James Nicoll Reviews

Yume Kitasei’s 2023 The Deep Sky is a stand-alone science fiction novel.

More than a decade into the Phoenix​’s journey to another star, Asuka and Kat suit up to examine a mysterious object on the ship’s hull. What should have been a routine exo-vehicular excursion ends in disaster. A bomb detonates. Kat is killed instantly. Inside the ship, Captain McMahon and Communications Specialist Winnie are killed as well. The ship itself is knocked off course.

Asuka survives. Perhaps she can solve the mystery of who planted the bomb.… If only there were not so many suspects. If only Asuka were not the least qualified person in the crew.

Read more ➤

Valerie Valdes’s 2023 Where Peace Is Lost is a science fantasy novel. While it could serve as volume one of an ongoing series, it works as a stand-alone novel.

Facing a war whose costs would be unbearable even should her side win, Kelana Gardavros helped broker a peace with the rapacious Prixori Anocracy, also known as the Pale. Following the cessation of overt hostilities, Kel went into exile. For five years, she has lived quietly on Loth.

Loth is a backwater planet too distant and poor for the Pale to bother conquering it. This will not prevent the Pale from presenting a clear and present danger to Loth. It will not save Kel from being forced to choose between maintaining her low profile or trying to save her neighbors.

Read more ➤

Jade Song’s 2023 Chlorine is a stand-alone coming-of-age novel.

Ren Yu has a singular talent: swimming. All she needs is an abusive, domineering coach like Jim to invest years into brutally reshaping her as the athlete she could be. What could go wrong?

Read more ➤

Sons of Darkness is the first volume in Gourav Mohanty’s The Raag of Rta epic historical fantasy series.

Muchuk Und is a hero, which as he would say is ​“an honour bestowed upon you when you had killed all those who would have called you a mass murderer.” Employed by the Daevas¹ to smite their enemies, Muchuk performed, if not admirably, then effectively. Having served, he expects to be paid before returning to the human realm a nigh-demigod.

The Daevas withheld one or two details of their arrangement. The first is that while Muchuk has spent ten years serving his masters, a hundred years passed in the mortal world. The second is that the Daevas have no intention of letting their bloodthirsty servant run amok on Earth. An irate Muchuk is cast into sleep everlasting. Or almost everlasting.

Twenty thousand years later.…

Read more ➤

Anya Ow’s 2016 The Firebird’s Tale is a stand-alone Russian-themed fantasy novel.

Having decreed that grim-faced Tsarevich Aleksei would marry the first person to make him smile, the Tsar proves a man of his word. Aleksei’s poorly timed smirk earns him betrothal … to Nazar, the man Aleksei saw picking the Tsar’s pocket.

There is more to Nazar than Aleksei perceives. Indeed, there is more to almost everything than Aleksei perceives.

Read more ➤

Nisi Shawl’s 2019 Talk Like a Man Plus Women of the Doll Plus an Awfully Big Adventure and Much More is a collection of speculative fiction.

Read more ➤

The Everlasting Road is the second volume in Wab Kinew’s Floraverse young adult fantasy. The first volume is reviewed here.

Anishinaabe teen Bagonegiizhigok ​“Bugz” Holiday has vanquished her Clan:LESS rivals, but has not been able to restore her position (and income from said position) in the online Floraverse. Personal tragedy has distracted her: her brother has recently died of cancer.

Bugz has come up with a bold coping mechanism for grief. It is one a certain Doctor Frankenstein would recognize.

Read more ➤

2023’s Octavia E. Butler: The Last Interview: and Other Conversations is a collection of interviews by various interviewers with the late author Octavia E. Butler (June 22, 1947 – February 24, 2006). Octavia E. Butler: The Last Interview is part of Melville House’s Last Interview series. The collection includes an introduction by Samuel R. Delany.

Read more ➤

Deena Mohamed’s 2022 Shubeik Lubeik is a stand-alone modern-fantasy graphic novel.

Cairo kiosk-owner Shokry sells papers and cigarettes to passers-by. Recently, Shokry has added some new offerings: three first-class wishes.

First-class wishes are expensive, not something one would expect to purchase from a news agent. Surely, this is some sort of confidence game. However, Shokry is as honest as he is pious. The wishes are very much real. Of course, there is a catch. Several catches.

Read more ➤

S. L. Huang’s 2023 The Water Outlaws is a fantasy reimagining of the classic Chinese novel, The Water Margin.

Lin Chong is a Master Arms Instructor for the Guard. One of very few women to be deemed sufficiently talented that she could teach despite her lamentable choice of gender, she has served the (Northern) Song Dynasty loyally.

She will be repaid very badly for her service.

Read more ➤