James Nicoll Reviews

1975’s The Broken Citadel is the first volume in Joyce Ballou Gregorian’s Tredana young-adult portal-fantasy series. The series is Gregorian’s only published fantasy of which I am aware, no doubt because the author died shortly after the third book was published. 

Intrigued by the library she glimpses through the windows of a long-empty Victorian mansion, eleven-year-old Sybil ​“Sibby” Barron breaks into the house. Her visit to the library is a short one. When she exits, intending to rush home, she finds herself on an unfamiliar seashore on another world.

It’s a world rich in ways for naïve young women to die horribly, so it’s all for the best that the first people Sibby meets are Leron, Mara, Gannoc, Dansen, and their guide One-Eye. They are a band of kind-hearted adventurers on a great quest. Sibby joins their party.

Read more ➤

1979’s Space Angel is the first of two works in John Maddox Roberts’ Space Angel series. 

Thanks to the vicious War with the Triumvirate, former POW Torwald is an experienced spacer for whom employment is simply a matter of selecting which spacecraft to grace with his skills. He prefers to work with independents, even though 97% of interstellar trade is controlled by large corporations. He signs on with the Space Angel, an antiquated relic of times past.. 

He takes pity on a recent acquaintance, Kelly (friendless orphan and inexperienced teen) and arranges for Kelly to be hired as ship’s boy. I would guess that this is nod to hoped-for teen readership. 

Off to the stars! 

Read more ➤