James Nicoll Reviews

1978’s The Road to Corlay is the first of three volumes in Richard Cowper’s The White Bird of Kinship science/fantasy series. 

A thousand years after the Drowning reduced our current civilization to half-remembered folklore, the people of the Seven Kingdoms live a mediaeval existence under the watchful eye of the church. The year 3000 approaches; it is widely believed that the new millennium¹ will usher in a new world order.

So much depends on a musically talented boy from a backwater community, on his way to ecclesiastical school.

Read more ➤

Destinies, April-June 1979 was the third issue in the first volume of Destinies, the ​“paperback magazine of science fiction and speculative fact¹.”

As previously established, Destinies is a long-defunct magazine for which I have memories both fond and spotty. Those two characteristics may be linked. This is one of the issues for which I have no particular memories on looking at the cover. Enticement to look inside!

Read more ➤

1981’s Federation is a collection of novellas and novelettes set in H. Beam Piper’s star-spanning Federation[i].

Read more ➤

Reginald Bretnor’s 1975 The Craft of Science Fiction: A Symposium on Writing Science Fiction and Science Fantasy is (I know this may seem astonishing) a symposium on writing science fiction and science fantasy. 

So far as I know the contributors were not drinking wine together, though they may have done so separately at various times. 

Read more ➤

Margaret O’Donnell’s 1980 The Beehive is a stand-alone dystopian novel. 

A nation is astounded and alarmed by the appearance of political pamphlets in the nation’s mailboxes. Not merely because the pamphlets put forward forbidden views. No, the astounding fact was that the authors of the pamphlets are clearly women. To the astonished men of the nation, it is as though cows and pigs had begun to protest their treatment. 

Thirty years ago, an unnamed nation faced with dire economic setbacks turned to Gorston to solve their problems. The visionary delivered, liberating the people from the burdens of democracy and civil liberties. This won universal accolades, at least once Steiner’s secret police got done making sure that insufficiently cautious critics were disappeared. 

Gorston’s reforms included the relegation of women to purely domestic roles. However, there was just one small snag: without inexpensive women labourers, the economy would collapse. Faced with this inescapable reality, Gorston introduced further reforms.

Read more ➤

Alexei Panshin’s 1975 Farewell to Yesterday’s Tomorrow is a collection of science fiction short stories. Except as noted, all essays and stories are by Alexei Panshin. 

Read more ➤

Edward Bryant’s 1976 Cinnabar is a collection of American New Wave science fiction stories set in a far future city, the city from which the collection takes its name. 

Cinnabar lies between a forbidding desert and an inhospitable ocean. It may be the last city on its world; nobody is certain if fabled Els still exists. Cinnabar is enabled by inherited technology of which the modern day can only dream. It is composed of nearly autonomous neighborhoods that answer only to Terminex, a great supercomputer ensconced in the heart of the temporal anomaly that sits at the centre of the city. 

Read more ➤

1969’s Behold the Man is an expanded version of Michael Moorcock’s 1966 novella of the same title. In novella form¹, this black humor time-travel tale won a Nebula. At novel length, it did not — but then most novels don’t.

Karl Glogauer’s time machine arrives in a desolate region. The machine is wrecked on arrival, but Karl survives. His intention had been to search for the historical Jesus. Although it is not immediately clear if he has reached the correct time and place, he will ultimately survive beyond his wildest dreams.

But first! Backstory!

Read more ➤

Arthur Hailey’s 1962 In High Places is a near-future Canadian political thriller. Or it was near-future when it was published, long ago.

Canadian Prime Minister James McCallum Howden’s shaky majority will not allow for dramatic political innovations. Yet crises will arise with no regard for political convenience. Now, Howden must somehow convince his cabinet, his party, and the Canadian electorate to swallow the unpalatable if any part of Canada is to be saved.

In a secret communique, American President Tyler has informed Howden that nuclear war with the East is no more than a year away.

Read more ➤

William C. Heine’s 1974 The Last Canadian is a post-apocalyptic thriller.

Having cannily predicted business opportunities for an American versed in Canadian ways, Eugene ​“Gene” Arnprior transformed himself into the ideal candidate for his company’s expansion into Canada. A naturalized citizen resident in Montreal, Gene and his family can reasonably expect to enjoy a pleasant, if Canadian, life. 

Pity about the end of the world.

Read more ➤