James Nicoll Reviews

Forever Curious by Jetse de Vries

In an intellectual clash of galactic proportions, the biggest mystery in the Universe encounters the smartest girl from Earth. Na-Yeli Maya is humanity’s champion exploring the forbidding Enigmatic Object. She’s not truly alone, as her exosuit is armed with the most advanced quantum computer — and obnoxious digital assistant — ever, and her tri-schizoid condition enables her to call up her ultimate warrior and lateral thinker personas in times of dire need. Along the way, she partners with a stranded Moiety Alien and adopts a group of hypersounders, as they make it all the way into the Core. What will they find? 

The Exiled Fleet by J. S. Dewes

J. S. Dewes continues her fast paced, science fiction action adventure with The Exiled Fleet , where The Expanse meets The Black Company —the survivors of The Last Watch refuse to die. 

The Sentinels narrowly escaped the collapsing edge of the Divide. 

They have mustered a few other surviving Sentinels, but with no engines they have no way to leave the edge of the universe before they starve. 

Adequin Rake has gathered a team to find the materials they’ll need to get everyone out. 

To do that they’re going to need new allies and evade a ruthless enemy. Some of them will not survive. 

Notes From the Burning Age by Claire North

Ven was once a holy man, a keeper of ancient archives. It was his duty to interpret archaic texts, sorting useful knowledge from the heretical ideas of the Burning Age — a time of excess and climate disaster. For in Ven’s world, such material must be closely guarded, so that the ills that led to that cataclysmic era can never be repeated. 

But when the revolutionary Brotherhood approaches Ven, pressuring him to translate stolen writings that threaten everything he once held dear, his life will be turned upside down. Torn between friendship and faith, Ven must decide how far he’s willing to go to save this new world, and how much he is willing to lose. 

The Scavenger Door by Suzanne Palmer

From a Hugo Award-winning author comes the third book in this action-packed sci-fi caper, starring Fergus Ferguson, interstellar repo man and professional finder.

Fergus is back on Earth at last, trying to figure out how to live a normal life. However, it seems the universe has other plans for him. When his cousin sends him off to help out a friend, Fergus accidently
stumbles across a piece of an ancient alien artifact that some very powerful people seem to think means the entire solar system is in danger. And since he’s the one who found it, they’re certain it’s also his problem to deal with.

With the help of his newfound sister, friends both old and new, and some enemies, too, Fergus needs to find the rest of the artifact and destroy the pieces before anyone can reassemble the original and open a multidimensional door between Earth and a vast, implacable, alien swarm. Problem is, the pieces could be anywhere on Earth, and he’s not the only one out searching. 

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

In a boarded-up house on a dead-end street at the edge of the wild Washington woods lives a family of three. 

A teenage girl who isn’t allowed outside, not after last time.
A man who drinks alone in front of his TV, trying to ignore the gaps in his memory.
And a house cat who loves napping and reading the Bible. 

An unspeakable secret binds them together, but when a new neighbor moves in next door, what is buried out among the birch trees may come back to haunt them all. **