James Nicoll Reviews

Ethan I. Shedley’s 1979 Earth Ship and Star Song is a stand-alone science fiction novel. It was his debut novel. 

Thanks to concerted efforts by many generations of humans, 21^st Century Earth is clearly doomed to horrific death due to runaway greenhouse effect. When closely examined, every proposed mitigating technology has secondary effects that will accelerate the planet’s doom. Of the four possible coping mechanisms, three can be eliminated as impractical.

The best chance for the human race (and a selection of terrestrial lifeforms) is to flee the planet in great arks. The technology needed is in hand … save for one small detail.

Read more ➤

1979’s Bander Snatch was Kevin O’Donnell, Jr.’s debut science fiction novel.

Thanks to off-world resources, 22^ndcentury Earth is a paradise … mostly. Most folks in this semiperfect society live in no-coms, small communities that are marvels of conformity and uniformity. There are few opportunities for social friction between dissimilar groups. There has been nothing like a proper war since 2063. 

No-coms have no place for misfits. The tiny fraction of people unable to adapt to modern life are consigned to places like Federal Dependents Resettlement Area Number Three. If they are particularly unlucky, they may end up in the ruins of Townships 19, 20, 24, and 25, which are still largely unreconstructed after the food riots of 2128. Thanks to agreements that made sense back in 2128, they are still under the control of what are perhaps best called war lords. 

Twenty-two-year-old Bander Snatch is one such war lord.

Read more ➤

1978’s Godsfire was Cynthia Felice’s debut science fiction novel. 

Heao, a felinoid sentient, lives in the tableland region of the shadowed highlands. Her country is sophisticated and technologically advanced, but it has not been able to resist a felinoid neighbor avid for conquest. The tableland has been overrun by a cunning military strategist from the shadowed lowlands. Now the tableland is just another province in the King-conqueror’s empire; the tableland’s ruler, Prince Chel, is a mere vassal. 

Heao is one of the few surviving tableland scholars; she’s a mapmaker. This will make her of use to the King-conqueror, although not immediately. 

Read more ➤

Jim Baen’s Destinies January – February 1979 is the second issue of Destinies, a bookazine (defined later) published by Ace in the before times. 

Read more ➤

1965’s Atlan is the third volume in Jane Gaskell’s sword-and-sorcery Atlan series … unless you purchased 1963’s The Serpent before it was divided into The Dragon (1975) and The Serpent (1975), in which case Atlan is the second volume. It was followed by two other volumes in the series, The City (1966) and Some Summer Lands (1977).

Naïve, cosseted Cija, having survived many unpleasant educational experiences, has married man-serpent Zerd, now Emperor of Atlan. One might think this would confer on Cija a measure of security, but no, Cija is beset on all sides. 

Read more ➤

John Sladek’s 1968 The Reproductive System is a stand-alone near-future science fiction novel.

Faced with impending bankruptcy due to declining sales, the board of Millford’s venerable Wompler company (manufacturers of Wompler’s Walking Babies) uncharacteristically embraces bold change. Rather than looking for ways to better appeal to their traditional market — young girls — they decide to become part of America’s thriving military industrial complex.

Exactly what a minor doll company located in the middle of nowhere has to offer the military industrial complex is of no concern. The important thing is to get their hands on those sweet, sweet government funds. 

Read more ➤

George Warren’s 1979 Dominant Species is a stand-alone planetary romance novel. 

Having had enough of war, mighty-thewed Oak and his addled companion Karth join a fishing fleet. The sea creatures of backward world Nuvelkebek are mighty indeed. Oak survives an encounter with one, thanks in large part to Karth’s intervention. 

Mortally wounded, amnesiac Karth suddenly remembers suppressed memories. He charges Oak with a mighty task: find the Order! The grieving Oak has no choice but to accept. Alas, Karth was rather short on details, leaving Oak to discover horrifying truths on his own.

Read more ➤

Richard C. Meredith’s 1976 Run, Come See Jerusalem! is a stand-alone dystopian time-travel novel. 

86,159 BC: Dr. Eugene Stillman’s time machine materializes in mid-air and plummets to the ground. It’s wrecked. An inauspicious beginning to his adventure. 

Matters will get much worse. 

Read more ➤

G. C. Edmondson’s 1980 The Man Who Corrupted Earth is a stand-alone near-future space industrialization novel.

Screwed over by government and his back-stabbing son-in-law, Gus Dampier lost control of his company. Gus is not content to be put out to pasture. He and an ambitious Arab named Mansour have a cunning scheme that may make them billions, upend the economy and save oil-dependent Arab nations¹! If it screws over the WASP pricks who run the USA, all the better.

Their recipe for success begins ​“first, steal three derelict shuttles.”

Read more ➤

Stanley Schmidt’s The Sins of the Fathers is the first volume in his Kyyra duology. It was first published as an Analog serial in 1973 and came out in a mass-market paperback edition in 1976.

The starship Archaeopteryx is sent out with a three-man crew to a point 130 light-years from Earth, there to use modern astronomical equipment to intercept the wave front from the S Andromeda supernova. The ship returns with unexpected results. 

Things did not go well on the ship. Dr. Donald Lewiston went mad and murdered skipper Dirk Borowski before he was subdued by ship’s mate Jonel Turabian. This is a major disappointment to Henry Clark, Lieutenant Commissioner of Grants, since the expedition falls under his purview. 

Things will not go well for the Earth. Turabian informs his bosses that the core of the galaxy has exploded. A lethal wavefront of deadly radiation has spent 30,000 years creeping across the 30,000 light-years between the core and Earth. That wave front is at most twenty light-years from Earth.

Read more ➤