James Nicoll Reviews

The Ashfire King by Chelsea Abdullah (April 2025)

A merchant and a prince trapped in the crumbling realm of jinn must figure out how to save one world to return to their own in The Ashfire King, the second book in the Sandsea Trilogy, perfect for fans of The City of Brass and The Bone Shard Daughter.

Neither here nor there, but long ago…

After fleeing a patricidal prince, legendary merchant Loulie al-Nazari and banished prince Mazen bin Malik find themselves in the realm of jinn. But instead of sanctuary, they find a world on the cusp of collapse.

The jinn cities, long sheltered beneath the Sandsea by the magic of its kings, are sinking. Amid the turmoil, political alliances are forming, and rebellion is on the rise. When Loulie assists a dissenter — one of her bodyguard’s old comrades — she puts herself in the center of a centuries-old war.

Trapped in a world that isn’t her own and wielding magic that belongs to a fallen king, Loulie must decide: Will she carry on someone else’s legacy or carve out her own? 

Dragonbane Quickstart – The Sinking Tower by Tomas Härenstam, Nils Karlén, and Marco Behrmann (January 2025)

This FREE Quickstart PDF for the award-winning fantasy RPG Dragonbane includes condensed rules, pre-generated characters, and the tournament-style adventure The Sinking Tower.

The adventure offers difficult challenges for even the bravest and most skilled adventurers. The players will need to work together to solve puzzles, win battles, and find valuable treasure – all in just two hours!

Twilight 2000: Urban Operations by Tomas Härenstam et al (June 2023)

Urban Operations, the first expansion to the new edition of RPG classic Twilight: 2000, is a massive modular expansion that includes everything you need to play in urban environments. The expansion is loosely based on the classic module Free City of Krakow from the first edition of Twilight: 2000 RPG, but designed to be used in any city environment.

This boxed set includes new combat and travel rules for urban environments, close quarters fighting, new factions for the PCs to tangle with, new scenario sites to explore, and introduces the new plot concept to create longer story arcs. It also describes the two sample towns Krakow and Karlsborg in text and maps. Contents of the boxed set:

• A 96-page book stuffed with new rules and gaming material.
• 16 new Encounter Cards, for use in any town or city.
• 10 modular battle maps for urban environments.
• 4 modular battle maps for close quarters combat.
• 4 scenario site battle maps, two of which for close combat quarters.
• 54 battle map tokens for debris, sandbags, floor level indicators, blocks and breaches.
• A double-sided full-color city travel map for the example towns of Krakow and Karlsborg, format 558x432mm.
• A double-sided full-color battle map for the Wawel castle in Krakow and Karlsborg Fortress, format 558x432mm.

Tanith Lee A to Z by Tanith Lee (November 2018)

Tanith Lee was one of the most influential and admired writers of the 20^th Century. Since her first novel in 1971, right up to her death in 2015, her works resonated with generations of readers. She left behind an incredible legacy: a body of work which embraces every facet of the fantastic. From vampires to ghosts, fairies to robots, science fiction to fantasy and horror and back again: no-one could write like Tanith Lee!

Telos Publishing is proud to present this special collection of 26 key works from Tanith’s vast short story archive. Personally selected by her husband, the artist John Kaiine, these stories will touch your heart. They will caress your soul before ripping it from your body … they will change the way you look at the world.

‘A beautiful writer … spot-on, with moments of wry humour amid her smooth, elegant prose; she gives the impression of days-of-yore and a faraway world, and tackles her creation’s weird eroticisms, without ever being tempted… 

Silver Throat by Siri Pettersen (February 2025)

The gripping Vardari adventure continues in Book 2 — full of secrets, romance, and twists you won’t see coming!

The second book in the International bestselling Vardari series, Silver Throat continues where book one left off. After Juva lets Grif out into the world and he escapes Naklav, it seems the Vardari should no longer be able to live, without their source of eternal life, and the city should finally be free of wolf disease. But Juva’s plan has failed and the epidemic is now spreading. Caught between an idle city council and the immortals desperate fight for the last drops of life-giving blood, Juva must team up with a fanatic priest to save Naklav from destruction. But she soon realizes she may have trusted the wrong person, and the scar left by Grif’s leaving is deeper than she thought. 

Ansuz by Malene Sølvsten (November 2023)

The first book in the Whisper of the Ravens series 

Fantasy, crime, and Norse gods come together when it emerges that a series of bestial murders is connected with an ancient prophecy about the end of the world. Anna can see events from the past, and one night she glimpses an old and horrible murder: a red-haired girl is killed and a rune carved into her back. Shortly afterward, someone begins killing red-haired girls in the same manner, and the rune is found on all of them. Suddenly the little town is full of strangers. They have mysterious powers, and are drawn to Anna, who isn’t used to being near other people. Several of the strangers want to help her, but it takes a long time before she knows which of them she can trust. 

Playing on such classic themes as good versus evil, the book is at once a fantasy, a thriller, and a coming-of-age story.

The Memory Hunters by Mia Tsai (July 2023)

Kiana Strade can dive deeper into blood memories than anyone alive. But instead of devoting her talents to the temple she’s meant to lead, Key wants to do research for the Museum of Human Memory… and to avoid the public eye.

Valerian IV’s twin swords protect Key from murderous rivals and her own enthusiasm alike. Vale cares about Key as a friend — and maybe more — but most of all, she needs to keep her job so she can support her parents and siblings in the storm-torn south. 

But when Key collects a memory that diverges from official history, only Vale sees the fallout. Key’s mentor suspiciously dismisses the finding; her powerful mother demands she stop research altogether. And Key, unusually affected by the memory, begins to lose moments, then minutes, then days. 

As Vale becomes increasingly entangled in Key’s obsessive drive for answers, the women uncover a shattering discovery — and a devastating betrayal. Key and Vale can remain complicit, or they can jeopardize everything for the truth. 

Either way, Key is becoming consumed by the past in more ways than one, and time is running out. 

The Lie That Binds Them by Matthew Ward (April 2025)

Set in a world of ancient myth and dangerous magic, The Lie That Binds Them is the heart-pounding conclusion to Matthew Ward’s Soulfire Saga, where a thief dares to seek vengeance against an immortal king — and finds herself on the path to war.

The kingdom of Khalad is ruled by a new and brutal despot and its rebels scattered across its vast lands. With folk hero Vallant missing, Kat is now the leader of the rebellion.

When an assassination attempt rattles the kingdom, Kat turns to a powerful new ally for help. The cost of victory will be high, but time is running out to save Khalad. 

The Yellow Rambutan Tree Mystery by Ovidia Yu (June 2023)

The War may be over but Su Lin’s troubles are returning — along with the British — to Singapore…

When two of Uncle Chen’s associates come visiting Chen Mansion on the third day of Chinese New Year — an unlucky date in the Chinese calendar — Su Lin doesn’t let them in. Not just because of the taboo, but because her uncle has been unwell. But the bad luck has clearly followed them as one of them is soon discovered outside the house, dead, with a strip of dried yellow rambutan peel in his mouth. And the other associate has gone missing.

Could this have anything to do with the recent British ban on opium consumption? Singapore is only just adjusting to the return of British rule and the authorities suspect the dead man was killed for threatening to expose the Chens for processing and distributing the drug. And as Su Lin adjusts to the return of Le Froy to Singapore, being Parshanti’s bridesmaid and figuring out why scraps of yellow rambutan peel keep showing up around the mansion, she is forced to think about whether she has a future in the Chen family — and in the new, post-Second World War Singapore…