between modern MilSpecFic and its precursors; various conventions had not been set in stone when the older books were written and published. Some of the older books I have in mind for this series may seem a bit odd if the MilSpecFic you’ve read is exclusively of what I like to call the Jerry Pournelle lineage; I hope that’s odd in an interesting way.

1: You might think I would take the opportunity to take a cheap shot at Baen at this juncture, but while much of their output is dreadful, not all of it is. They are not the worst publishers of MilSF and MilF out there, not by a long shot. Entertain yourself by speculating which publisher I have in mind as the worst.

Read more ➤