James Nicoll Reviews

Spider Robinson’s 1985 Night of Power is a mercifully stand-alone near-future race war novel.

Aging dancer Dene Grant can hardly turn down an offer to dance at the Joyce Theatre. She, her husband Russell, and their thirteen-year-old mixed-race daughter Jennifer make the trip from Halifax, Nova Scotia¹ to New York City, center of American publishing, finance, and simmering interracial conflict about to boil over.

Scarcely has the family entered New York City when a gang of African American youth criminals descends on them with robbery, murder, and worse in mind.

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1978’s Hôtel Transylvania is the first volume in Chelsea Quinn Yarbro’s twenty-seven-plus volume series of fantasy horror historical novels about Le Comte de Saint-Germain.

1743: While the War of Austrian succession rages, Le Comte de Saint-Germain visits Paris. Saint-Germain is a man of mystery. He is also a man of considerable wealth and therefore respectable.

Le Comte is also a vampire.

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2024’s The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles is the second volume in Malka Older’s The Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti.

From time to time on humanity’s new home, Giant (a renamed Jupiter), people vanish. Third year Valdegeld¹ University student Strevan is one of them.

Investigator Mossa is on the case… but it is not the case Mossa expects.

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Robin Sloan’s 2024 Moonbound is a stand-alone science fiction novel. 

In a land far, far away, a long time from now, young Ariel de la Sauvage lives in a magical kingdom ruled by the Wizard Mallory. Mallory has plans for Ariel.

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Insomniacs After School, Volume 7 is the seventh tankōbon in Makoto Ojiro’s contemporary manga series. Serialized in Shogakukan’s seinen manga magazine Weekly Big Comic Spirits, Insomniacs After School has been ongoing since May 2019. The English translation of Volume 7 was released in 2024.

In Volume 6, teens Ganta and Isaki extended their unchaperoned time together by absenting themselves from the country cottage where they were pursuing their stargazing interests. Alas, Isaki’s parents had discovered that their darling daughter was alone with a boy. They raced to the rescue. Consequences ensued.

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2021’s The Cannonball Tree Mystery is the fifth installment in Ovidia Yu’s Crown Colony mystery series.

1944: The triumphant Japanese Empire has crushed all opposition. The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere will surely be eternal. Alarming military setbacks are impossible.

Or so Singapore’s Japanese occupiers would assert. Despite best efforts to censor news, rumors persist that the Pacific War is not going well for Japan. The occupiers focus on local affairs and ignore wider developments.

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1979’s Destinies Aug – Sept ​’79 is the fourth issue of the first volume of Destinies, the ​“paperback magazine of science fiction and speculative fact”¹. Destinies was edited by Jim Baen, who is credited as James Baen on the cover and James Patrick Baen within.

Honestly, I thought I would have reviewed more issues of Destinies by now.

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Ann Liang’s 2024 A Song to Drown Rivers is a stand-alone historical novel.

Cruel Wu has subjugated noble Yue. Wu soldiers massacred the helpless people of Yue. Among the victims is Xishi’s beloved younger sister Susu. Xishi is filled with hatred towards the Wu.

Xishi is also a peerless beauty. Royal advisor Fanli believes Xishi’s beauty and her loathing of Wu will make Xishi into Yue’s greatest weapon.

But first! A word about the Spring and Autumn period.

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Colin Dunn’s 2021 2300 AD is an expansion of Mongoose Publishing’s current edition of Traveller. It is also the fifth version of the venerable near-future tabletop roleplaying game 2300 AD¹. The 1988 edition was reviewed here. Note that as this is an expansion for Traveller, you will need the Traveller core rules to use this set.

This review is brought by power of affordable bundles of holding and also spite².

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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 has been serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump starting in June 2022. Currently, installments appear on the Viz site.

In the previous volume, half-dragon Ruri Aoki was genteelly blackmailed into joining a school committee. Ruri was surprised and a bit alarmed to discover that she had been paired with the blonde girl who openly dislikes Ruri. What possible cause could the girl (whose name Ruri couldn’t be bothered to remember) have for disliking Ruri? More importantly, how will learning the girl’s name affect slacker Ruri’s future actions?

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