James Nicoll Reviews

Rin Chupeco’s 2022 The Sacrifice is a stand-alone horror novel.

Although Alon is content to call the island of Kisapmata home, he is quite aware of its peculiarities. Some might call them a curse. Others see them as a consequence of hosting the Diwata, a living god.

Alon’s attachment to the island is unusual. Other Filipinos prefer to respect the island from a distance. Thus Alon alone is present to see the island invaded by entities potentially more horrific than that which calls the island home:

Hollywood producers.

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2020’s Ten Thousand Stitches is the second of Olivia Atwater’s Regency Faerie Tales novels. It is a stand-alone fantasy HEA (happily ever after) romance tale.

Working as Effie does for self-centered, thoughtlessly unkind Regency-era English aristocrats, it takes only a few kind words from Mr. Benedict Ashbrooke to leave Effie infatuated with Benedict. Alas! The class divide ensures the two will never marry. Not without a miracle, or at least powerful magic.

Which is where Effie’s faerie godfather comes in.

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2023’s Hit Parade of Tears is a collection of short stories by Izumi Suzuki. Translation is by Sam Bett, David Boyd, Helen O’Horan, and Daniel Joseph.

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Ted Reynold’s Tides of God is a science fiction combat-theology novel. Reynold’s debut novel, it is to date his sole work at novel length (at least so far as I am aware). Tides of God was the tenth novel featured in the Third Ace Specials and the first of those to appear after Damon Knight took over editorial duties following Terry Carr’s death in 1987.

3228: freed of the tyranny of irrational religion, the Earth enjoys an era of rationality, free love, and general prosperity. The hard work of restoring damage done to the Earth during the post-21^st century dark age is under way.

Thanks to their alien Krocerian trading partners, humanity has its first relativistic starship, Hound of Heaven. There is, however, a price to be paid. Hound of Heaven​’s first voyage will be to intercept and kill God.

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Barry N. Malzberg and Bill Pronzini’s 1979 The End of Summer: Science Fiction of the Fifties is an anthology of what the editors regarded as the better science fiction of the 1950s. The End of Summer: Science Fiction of the Fifties was also published as The Fifties: The End of Summer.

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2022’s The Marvellers is the first volume in Dhonielle Clayton’s Marvellerverse middle-grade magical-school series.

The Arcanum Training Institute educates Marvellers, people with extraordinary magical gifts. Until recently, Conjurors (believed to be too close to the underworld) were excluded from Arcanum. Thanks to a lawsuit, the school grudgingly changed its policy. Eleven-year-old Ella Durand, whose father brought the lawsuit, is the very first conjuror to attend Arcanum.

All Ella need do now is excel scholastically while maintaining a perfect disciplinary record; if she cannot, her shortcomings be held against all Conjuror-kind.

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1984’s The Alchemists is the first of two volumes in Geary Gravel’s The Alchemists series.

Jonathan Emerson ​“Emrys” Tate summons experts to Belthannis Autumnworld. There they will assess the native people, the kin, to establish whether or not the kin should be deemed human under Commonwealth law¹.

Or so Emrys claims. In fact, he has a different purpose in mind for his team. They will contrive some way to get the kin classified as human despite the fact they very clearly do not qualify.

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Witch Hat Atelier Volume Eight is the eighth tankōbon in Kamome Shirahama’s fantasy manga series. Witch Hat Atelier (Tongari Bōshi no Atorie in the original Japanese) has been serialized in Kodansha’s Monthly Morning Two magazine since July 2016. First published in Japan in 2020, the English translation of Volume 8 was released in 2021.

Unaware of teacher Qilfrey’s horrifying actions in volume seven¹, the students at his atelier (protagonist Coco, as well as friends Agott, Richeh, and Tetia) are delighted to be invited to assist shop-boy Tartah to set up a tent at an upcoming fair. Normally this would be a task for Tartah’s boss/grandfather Mr. Nolnoa, but a back injury has sidelined Mr. Nolnoa. If the girls don’t help Tartah, he will have to manage alone. This might affect sales, which would be bad; the fair is financially important to Mr. Nolnoa’s shop.

An entirely different matter emerges to engage Tartah and Coco’s attention.

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Willo Davis Roberts’ 1980 The Girl with the Silver Eyes is a middle-grade stand-alone science fiction novel.

The disintegration of her parents’ marriage, a disintegration exacerbated by financial woes, forced Katie’s parents to leave her in the custody of her Grandma Welker. When Grandma Welker died in a fall, Katie moved in with her mother, in the city.

Adjusting to urban life after a rural childhood is challenge enough. Katie’s circumstances are complicated by the fact that the odd-looking girl has powers beyond human ken.

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1966’s Too Many Magicians is Randall Garrett’s¹ sole novel-length Lord Darcy work. The Lord Darcy works were alternate-history fantasy cozy police procedurals.

In a world in which Richard the Lion-Hearted lived thirteen years longer, a world in which magic was codified in the 14^th century, a world in which the Angevin Empire is a great power, Lord Darcy serves as Chief Investigator for the Duke of Normandy, solving crimes with remarkable powers of observation and deduction. His latest case may prove a difficult one, as the primary suspect appears to be his dutiful sorcerer associate, Master Sean O’Lochlainn.

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