James Nicoll Reviews

An anthology of original stories based on the dark fantasy, role-playing video game series from Bioware. Ancient horrors. Marauding invaders. Powerful mages. And a world that refuses to stay fixed. Welcome to Thedas. From the stoic Grey Wardens to the otherworldly Mortalitasi necromancers, from the proud Dalish elves to the underhanded Antivan Crow assassins, Dragon Age is filled with monsters, magic, and memorable characters making their way through dangerous world whose only constant is change. Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights brings you fifteen tales of adventure, featuring faces new and old, including: ​“Three Trees to Midnight” by Patrick Weekes
​“Down Among the Dead Men” by Sylvia Feketekuty
​“The Horror of Hormak” by John Epler
​“Callback” by Lukas Kristjanson
​“Luck in the Gardens” by Sylvia Feketekuty
​“Hunger” by Brianne Battye
​“Murder by Death Mages” by Caitlin Sullivan Kelly
​“The Streets of Minrathous” by Brianne Battye
​“The Wigmaker” by Courtney Woods
​“Genitivi Dies in the End” by Lukas Kristjanson
​“Herold Had the Plan” by Ryan Cormier
​“An Old Crow’s Old Tricks” by Arone Le Bray
​“Eight Little Talons” by Courtney Woods
​“Half Up Front” by John Epler
​“Dread Wolf Take You” by Patrick Weekes

A short story collection.

In the wilderness of comparatively new planets there’s nothing quite as effective as a civilized front. With a bag-full of demure deceptions – green face cosmetics, rouged knees and her purple petal-textured Botticelli – Sybil Sue Blue, police sergeant, fights against the alien forces that threaten the security of our galaxy. Sybil Sue Blue is a master at attracting difficult situations leading into tight corners that would daunt a lesser woman. Although Earth has had diplomatic relations with Centaurus for quite some time, there’s still quite a bit of undiscovered territory..and some attractive unknown elements. The Krilanrians, for instance, and particularly their leader Gide Girais, the Sea King. Sybil Sue Blue, tough, beautiful, gin-slinging femme fatale has a ball tracking him down. Just because Gide is the enemy and a fish-like alien to boot doesn’t blind her natural reaction to the fact that he’s extremely attractive.

No one believes in them. But soon no one will forget them. It’s 1889. The city is on the cusp of industry and power, and the Exposition Universelle has breathed new life into the streets and dredged up ancient secrets. Here, no one keeps tabs on dark truths better than treasure-hunter and wealthy hotelier Séverin Montagnet-Alarie. When the elite, ever-powerful Order of Babel coerces him to help them on a mission, Séverin is offered a treasure that he never imagined: his true inheritance. To hunt down the ancient artifact the Order seeks, Séverin calls upon a band of unlikely experts: An engineer with a debt to pay. A historian banished from his home. A dancer with a sinister past. And a brother in arms if not blood. Together, they will join Séverin as he explores the dark, glittering heart of Paris. What they find might change the course of history – but only if they can stay alive. **

For generations the empire has spread across the world, nigh-unstoppable in their advance. Its power depends on its automata, magically animated and programmed with sigils and patterns painted in mystical pigments. 

A symbol-painter – themselves a colonial subject – is frustrated in their work when their supply of Phoenix Extravagant dries up, and sets out to find the source. What they’ll discover is darker than anything they could have imagined…

Laurie J. Marks returns at last to Shaftal in Air Logic for the long-awaited conclusion to her acclaimed series. Karis and those who love her must figure out, in the aftermath of war and an assassination attempt, how to bring together Sainnites and Shaftali in a country where old wounds and enmities fester and Air magic conceals the treason hidden in the heart of the G’deon’s household. When Medric is taken hostage to force Karis’s hand, a strange boy will guide Zanja to the place where she may yet save him, a mother must remember the son she has been made to forget, and Air children will find what their place in the world may yet be. 

On a giant artificial world surrounding an artificial sun, one man — a lucidor, a keeper of the peace, a policeman — is on the hunt. His target was responsible for an atrocity, but is too valuable to the government to be truly punished. Instead he has been sent to the frontlines of the war, to use his unique talents on the enemy. So the lucidor has ignored orders, deserted from his job, left his home and thrown his life away, in order to finally claim justice.Separated by massive seas, the various maps dotted on the surface of this world rarely contact each other. But something has begun to infiltrate the edges of the lucidor’s map, something that genetically alters animals and plants and turns them into killers. Only the lucidor knows the depths to which his quarry will sink in order to survive, only the lucidor can capture him. The way is long and dangerous. The lucidor’s government has set hunters after him. He has no friends, no resources, no plan.But he does have a mission.