James Nicoll Reviews

Nimona is a stand-alone science-fantasy graphic novel by author/artist ND Stevenson. First serialized online between 2012 and 2014, Nimona was published in book form in 2015. 

Lord Ballister Blackheart dreamed of becoming one of the kingdom’s heroes. After he lost an arm during a joust with Ambrosius Goldenloin, he also lost all hope of becoming a duly appointed hero. The Institution that rules the kingdom (de facto, but powerful nonetheless) used the injury as a pretext to eject him. 

Blackheart believes his maiming to be no accident and has devoted himself to opposing the Institution. Thus far, his schemes have been marvelous in every respect … save that of actual success.

Enter Nimona, aspiring sidekick. 

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2018’s A Bride’s Story, Vol. 10 is the tenth tankōbon in Kaoru Mori’s historical manga, which is titled Otoyomegatari in the original Japanese. The English translation of this volume appeared in 2018.

Volume 10 covers two (mostly) unrelated storylines, one in Central Asia and one in the Middle East. 

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Bernard Wolfe’s 1952 Limbo is a science fiction satire.

In 1972, Dr. Martine fled from a computer-directed World War Three. The African medical facility at which he had worked was obliterated in a rain of hydrogen bombs. As far as the world knows, Dr. Martine is dead. 

Having found refuge on a particularly obscure island of pacifists, Martine has no interest in ever returning to the world. Inconveniently for Martine, his bucolic life spent performing lobotomies for the locals¹ comes to a sudden end in 1990 when the world comes to him.

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1992’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Ninth Annual Collection is the ninth volume in the Gardner Dozois series of annual anthologies of noteworthy science fiction.

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Barbara Paul’s 1979 Pillars of Salt is a time travel novel. 

Transporting physical matter into the past is, of course, impossible. However, projecting consciousness into the bodies of past humans merely requires the correct technology. Mid-21^st-century America (and presumably the rest of the planet) possesses the means and uses it freely. 

Angie Patterson believes she is quite familiar with the mechanics of time travel. A foray into Elizabethan England reveals to her something of which she (and most other travelers) had been utterly unaware.

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2021’s A Drowned Kingdom is the first volume of P. L. Stuart’s secondary-universe sword-and-sorcery Drowned Kingdom Saga

The kingdom of Atalantyx is the greatest nation in the world. If you doubt this, simply ask Atalantyx’s Second Prince Othrun. He belongs to the kingdom’s royal family so must be an unimpeachable source. An inflexible, devout follower of the One God, Othrun holds his convictions without any trace of doubt or reflection. Having been placed by birth near the top of the kingdom’s pecking order, Othrun is confident that the world is as it should be; reform or deviation is therefore unthinkable.

However, Othrun is not the heir to the throne. His older half-brother Erthal is. Erthal is quite different from his brother.

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2009’s Ran and the Gray World, Vol. 1 is the first tankōbon for Aki Irie’s Ran to Haiiro no Sekai comic fantasy manga series, which was serialized in Japanese from December 2008 to April 2015 in in Harta. Volume 1 was translated into English in 2018.

Keeping the gates of Hell firmly sealed shut is a full-time job for sorceress Shizuka Uruma. Her underlings do their best, but without her help their efforts would fail. Shizuka must spend most of her time at work and set aside personal concerns, such as family and household. 

It’s not having time for her family that is the most frustrating.

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1958’s A Mixture of Frailties is the third and final volume in Robertson Davies’ Salterton trilogy.

In a twist the miscreant in A Leaven of Malice could not have foreseen, Pearl Vambrace and Solly Bridgetower fell in love. Now married, a life of wedded bliss surely waits Pearl and Solly Bridgetower. At least, it would, were it not for Solly’s mother, the late Mrs. Bridgetower¹.

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Judith Merril’s 1974 Survival Ship and Other Stories is a collection of science fiction stories, curated by the author.

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Connor Alexander’s¹ 2022 science-fantasy Coyote & Crow tabletop roleplaying (TTRPG) game was:

Developed and led by a team of Natives, this game envisions a world where colonization never happened and Indigenous nations rose to future prominence. 

The first thing a potential buyer will notice is that the core rulebook is a beautifully illustrated thick tome. What waits inside?

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