James Nicoll Reviews

1970’s Deryni Rising is the first book of Katherine Kurtz’s historical fantasy trilogy, Chronicles of The Deryni. There are five Deryni trilogies to date. Although there is a more recent edition of this book available¹, this is a review of the original version. 

Gwynedd is one of the Eleven Kingdoms, a collection of feudal states entangled by history and proximity. As the novel opens, Gwynedd finds itself in a succession crisis when wise King Brion Haldane dies. Brion has an acknowledged heir, Prince Kelson. But what should be an uneventful succession faces several challengers. The most dangerous of them is Lady Charissa, the dark sorceress who covertly murdered Brion. 

Read more ➤

Judith Merril’s 1968 England Swings SF is an anthology of New Wave science fiction.

Read more ➤

Lloyd Biggle, Jr.’s 1968 The Still, Small Voice of Trumpets is the first of Biggle’s Interplanetary Relations Bureau works.

Seconded to the Interplanetary Relations Bureau (IPR), Cultural Survey agent Jef Forzon arrives on the non-Federation world Gurnil without orders in hand and with no clear idea what his duties are to be. Local IPR Coordinator Rastadt offers little illumination; he claims that he’s as surprised to see Forzon on Gurnil as Forzon is to have been sent to the backwater world.

Forzon soon discovers that Gurnil is a sore point for the IPR. It is the planet where IPR careers go to die and has been for four centuries. 

Read more ➤

1968’s So Bright the Vision collects four novelettes by Clifford D. Simak. 

Read more ➤

Alison Tellure had a brief but memorable career that began in 1977 and ended (at least thus far) in 1984. While her works did not attract awards and do not appear to have been frequently anthologized, they were memorable enough to spark conversation during a discussion of women SF authors of the 1970s. In fact, I’ve occasionally thought it might be good to read her work. Which I have now done 😊

Read more ➤

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro’s 1980 Ariosto is a standalone mundane alternate history novel (but one which contains within itself a fantasy alternate history novel).

Italy’s warring states have set aside their mutual enmity in the name of common defence. The Italia Federata protects all of its member states from foreign aggression, whereas formerly each principality and republic could rely only on its own strength and that of an ever-shifting network of allies. 

Ludovico Ariosto is but a poet, not the Il Primàrio who expected to keep all of the Federata’s saucers in the air. Il Primàrio Damiano de’ Medici is, however, Ariosto’s patron. Italy’s problems are Damiano’s and by the transitive property, Italy’s problems are Ariosto’s.

Small wonder the poet finds escape in fantasy.

Read more ➤

Arthur C. Clarke’s 1951 Sands of Mars is a standalone science fiction novel. It was his debut novel. It has also been published as The Sands of Mars.

To commemorate the maiden voyage of Ares, first passenger rocket on the Earth-Mars loop, famed science fiction author Martin Gibson has been dispatched to document the voyage. Although not decrepit as such, Gibson is old enough that he began writing when interplanetary travel was a matter of imagination and not practical engineering. Thus, he can provide an interesting perspective on the realities of crewed space flight. 

While space flight is as unexciting as legions of engineers can arrange¹, the voyage does provide some unexpected surprises.

Warning! Spoilers ahead!

Read more ➤

Anthony Boucher’s 1969 The Compleat Werewolf and Other Stories of Fantasy and Science Fiction is a fantasy and science fiction collection. It would be confusing were it not a fantasy and science fiction collection … although I should add that it is not a Fantasy and Science Fiction collection in the sense some might have expected from Boucher¹.

Read more ➤

1977’s The Ice is Coming is the first volume in Patricia Wrightson’s Wirrun trilogy. 

The Ninya, the ice folk who live unnoticed beneath Australia, have a dream: to return to the surface world, freeze it solid, and then be free to roam. Only the Eldest Nargun, a volcanic rock creature that can summon fire, could confound the Ninya. If the Ninya act quickly, by the time their ancient enemy learns what the Ninya are up to, it will be too late.

Unfortunately for the simple ice folk, they boldly discuss their vision unaware that someone is eavesdropping.

Read more ➤

1978’s Poe Must Die is a standalone historical occult thriller by prolific author Marc Olden.

It’s 1848 and actor and sorcerer Jonathan is determined to uncover the location of Solomon’s Throne, which he believes to hold magical tomes of great import. These books would allow him to control Hell and rival God himself! Jonathan will commit crimes without number to succeed in his evil quest. 

But the terminally ill American millionaire Justin Coltman is first past the post: he finds the crucial tomes. The actor follows Coltman back to America, hoping to recover the books. 

A complication ensues, in the form of the brutal boxer Pierce James Figg. 

Read more ➤