James Nicoll Reviews

I’ve had savage beatings that affected my ability to work less than did FASS 2016. Oh, well.

18 books reviewed. 12 by women, 5 by men. 1 by an author who identifies as neither, which I am a bit embarrassed to admit is a first for me. F/T = 0.67

My Big Plan for February was to honour Black History month. Every book I read on my own time (non-sponsored, and not part of the Tanith Lee project) was to be by a black author. How well did I do, you ask? 8 books by POC, or 44% But 8 isn’t a big number: the only reason it’s 44% is because I basically read almost nothing in February. Worse, I read two books by Butler when it would have been trivial to avoid such a cliched choice of author to read twice in this context. But at least I have a long list of books to read. 

Year to date

40 books read. 24 by women (0.60), 15 by men (0.38), 1 by an author who identifies as neither (0.02). 11 by POC (0.28)

40 books in 60 days. I feel physically ill. 

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I was involved in FASS 2016 in a fairly senior role. This ate into my ability to work a lot more seriously than I expected so these stats are going to be pretty ugly:

22 books read. 12 by women, ten by men. F/T = 0.54

3 books by POC¹. POC/T = 14%. But I had a plan to make sure my February numbers would be better. More to come.…

1: I’ve been using ​“could be deported or worse by President Trump” as a litmus test. Given Trump’s now backed by Duke and Farrakhan, should I be counting Jews as POC? 

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Total for the year is 329. This means I read and review more books than any one of the sites that made Strange Horizon’s round up: Locus (296), Tor (271) 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). Only more than the sum of Vector, Analog, Asimov’s, NYRSF, Science Fiction Studies, Foundation, CSZ and LARB’s numbers, though, so there’s a goal for 2016.

Not that I am keeping a grudge because I was snubbed.

195 of those books were by women, for an F/T of 0.59.

My total for writers of colour (using the ​“Assuming a Trump Presidency, could their race be used to justify deporting them from the US, even in the cases of people who were born in the US’’ for edge cases): 45 (14%) for the year. Bah. Hoped to be at least a point or two higher. Another goal for 2016. 

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28 works reviewed. 16.5 by women, 11.5 by men. F/T =

0.59

WOC = 4 WOC/T = 14%

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My second since this site was launched. 

Merry Christmas to all my readers and especially Adrienne L. Travis for creating and managing this site, Karen Lofstrom for turning my daily word salad into reviews, all of my patreon supporters for supporting me[1], and everyone who has ever commissioned a review. And everyone who suggested an interesting book for me to try. 

1: Some of whom I owe reviews. Working on it.

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28 works reviewed. 15 by women, 13 by men. F/T = 0.53

Total for the year so far is 301. This put me past Locus’ total for 2014 but since I for some reason thought that total was 299 and not the correct value of 296, I managed to miss the event when it happened.

My total for writers of colour (using the ​“Assuming a Trump Presidency, could their race be used to justify deporting them from the US, even in the cases of people who were born in the US’’ for edge cases): 7 (25%) for November, 41 (14%) for the year. 

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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.

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29 works reviewed. 15 by women, 14 by men. F/T = 0.52

For some reason, my commissions in October were dominated by books by men. 

Total for the year so far is 273, exceeding tor.com’s 271 total for 2014. On track to pass Locus’ 299 in November.

My total for writers of colour (using the ​“Assuming a Trump Presidency, could their race be used to justify deporting them from the US, even in the cases of people who were born in the US’’ for edge cases): 8 (28%) for October, 34 (12%) for the year. 

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Tanith Lee died earlier this year. She was extraordinarily prolific, writing more than ninety novels in a career that spanned six decades. Too many of her books to list here were nominated for awards but her wins include Death’s Master (BFA), The Gorgon (WFA), Elle Est Trois, and (La Mort) (WFA); in 2013, she was presented by a Life Achievement WFA. Clearly she was a writer of significance but in recent years she had not received the attention her talent deserved.

When I heard the news of her death, I decided to commemorate her career in this very small way, by reviewing a wide selection of her published works.

My tentative list, created after soliciting selections from Lee fans is as follows. I may modify it depending on availability.

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28 works reviewed. 16.5 by women, 11.5 by men. F/T = 0.59

Total for the year so far is 244, so still short of both tor.com’s 271 and Locus’ 299. James has a sad.

My total for writers of colour (using the ​“Assuming a Trump Presidency, could their race be used to justify deporting them from the US, even in the cases of people who were born in the US’ for edge cases): 7 (25%) for September, 26 (11%) for the year. 

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