James Nicoll Reviews

Lois McMaster Bujold’s 2018 The Flowers of Vashnoi is a novella set in her Vorkosigan universe. While series protagonist Miles Vorkosigan appears briefly, the focus is on his wife Ekaterin. When Ekaterin married Miles, she married into wealth and status. However, she also married into stewardship of the Vashnoi exclusion zone.

A lifetime ago Cetaganda’s attempt to annex Barrayar ended in abject defeat for the invaders. Among the Cetagandans’ lasting legacies, the Vashnoi exclusion zone, radioactive courtesy of a nuclear strike aimed at resistance leaders. Only time could deal with the contaminants. Having no other choice available, the Barrayarans (or rather, the Vorkosigans, whose land it is) marked off the radioactive zone and discouraged settlement.

Visionary scientist Enrique Borgos offers a method to speed up decontamination.

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2007’s House of Five Leaves, Volume 2 is the second tankōbon for Natsume Ono’s Edo-era historical crime manga. First serialized in Shogakukan’s seinen manga magazine Monthly Ikki in November 2005, the series was completed July 2010.

Masanosuke (Masa) Akitsu is an unwilling ronin, released from service by his master because Masa’s skill with swords cannot compensate for his crippling social anxiety. Saved from starvation by charming rogue Yaichi, Masa has entered into an uncomfortable alliance with the Five Leaves gang.

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Walter Jon Williams’ 1982/1983¹ Privateers and Gentlemen is an age-of sail tabletop roleplaying game. The game shares a name and setting with Williams’ Privateers and Gentlemen historical novels. The eye-catching cover is by Tom Freeman. Williams published as Jon Williams.

And what did the gamer find when they opened the box²?

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Peter George’s1965 Commander‑1 is a nuclear war novel.

October 1964. China’s strategic position is lamentable. While China can build nuclear weapons, they lack the US and USSR’s bomber and missile fleets; they will not be able to build up to parity for some time. Who knows how the Americans and perfidious Soviets will use this window of opportunity?

Comrade Li believes China can win an overwhelming victory, provided China’s limited resources are applied judiciously.

Fast-forward to Christmas Day, 1965.

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2025’s upcoming A Palace Near The Wind is the first installment in Ai Jiang’s Natural Engines secondary-world natural fantasy¹ duology.

In exchange for a regular supply of new Wind Walker brides from Feng, the king graciously slows the inexorable growth of the Palace into Feng. In this way, Feng’s doom, while still clearly inevitable, is delayed.

Liu Lufeng has a bold solution, one that will require her to get within arm’s reach of the king.

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Premee Mohamed’s 2025 One Message Remains is a collection of secondary-universe fantasy short stories.

Poor Seudast! So far from God, so close to Treotan.

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Gu Byeong-Mo’s 2018 Apartment Women is a stand-alone mainstream novel. The 2024 English translation is by Chi-Young Kim.

Is Apartment Women also a dystopia? More on that later.

For Seo Yojin, husband Joen Euno, and six-year-old Jeon Siyul, the Dream Future Pilot Communal Apartments is a solution to pressing housing issues. Getting in wasn’t easy, but Yojin and her family were among the lucky few to be selected.

One small catch: The Dream Future Pilot Communal Apartments is a bold attempt to address South Korea’s negligible birthrate. In exchange for new homes in an invigorating rural setting, certain conditions need to be met.

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Paolo Bacigalupi’s 2009 The Windup Girl is an award-winning cli-fi novel.

The end of cheap oil combined with rampant climate change have brought nation-states and international trade to their knees. This has not prevented giant agribusiness from extending their power across the planet. As engineered blights obliterate public domain plants, the hungry masses are forced to embrace copyrighted, genetically-engineered crops.

Plucky little Thailand is one of the few holdouts. It’s Anderson Lake’s task to crush Thai intransigence.

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1976’s King and Joker is the first volume in Peter Dickinson’s Princess Louise alternate history duology.

Britain’s Princess Louise takes a closer look at her family (and its closest retainer) seated around the breakfast table. She comes to an appalling realization.

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Nghi Vo’s upcoming Don’t Sleep With the Dead is the second work in Vo’s The Chosen and the Beautiful period-piece fantasy series.

New York is a perfect city for Nick Carraway. As long as he presents himself judiciously, nobody will wonder if the successful writer is straight or queer. For that matter, nobody will question if Nick is the man he claims to be… or just an ingenious origami figure borrowing the shape of a man long dead.

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