James Nicoll Reviews

Liberty’s Daughter by Naomi Kritzer (November 2023)

Beck Garrison lives on a seastead — an archipelago of constructed platforms and old cruise ships, assembled by libertarian separatists a generation ago. She’s grown up comfortable and sheltered, but starts doing odd jobs for pocket money. 

To her surprise, she finds that she’s the only detective that a debt slave can afford to hire to track down the woman’s missing sister. When she tackles this investigation, she learns things about life on the other side of the waterline — not to mention about herself and her father — that she did not expect. And that some people will stop at nothing to keep her from talking about … 

Chains of the Earth by David Mealing (December 2023)

With its memorable characters, vivid world-building and unique magic systems, Chains of the Earth is the powerful final novel in David Mealing’s Ascension Cycle — perfect for fans of Brandon Sanderson, Brent Weeks and Brian McClellan. The Divide has fallen, and the armies of the Jun swarm across the world. The ancient compact of Life and Death has been breached and Sarine and her companions find themselves overwhelmed, assaulted on all sides by Death’s champions. As the cities of the New and Old Worlds burn, Sarine finds herself isolated, defeated, and alone. Yet there is hope. If she can learn the true nature of the magic of the Soul of the World, she can make a final stand against Death, to challenge him and remove his grip on the world’s heart. To find the truth, she must journey among peoples excluded from the ancient compact, rallying their strength, wielding every strain of magic in the world in a final battle between what is, and what might be. 

Your Shadow Half Remains by Sunny Moraine (February 2024)

The Last of Us meets Bird Box in Sunny Moraine’s Your Shadow Half Remains, a post-apocalyptic tale where eye contact causes people to spiral into a deadly, violent rage. 

ONE LOOK CAN KILL.Riley has not seen a single human face in longer than she can reckon. No faces, no eyes. Not if you want to survive. 

But when a new neighbor moves in down the road, Riley’s overwhelming need for human contact makes her throw caution to the wind. Somehow, in this world where other people can mean a gruesome, bloody death, Ellis makes her feel safe. As they grow closer, Riley’s grip on reality begins to slip and she can no longer fight her deepest desires. 

All Riley wants to do is look. 

Kinning by Nisi Shawl (January 2024)

Kinning, the sequel to Nisi Shawl’s acclaimed debut novel Everfair, continues the stunning alternate history where barkcloth airships soar through the sky, varied peoples build a new society together, and colonies claim their freedom from imperialist tyrants. 

The Great War is over. Everfair has found peace within its borders. But our heroes’ stories are far from done. 

Tink and his sister Bee-Lung are traveling the world via aircanoe, spreading the spores of a mysterious empathy-generating fungus. Through these spores, they seek to build bonds between people and help spread revolutionary sentiments of socialism and equality — the very ideals that led to Everfair’s founding. 

Meanwhile, Everfair’s Princess Mwadi and Prince Ilunga return home from a sojourn in Egypt to vie for their country’s rule following the abdication of their father King Mwenda. But their mother, Queen Josina, manipulates them both from behind the scenes, while also pitting Europe’s influenza-weakened political powers against one another as these countries fight to regain control of their rebellious colonies. 

Will Everfair continue to serve as a symbol of hope, freedom, and equality to anticolonial movements around the world, or will it fall to forces inside and out? 

Diavola by Jennifer Thorne (March 2024)

Jennifer Thorne skewers all-too-familiar family dynamics in this sly, wickedly funny vacation-Gothic. Beautifully unhinged and deeply satisfying, Diavola is a sharp twist on the classic haunted house story, exploring loneliness, belonging, and the seemingly inescapable bonds of family mythology. 

Anna has only two rules for the annual Pace family destination vacations: 1) Tread lightly and 2) survive. 

Anna never quite managed fit into the family. Her twin brother, Benny, goes with the flow to the extent of practically dissolving, and her older sister, Nicole, is used to everyone falling in line — including her blandly docile husband and two kids — that she is. Not to be. Questioned. Mom seizes every opportunity to question Anna’s life choices, and Dad, when not reminding everyone who paid for this vacation, just wants peace and quiet. The gorgeous, remote villa in tiny Monteperso offers the perfect place to endure family togetherness. That is, until vacation start going off the rails — strange noises at night, unsettling warnings from the local villagers, and the dark, violent past of the villa itself. 

(Warning: May invoke feelings of irritation, dread, and despair that come with large family gatherings.)