James Nicoll Reviews

Home > Reviews > By Date

Reviews from May 2017 (22)

That’s No Moon That’s Waiting There

Endurance  (Legend of the Galactic Heroes, volume 3)

By Yoshiki Tanaka  

3 May, 2017

Translation

0 comments

1984’s Endurance is the third volume in Yoshiki Tanaka’s MilSpaceOpera manga series, Legend of the Galactic Heroes. The 2016 English language edition was translated by Daniel Huddleston. 

Two civil wars have ended; both the Galactic Empire and its deadly enemy, the Free Planets Alliance, are at peace. Reinhard uses the respite to consolidate his control over the Empire, becoming Emperor in all but formal title. 

The FPA uses peace for an entirely different purpose.

Read more ➤

You Don’t Own Me

Dissidence  (The Corporation Wars, volume 1)

By Ken MacLeod  

2 May, 2017

The 2017 Prometheus Award Finalists

0 comments

The Corporation Wars: Dissidence is the first volume in Ken MacLeod’s Corporation Wars series. It is one of two books from the series that were nominated for this year’s Prometheus Award. Due to lack of time, it is the only one of the two that I will be reviewing.

Illicit drone warfare for the shape of the human future is all fun and games until, as Carlos the Terrorist found out, your allies turn on you and frame you for an atrocity — your enemies work out where you are — and someone drops a building on your head. Player One has left the game. Not completely out (the building was full of cryogens and you were flash frozen) but out for several centuries.

Fast forward those few centuries and medical advances have made death a curable condition. 

Read more ➤