James Nicoll Reviews

Glen Cook, the father of Grimdark, returns to the Chronicles of the Black Company with a military fantasy adventure in Port of Shadows.

The soldiers of the Black Company don’t ask questions, they get paid. But being ​“The Lady’s favored” is attracting the wrong kind of attention and has put a target on their backs – and the Company’s historian, Croaker, has the biggest target of all. 

The one person who was taken into The Lady’s Tower and returned unchanged has earned the special interest of the court of sorcerers known as The Ten Who Were Taken. Now, he and the company are being asked to seek the aid of their newest member, Mischievous Rain, to break a rebel army. However, Croaker doesn’t trust any of the Taken, especially not ones that look so much like The Lady and her sister… 

A free Angry Robot sampler of our very best in incredibly fun, action-filled, modern pulp science fiction and fantasy. 

Featuring the first four chapters from four brilliantly pulpy novels. 

Daughters of Forgotten Light by Sean Grigsby: a floating prison is home to Earth’s unwanted people, where they are forgotten… but not yet dead, in this wild science fiction adventure. 

Fury From the Tomb by S A Sidor: mummies, grave-robbing ghouls, hopping vampires, and evil monks beset a young archaeologist, in this fast-paced Indiana Jones-style adventure. 

Drake by Peter McLean: a sorcerer hitman takes out the wrong target and ends up in the crosshairs when he tries to do the right thing, for once. 

Necrotech by K C Alexander: street thug Riko has some serious issues – memories wiped, reputation tanked, girlfriend turned into a tech-fueled zombies – and punching people is the best way forward. 

A glittering landscape of twenty-five speculative stories that challenge oppression and imagine new futures for America — from N. K. Jemisin, Charles Yu, Jamie Ford, G. Willow Wilson, Charlie Jane Anders, Hugh Howey, and more. In these tumultuous times, in our deeply divided country, many people are angry, frightened, and hurting. Knowing that imagining a brighter tomorrow has always been an act of resistance, editors Victor LaValle and John Joseph Adams invited an extraordinarily talented group of writers to share stories that explore new forms of freedom, love, and justice. They asked for narratives that would challenge oppressive American myths, release us from the chokehold of our history, and give us new futures to believe in. They also asked that the stories be badass. The result is this extraordinary collection of twenty-five stories that blend the dark and the light, the dystopian and the utopian. These tales are vivid with struggle and hardship — whether it’s the othered and the oppressed, or dragonriders and covert commandos — but these characters don’t flee, they fight. A People’s Future of the United States is a call to arms for anyone who believes in our power to dream a just world. Thrilling, inspiring, and a sheer joy to read, this anthology reminds us of the life-giving power of storytelling.Featuring stories by Violet Allen • Charlie Jane Anders • Lesley Nneka Arimah • Ashok K. Banker • Tobias S. Buckell • Tananarive Due • Omar El Akkad • Jamie Ford • Maria Dahvana Headley • Hugh Howey • Lizz Huerta• Justina Ireland • N. K. Jemisin • Alice Sola Kim • Seanan McGuire • Sam J. Miller • Daniel José Older • Malka Older • Gabby Rivera • A. Merc Rustad • Kai Cheng Thom • Catherynne M. Valente • Daniel H. Wilson • G. Willow Wilson • Charles Yu

Stephen Leeds is perfectly sane. It’s his hallucinations who are mad.

A genius of unrivaled aptitude, Stephen can learn any new skill, vocation, or art in a matter of hours. However, to contain all of this, his mind creates hallucinatory people — Stephen calls them aspects — to hold and manifest the information. Wherever he goes, he is joined by a team of imaginary experts to give advice, interpretation, and explanation. He uses them to solve problems … for a price. 

His brain is getting a little crowded and the aspects have a tendency of taking on lives of their own. When a company hires him to recover stolen property — a camera that can allegedly take pictures of the past — Stephen finds himself in an adventure crossing oceans and fighting terrorists. What he discovers may upend the foundation of three major world religions — and, perhaps, give him a vital clue into the true nature of his aspects. 

Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds includes Legion, Legion: Skin Deep and the brand new, shocking finale to Leeds’ story, Lies of the Beholder.