James Nicoll Reviews

1946’s ​“Clan of the Fiery Cross” was a story arc on The Adventures of Superman radio series.

As manager of the Unity House Baseball team, Daily Planet staffer Jimmy Olsen’s first responsibility is to the team, not to individual players. Thus, as soon as Jimmy saw that Tommy Lee was a talented pitcher, he replaced Unity House’s current pitcher, Chuck Riggs, with Tommy.

Chuck does not react well to being replaced. In short order, Jimmy sees no alternative but to fire Chuck. Chuck’s misfortune is an opportunity for his uncle Max.

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Adopted Daughter of an Archduke Volume 2 is the second volume in the third series (the ninth volume overall) in Miya Kazuki’s Ascendance of a Bookworm secondary-universe bibliophile fantasy and Isekai light novel series. Adopted Daughter of an Archduke Volume 2 was illustrated by You Shiina and translated by Quof.

Demonstrating a superlative ability to fail upwards, various missteps have elevated Myne from an otherworldly spirit possessing the body of peasant’s daughter¹ to the adopted daughter of an Ehrenfest Duke to a newly appointed High Bishop. Myne is learning on the job.

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1970’s Good Men Do Nothing is the second volume of John Brunner’s Max Curfew thriller series.

Jamaican-born ex-Soviet agent Max Curfew vacations in Italy. By chance, his route takes him through the town of Giambattista de Belvedere on the day of a religious festival. Curfew plays tourist while the festival is ongoing.

This decision dooms poor unfortunate Maria Salvadore, who greets Curfew by spitting at him.

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1978’s City of Whispering Stone is the second volume in George C. Chesbro’s Mongo the Magnificent mystery series.

Dr. Robert ​“Mongo” Fredrickson is New York City’s foremost diminutive former circus performer turned academic criminologist and private eye. This very specific niche is not especially lucrative. A new client would seem to be a welcome development.

As anyone who tries to mug Mongo, only to discover that the small man is as adept with martial arts as he is with tumbling, could attest, appearances are deceiving.

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Eboni J. Dunbar’s 2019 ​“The Translator” is a science fiction story, presented in both text and audio by Drabblecast. The narrator is Norm Sherman.

Humanity! Paragons of destiny, clearly fated to rule a trembling universe. Bit of a downer for the primates to discover that they are technologically inferior to the Tadashi, their galactic neighbors.

Newly commissioned Corporal Robbie Elms’ first assignment is as staffer for the impending negotiations between General Dellum and the Tadashi. Will these go any better than previous negotiations?

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Riley Black’s 2022 The Last Days of the Dinosaurs is a popular science book.

Last Days is not, as one might expect from the title, focused on the non-avian dinosaurs’ sudden demise, although that is covered. The subtitle reads ​“An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World” for a reason.

Every beginning begins with an end. Sixty-six million years ago, an Everest-sized rock slammed into the Yucatan at interplanetary speeds, erasing one world and making room for ours.

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2021’s Magus of the Library, Volume Six is the sixth tankōbon in Mitsu Izumi’s secondary-universe fantasy manga series (Toshokan no Daimajutsushi in the original Japanese). Magus has been serialized in Good! Afternoon since November 2017. The English translation appeared in 2021.

Avid bookworm Theo is prodigiously strong and nigh-invulnerable to magical influences, as revealed in the previous volume. Unfortunately for Theo, his chosen vocation is as a librarian (kafna). He is enrolled at the Great Library, which offers many employment prospects to graduates. But first Theo has to graduate. So far he’s on track to fail. His previous schooling didn’t prepare him for this extremely competitive institution.

Theo isn’t the only student struggling.

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Dan Simmons’ 1985 Song of Kali is a World-Fantasy-Award-winning horror novel.

Post‑9/11, Simmons outed himself as a virulent Islamophobe. Was this a reaction to second-hand trauma or did it bring out something that had been lurking there all along, unnoticed? Or did it cast light on something that had been obvious from the beginning? Consider Dan Simmon’s debut novel, Song of Kali.

Calcutta, city of pure, unredeemable evil!¹

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1967’s Dangerous Visions was the first volume in Harlan Ellison’s Dangerous Visions anthology series.

Ellison’s purpose in editing this anthology was to eschew hoary old taboos, celebrate the full potential of speculative fiction, and carve out a bit of the New Wave as his very own¹. To this end, he recruited a small army of authors, purchased a huge number of words, and produced this hefty volume.

How does Dangerous Visions hold up after fifty-seven years?

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Sarah Kuhn’s 2020 Shadow of the Batgirl is a superhero graphic novel. Comic art is by Nicole Goux.

David Cain had a simple dream: raise his daughter Cassandra as an assassin, in an environment bereft of speech and human contact (save for martial arts). Result: a girl who can read body language but not print, a girl with prodigious skills at killing whose rudimentary speech skills will protect her from any suggestion what she is doing is wrong.

All it takes to ruin this perfect plan is a single word.

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