James Nicoll Reviews

Jules Verne’s 1869 Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, originally published as Vingt mille lieues sous les mers, is one of Vernes’ series of Voyages extraordinaires, or in the Anglophone vernacular, Awesome Trips. In modern terms, it could be described as a proto-technothriller or possibly a proto-hard-SF novel.

Repeated encounters with a mysterious oceanic phenomenon inflame public interest and alarm. Whatever the object is, its range is global, its size prodigious. The American government dispatches the frigate Abraham Lincoln to investigate.

Chance puts esteemed natural historian Professor Pierre Aronnax and his faithful assistant Conseil in New York at the same time Abraham Lincoln is in Brooklyn. Aronnax cannot turn down the invitation to join the expedition.

Aronnax’s suspicion is that the mysterious entity could be an immense narwhal. Aronnax’s educated guess is entirely wrong.

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Karen Lord’s 2023 The Blue, Beautiful World: A Novel is a science fiction first-contact novel. Or perhaps ​‘dawning awareness’ would be more accurate than ​‘first contact.’

Twenty-second-century Earth has any number of problems, none of which are sufficient to prevent a functional global economy or a thriving entertainment industry. Currently at the apex of that industry, the mysterious Owen.

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Aliette de Bodard’s 2024 In the Shadow of the Ship is a stand-alone space opera set in de Bodard’s Xuya universe.

In the four years since Khuyên left the mindship The Nightjar, Thirsting for Water, Khuyên has risen to the rank of magistrate in the Đại Quang district on the Sixty-Fourth Planet. This lofty rank does not release her from the demands of filial piety. Thus, when the clan matriarch dies, Khuyên returns to the ruined starship from which she so prudently fled years earlier.

Nightjar​’s problems began with the war.

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1946’s Mästerdetektiven Blomkvist is the first of Astrid Lindgren’s Kalle Blomkvist juvenile mystery novels. In 2017, Mästerdetektiven Blomkvist was translated by Susan Beard and appeared under the title Master Detective.

Kalle Blomkvist¹ is a detective without compare… at least, he is the finest thirteen-year-old detective in the small town of Lillköping. True, Lillköping has yet to present Kalle with a mystery worthy of his talents. Until that day comes, he and his two best friends, Anders and Eva-Lotta, fill their days cheerfully battering their frenemies (Sixten, Benka, and Jonte) on the slightest of pretexts.

One day a stranger comes to Lillköping.

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2001’s Crossover is the first volume of Joel Shepherd’s Cassandra Kresnov science fiction adventure series.

April Cassidy has a perfectly pleasant life in the delightfully cosmopolitan city of Tanusha on the planet Callay. However, should the Callayans discover that April Cassidy is actually Cassandra Kresnov and that Cassandra is a more a what than a who, a torch-waving mob is not out of the question.

But first! A word about global economic convergence.

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Joanna Russ’ 1975 The Female Man is a stand-alone feminist science fiction novel.

Joanna, Jeannine, Janet, and Jael are four different women from four very different worlds. What thread binds the quartet together?

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Fonda Lee’s 2023 Jade Shards is a collection of prequel stories set prior to the events detailed in Lee’s Green Bone Saga. But then, so many prequels are set before the works to which they are prequels.

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2023’s Infinity Gate is the first volume in M. R. Carey’s Pandominion paratime series.

The universe-spanning Pandominion is vast, wealthy, and powerful. The Pandominion’s power rests in part on control of Stepping, controlled travel between timelines. Unsanctioned Stepping is investigated.

Hadiz Tambuwal, formerly of Lagos’ Campus Cross, discovered Stepping too late to save her Earth. Stepping allows Hadiz to relocate to a nearby but less doomed Lagos, where her research continues. Consequences ensue.

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2021’s The Apothecary Diaries: Volume 11 is the eleventh volume in Natsu Hyuuga’s Apothecary Diaries secondary universe mystery/political thriller series. Illustrations are by Touko Shino. The 2024 English translation is by Kevin Steinbach.

Having survived a plague of grasshoppers, the unfortunate people of I‑Sei province must now deal with an approaching famine. Under most circumstances this would be of only theoretical interest to capital-dwelling Maomao, except that in a previous volume, she and Jinshi (the emperor’s brother and Maomao’s boss/fiancé of sorts) were dispatched to I‑Sei province.

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Emanuele Galletto¹​’s 2023’s Ennie-award-winning Fabula Ultima is a level and class-based tabletop (in Japanese vernacular, ​“table talk”) role-playing game. Fabula Ultima’s² goal is to emulate the techno-magical worlds of Japanese role-playing computers games (JRPGs) like the Final Fantasy series³.

What do these games have in common? Fabula Ultima​’s eight pillars, common to all its settings are: ancient ruins and harsh lands, a world in peril, clashing communities, everything has a soul, magic and technology, heroes of many sizes and shapes, it’s all about the heroes, and mystery, discovery, and growth. Basically, decent people doing good in a dangerous world and having it mean something.

Normally, I would wait until I had the hardcopy in hand to review the game. My enthusiasm overcame my executive functions and I splurged on the PDF version of the game.

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