James Nicoll Reviews

1964’s Beyond the Solar System is a short non-fiction text by Willy Ley. Colour illustrations are by Chesley Bonestell.

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2020’s Legendborn is the first volume in Tracy Deonn’s Legendborn Cycle.

Teenager Bree Matthews tells her mother some unsettling news: Bree covertly applied for and won a spot in UNC-Chapel Hill’s Early College Program. Bree’s mother is incensed at hearing this (even though UNC was the mother’s alma mater) and a fierce argument ensues. Mother and daughter never reconcile. Soon after the argument, Bree learns that her mother has died in a hit-and-run auto accident.

Life goes on. Bree arrives at UNC-Chapel Hill.

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Everina Maxwell’s 2022 Ocean’s Echo is a space opera. While it shares a place and time with Maxwell’s 2021 Winter’s Orbit, Ocean’s Echo takes place in an entirely different solar system and shares no characters with the earlier book.

Tennalhin ​“Tennal” Halkana is a wealthy young man who has a history of making bad life choices. This would make him an embarrassment to his hard-working sister Zinyary and to legislator Halkana, Tennal’s aunt (who is, thanks to the death of his parents, his guardian). But there’s worse. Tennal can read minds, which makes him a potential threat to the Orshan state.

One zany prank too many and Tennal discovers just how ruthless his aunt can be.

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Masaoki Shindo’s RuriDragon (Japanese: ルリドラゴン, Hepburn: Ruridoragon) is a Japanese modern-day manga series. Originally a one-shot published in Shueisha’s Jump Giga magazine in December 2020, RuriDragon was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump starting in June 2022.

Adolescence is a time of sometimes bewildering physical change. Japanese schoolgirl Ruri is more bewildered than most teens. One morning she glances in the bathroom mirror to discover that during the night she has sprouted two razor-sharp horns.

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Melissa Scott’s 1996 Night Sky Mine is a stand-alone post-cyberpunk space opera.

Fearing pirates, miners flee their facility. This presents an opportunity for investigators Rangsay and Tarasov. It’s a doorway into a mystery they might be better off not investigating.

But first! Background exposition I could not figure out how to gracefully infodump.

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Thomas M. Disch’s 1968¹ Camp Concentration is a near-future (well, what was then the near future) science fiction novel.

Under President McNamara, America resolutely confronts its enemies across the globe. War! Patriots support the president. Others protest the war on ethical and moral grounds. Such conscientious objectors are given short shrift.

Being married and physically unfit for military service, poet Louis Sacchetti might very easily have avoided any personal involvement in the great conflict. Feeling principle was at stake, he made his objections clear. He was immediately quietly arrested, even more circumspectly tried, found guilty, and sent to prison.

Louis’ stand garnered the attention of nobody of consequence. Well, almost nobody of consequence. There is one notable exception. Louis is suddenly transferred from civilian prison to the very secret Camp Archimedes.

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Iori Kusano’s 2023 Hybrid Heart is a stand-alone near-future science fiction novella.

Everyone loves Idols, perfectly adorable entertainers onto whom the audience can project their fantasies. Idols require perfectly honed public personas and Advanced Media Creation Girls, descended from artifacts like Hatsune Miku, enjoy a competitive edge. Nevertheless, mere humans like Rei can still prevail.

Provided they are willing to pay the price.

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2012’s The Fractal Prince is the second volume in Hannu Rajaniemi’s Jean le Flambeur post-human science fiction series.

Having enjoyed at best mixed results in his previous caper, Jean and companion Meili have a treasure held in a box they cannot open, a box that will destroy its contents in short order. Many people might find a hiding place where they could focus on cracking the enigma. Fate has other ideas for the legendary thief and his AI-possessed companion.

Earth beckons.

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2018’s The Apothecary Diaries, Volume Seven is the seventh volume in Natsu Hyuuga’s secondary-universe light novel series. Illustrations¹ are by Touko Shina. The 2023 English translation is by Kevin Steinbach. 

In this volume, Maomao struggles with school work, international intrigue, and of course the glacial progress of the romance between her and attractive (but incapable of straight-forward declaration) Jinshu, revealed as a prince of Li a few volumes ago.

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1957’s SF: The Year’s Greatest Science-Fiction and Fantasy Second Annual Volume (also published as SF:’57: The Year’s Greatest Science Fiction and Fantasy) is the second volume in Judith Merril’s The Year’s Best S‑F series of science fiction anthologies.

As one might guess from the title, the book contains Merril’s selection of the best science fiction and fantasy. I note that while one version of the book’s cover was emblazoned with great big 1957, the stories within are from 1956. Which might be confusing.

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