James Nicoll Reviews

2025’s upcoming A Palace Near The Wind is the first installment in Ai Jiang’s Natural Engines secondary-world natural fantasy¹ duology.

In exchange for a regular supply of new Wind Walker brides from Feng, the king graciously slows the inexorable growth of the Palace into Feng. In this way, Feng’s doom, while still clearly inevitable, is delayed.

Liu Lufeng has a bold solution, one that will require her to get within arm’s reach of the king.

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Nghi Vo’s upcoming Don’t Sleep With the Dead is the second work in Vo’s The Chosen and the Beautiful period-piece fantasy series.

New York is a perfect city for Nick Carraway. As long as he presents himself judiciously, nobody will wonder if the successful writer is straight or queer. For that matter, nobody will question if Nick is the man he claims to be… or just an ingenious origami figure borrowing the shape of a man long dead.

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C. L. Clark’s 2025 Ambessa: Chosen of the Wolf is a League of Legends: Arcane novel. I will unravel all that later.

Ambessa Medarda is perhaps the Noxian empire’s foremost military leader. A vision granted after she was badly wounded suggests she will one day lead the empire. Currently she does not even lead her own clan. Her beloved grandfather Hostlord Menelik leads.

Who will follow old Menelik? That is a question for another day. Menelik will surely live for many years to come.

Or perhaps, he will die immediately after his audience with Ambessa.

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Octavia E. Butler’s 2014 Unexpected Stories is a collection of science fiction stories.

Unexpected Stories is only barely a collection, as it contains but two stories. One fewer and it would be a novella. Or a short story.

Unexpected Stories is also the solution to a personal problem.

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2023’s Zhara is the first volume in S. Jae-Jones’ Guardians of Dawn secondary universe fantasy series.

Zhara is a poor orphan who selflessly serves her stepmother, Second Wife¹. Royal Heir Han is a prince of the realm. Although they would seem to have nothing in common, they do. Both are plagued by magic.

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Premee Mohamed’s 2024 The Rider, The Ride, The Rich Man’s Wife is a fantasy novella.

Rain should be welcome in an arid town like Wrathford, which is otherwise dependent on unreliable wells. But the infrequent rains come with an unwelcome price.

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Makana Yamamoto’s 2025 Hammajang Luck is a (thus far¹) stand-alone science fiction heist novel².

Former aspiring criminal Edie has spent eight long years in Kepler System Penitentiary contemplating what happens when you trust the wrong person. Unexpectedly paroled, Edie soon discovers that time invested considering misplaced trust was time well-spent… but perhaps not as useful as one might expect in charting Edie’s post-prison life.

Angel and Edie used to be as close as siblings, but when Angel had to choose between prison time or flipping on Edie, Angel chose to betray Edie. That makes Angel’s current offer of a job a bold choice on Angel’s part.

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2023’s The Yellow Rambutan Tree Mystery is the seventh volume in Ovidia Yu’s Crown Colony mystery series.

Imperial Japan has been crushed. Singapore has been liberated from the rapacious Japanese. Those who survived occupation begin to rebuild their lives. Su Lin’s friend Parshanti plans marriage despite qualms¹. Su Lin’s Chen clan adapts to new business realities. As for Su Lin, the future is less clear.

Japan’s defeat only changed the identity of Singapore’s colonial masters, not the fact of colonial rule. The British have returned.

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B. L. Blanchard’s 2023 The Mother is an alternate history thriller. It is technically the second book in the Good Lands series, but can nevertheless be read as a stand-alone.

Marie, Duchess of Suffolk, vanishes from Grayside, the family mansion. The evidence points to suicide… But the evidence is misleading. Marie is fleeing from her husband and his family, and toward a new life.

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2025’s Breath of the Dragon is the first of two volumes in Fonda Lee and Shannon Lee¹​’s secondary-universe fantasy Breathmarked duology.

When two warriors with special powers (warriors known as Aspects of Virtue) arrive to collect Jun’s twin brother Sai for training as an Aspect, six-year-old Jun is outraged. While Breathmarked Sai’s gift allows him to copy perfectly other people’s martial arts skills, mundane Jun has trained hard to be a skilled martial artist.

East Longhan forbids common folk from learning martial arts. The end result of proud Jun’s display of prowess is that Jun and his father are exiled to West Longhan for five years.

Ten years later, Jun and his father are still in West Longhan.

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