James Nicoll Reviews

Now Give Me Money

January Fifteenth

By Rachel Swirsky

3 May, 2022

**Miscellaneous Reviews**

3 comments

Rachel Swirsky’s 2022 January Fifteenth is a stand-alone near-future science fiction novel¹.

Every January 15^th, Americans receive their annual Universal Basic Income check. Ostensibly this is to ensure all Americans, even the sub‑1 percent peons, have the minimum necessary funds necessary to survive with some degree of dignity and security.

Never underestimate the propensity of humans to fuck up the implementation of simple ideas.

A Fateful Trip

The Man Who Counts

By Poul Anderson

1 May, 2022

**Because My Tears Are Delicious To You**

4 comments

Poul Anderson’s 1958 The Man Who Counts is a science fiction novel. It’s one of the Nicolas van Rijn novels, which are set in Anderson’s Polesotechnic League timeline, which itself is part of the much larger Technic setting.

Master star-trader Nicolas van Rijn is one part Falstaff, one part merciless trader, entirely Dutch Indonesian. Not everyone likes the merciless trader part. One such enemy must have planted the bomb on van Rjin’s starship. While the bomb failed to kill van Rijn, it did maroon van Rijn, Lady Sandra Tamarin, and engineer Eric Wace on the giant world Diomedes. If they stay there, they will die slowly. A quick death due to bomb might have been preferable.