James Nicoll Reviews

Empire of the Feast by Bendi Barrett (October 2022)

In Empire of the Feast, we awaken with Riverson, 32^nd ruler of the Stag Empire, as he attempts to govern without the memories of his previous lives. To survive the ever-sharpening gears of war, he will need to mend the political schisms threatening to tear his empire apart while maintaining the erotic rituals holding off the eldritch horror known only as the Rapacious. 

Vaesen — Mythic Britain & Ireland by Graeme Davis (September 2022)

Leave the Mythic North and set sail for the mist shrouded isles of Mythic Britain and Ireland. Explore the fog shrouded streets of London, discover the secrets of Rose House and the British Society. Roam the islands and walk the moors in search of long-lost tales and ancient remnants.

In this expansion to the award-winning Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying you will find a complete guide to the supernatural British-Irish Isles including the great city of London and the countryside beyond. Mythic Britain & Ireland is written by industry legend Graeme Davis and illustrated by Johan Egerkrans and Anton Vitus.

The First Bright Thing by J. R. Dawson (June 2023)

If you knew how dark tomorrow would be, what would you do with today?The First Bright Thing is a spellbinding debut for fans of The Night Circus and The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue. 

Welcome to the Circus of the Fantasticals. 

Ringmaster – Rin, to those who know her best – can jump to different moments in time as easily as her wife, Odette, soars from bar to bar on the trapeze. With the scars of World War I feeling more distant as the years pass, Rin is focusing on the brighter things in life. Like the circus she’s built and the magical misfits and outcasts — known as Sparks – who’ve made it their home. Every night, Rin and the Fantasticals enchant a Big Top packed full with audiences who need to see the impossible. 

But while the present is bright, threats come at Rin from the past and the future. The future holds an impending war that the Sparks can see barrelling toward their Big Top and everyone in it. And Rin’s past creeps closer every day, a malevolent shadow Rin can’t fully escape. It takes the form of another Spark circus, with tents as black as midnight and a ringmaster who rules over his troupe with a dangerous power. Rin’s circus has something he wants, and he won’t stop until it’s his. 

Opulent Syntax: Irish Speculative Fiction edited by Don Duncan & dave ring (December 2022)

Opulent Syntax is an anthology of Irish speculative fiction from Neon Hemlock Press. Edited by Don Duncan and dave ring, the anthology will be available in both Ireland (RoI and NI) and in the US.

The anthology includes speculative work from writers living in Ireland as well as Irish writers abroad. Including stories and poems from Anna Loughran, Samuel Poots, Natasha C. Calder, Méabh de Brún, Yves Donlon, Fergal Mc Nally, Elaine McIonyn, Rien Gray, Maria O’Brien, Val Nolan, Scotty Sarafian, Anna Walsh, Eoghan Smith and James Hudson.

We’re Here: The Best Queer Speculative Fiction 2021 edited by L. D. Lewis & Charles Payseur (September 2022)

This second volume in Neon Hemlock’s yearly series celebrating the wonder and breadth of queer speculative fiction contains stories of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and many spaces in between. Edited by LD Lewis and series editor Charles Payseur. Enjoy stories from C.L. Clark, H. Pueyo, Aliette de Bodard, Watson Neith, Sam J. Miller, Laurel Beckley, Alexandra Seidel, LA Knight, Bogi Takács, Fargo Tbakhi, Ann LeBlanc, Cheri Kamei, Sharang Biswas, Jen Brown & Shingai Njeri Kagunda. 

Into the Odd Remastered by Chris McDowall and Johan Nohr (October 2022)

Bastion is the only city that matters. In its industrial age, it sits as the smoke-shrouded hub of mankind, surrounded by a world of lurking horrors and cosmic interference. The Underground spreads beneath our feet and the stars loom above.

You are an Explorer, braving places too far for maps and too old for records. Your expeditions touch the bizarre, wondrous, and horrific. You search for riches, but also Arcana, mysterious devices with unnatural powers.

The remastered version of the 2014 TTRPG revisits Industrial Bastionland, giving the original Into the Odd a lavish hardback, full-colour restoration with expanded content.

Death in Space by Christian Plogfors and Carl Niblaeus (April 2022)

The world is broken. In a collapsing universe, your crew is your only family. DEATH IN SPACE takes you to a grimy blue-collar future in a universe filled with risk, but also opportunity. 

DEATH IN SPACE is a game about adventure and uncertain journeys out into the darkness of space, where the void whispers to the unlucky and imbues travelers’ bodies with strange powers. It is about you and your crew making a home of your spacecraft or station, your only sanctuary in a dangerous universe. Most of all, it is about surviving in an abandoned frontier system where resources are scarce, and competition is fierce.

Engage in power struggles and build your crew’s reputation. Salvage and steal to endure a ruthless universe. And above all, do anything you can to get that next job. Your life will depend on it.

Unfettered Hexes: Queer Tales of Insatiable Darkness edited by dave ring (October 2021)

Unfettered Hexes: Queer Tales of Insatiable Darkness is a speculative anthology of queer witches, the knife edge between the sacred and the profane, and infinite darkness.

Unfettered Hexes asks you to sling salt in a circle, call the corners, and breathe life into the unutterable cadences that call forth the void. Find your coven, craft new rituals and hex your enemies. 

Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky (January 2023)

The modern classic of space opera that began with Children of Time continues in this extraordinary novel of humanity’s battle for survival on a terraformed planet. Earth failed. In a desperate bid to escape, the spaceship Enkidu and its captain, Heorest Holt, carried its precious human cargo to a potential new paradise. Generations later, this fragile colony has managed to survive, eking out a hardy existence. Yet life is tough, and much technological knowledge has been lost. Then strangers appear. They possess unparalleled knowledge and thrilling technology — and they’ve arrived from another world to help humanity’s colonies. But not all is as it seems, and the price of the strangers’ help may be the colony itself. Children of Memory by Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author Adrian Tchaikovsky is a far-reaching space opera spanning generations, species and galaxies.