James Nicoll Reviews

C. J. Cherryh’s 1981 Wave Without a Shore is a stand-alone science fiction novel set in the Alliance-Union universe.

Sculptor Herrin Law is Freedom’s foremost artist, a creative genius without parallel on the thinly populated, backwater planet. Waden Jenks (friend) and Keye Lynn (occasional lover) might consider themselves his peers, but surely Law is superior to Jenks and Lynn.

At least, that’s how Law sees it. If there is one thing the people of Freedom are good at, it is perceiving reality the way they want it to be.

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L. Sprague de Camp’s 1953 The Continent Makers is a collection of his early Viagens Interplanetarias stories.

In the wake of World War Three, Brazil became Earth’s foremost power¹. Thus, it fell to Brazil to deliver relativistic star flight. First contact with the surprisingly large number of alien civilizations in neighboring star systems was followed by the formation of the Interplanetary Council.

Why was the Interplanetary Council needed, when contact, being sublight, was a matter of years and decades? In part, so that technologically backward, aggressive cultures do not get their hands on starships and nuclear weapons. However, there is another consideration.

Let us discuss Planets of Hats.

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Kate Mascarenhas’ 2018 The Psychology of Time Travel is a time travel murder mystery.

In 1967, four geniuses — Margaret Norton, Barbara ​“Bee” Hereford, Grace Taylor, and Lucille Waters — emerged from their Cumbrian laboratory and presented the world with a functioning time travel machine.

Margaret, Lucille, and Grace founded the Conclave, ​“an elite quango with responsibility for all time travel missions.” Margaret graciously accepted the position of director; a position she would ruthlessly cling to for the rest of her life. Her colleagues accepted positions within the Conclave suitable to their lofty status (but less than Margaret’s).

As for poor Barbara…

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Leigh Kennedy’s 1987 Saint Hiroshima is a stand-alone historical novel.

Phil Benson was a budding piano virtuoso whose father saw no value in the arts. Katie Doheney was wracked by nuclear war phobia in a time when nuclear war between the Soviet Union and United States of America seemed simply a matter of time.

At least the two kids had each other.

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2017’s Usotoki Rhetoric Volume 8 is the eighth tankōbon in Ritsu Miyako’s historical¹ mystery manga series. Usotoki Rhetoric was published in Bessatsu Hana to Yume from June 26, 2012, to March 26, 2018. The English translation of Volume 8 was published in 2024.

Living lie detector Kanako Urabe and her mentor, indolent detective Iwai Soma, have been trying to discover who framed Soma. So far their investigation has led the pair to Soma’s estranged half-brother Atsushi. Rather than the answers they sought, the pair became entangled with a different puzzle: who wants to break up Atsushi’s marriage?

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1986’s Hardwired is the first volume in Walter Jon Williams’ Hardwired cyberpunk series. To my surprise, the title is not camel-capped.

Having decisively won the Rock War, the Orbitals provided the defeated Earth with a bold New World Order. Key axiom: that the Orbitals should extract as much short-term wealth from Earth as possible.

This state of affairs provided Cowboy and Sarah with very different careers, careers fated to intersect.

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Andrew M. Stephenson’s 1979 The Wall of Years is a stand-alone science fiction novel.

In 2011, the Commissariat of National Integrity launched Project Damocles to protect the British Republics¹ from the deleterious effects of time travel, specifically the possibility that events in nearby timelines could affect the home timeline. This is a serious concern given that neighboring timelines were marching to a final War. The simple answer: murder every outside analog of time travel’s inventor, Frobisher. With no outside time travel available, existence would remain local causality for local people.

The CNI’s models were flawed. Their actions set off a series of time storms. End result: the Earth was reduced to a nearly lifeless, radioactive wasteland². Humanity perished… at least in 2011.

The 26^th century is another matter entirely.

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The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley is a stand-alone time travel novel.

Commander Graham Gore was just one of the hapless explorers in the Franklin Expedition¹, which was attempting to find a Northwest Passage across the top of Canada. He appears in the history books as one of the casualties of the ill-fated expedition. In this novel he is given an afterlife… of sorts.

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Sue Thomas’ 1992 Correspondence is a stand-alone science fiction novel.

All of the modern world’s wonders cannot protect one from loss and grief. A single moment can erase spouse and children. However, those wonders do offer a solution.

Two solutions, in fact.

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Insomniacs After School, Volume 9 is the ninth 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 9 was released in 2025.

Companion insomniacs Ganta and Isaki have contended with official and parental roadblocks to their quest to restore their high school astronomy club, whose observatory is the only place either of them can sleep. Now they face a development outside the club’s previous experience.

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