James Nicoll Reviews

R. B. Lemberg’s 2022 The Unbalancing is a secondary universe fantasy, set in Lemberg’s Bird universe. 

Erígra Lilún isn’t at ease in social situations. They would rather engage in solitary artistic pursuits. This doesn’t sit well with their ancestor Semberí, long a ghost, who has a strong conviction that Lilún should be the new keeper of the Unquiet Sleeper. ​“What is that?” you ask. Let me explain.

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Nicola Griffith’s 2022 Spear is a stand-alone Arthurian fantasy.

The nameless girl yearns to know who she is … but her mother Elen won’t reveal her name or the name of her father. The pair hide in a cave in remote woods, far from any other habitation. Elen wields magic and owns a powerful artifact, but she lives in fear of discovery. The girl will never be belong to any community in post-Roman Britain if her mother has her way.

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2022’s A Prayer for The Crown-shy is the second volume in Becky Chamber’s Monk and Robot series. 

Until now, no existing robot has personally experienced human society. Mosscap has set out to rectify this omission. While accompanying the monk Sibling Dex on their rural journeys, the robot enthusiastically embraces the chance to witness human behavior in all its peculiar manifestations. The machine’s curiosity is matched only by its unfamiliarity with social conventions. 

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2021’s A Psalm for the Wild-Built is the first volume of Becky Chambers’ Robot and Monk series.

Although Panga’s only city (named City) is a fine city, it has no crickets. Sibling Dex wants to hear crickets. They leave urban monastic life behind to embrace the way of the tea monk. Learning how to be a proper tea monk will be just one delightful aspect of this new life.

There is, however, the matter of the rogue robots.

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Sarah Tolmie’s 2022 All the Horses of Iceland is a historical fantasy.

The nameless horse’s 9^th century¹journey from Central Asia to Iceland began with religious conversion. More exactly, it began because a conversion was refused. Eyvind of Eyri, an Icelandic pagan and a sailor, finds Christian attempts to covert him unconvincing. When the captain of Eyvind’s ship converts to Christianity while docked in the Volga river trading community of Helmgard (modern Novgorod), only Eyvind refuses to follow the captain’s lead. Feeling out of place on the now Christian ship, Eyvind cashes in his shares and looks for other opportunities.

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Knot of Shadows is the eleventh volume in Lois McMaster Bujold’s Penric and Desdemona series, which takes place in her Five Gods secondary fantasy universe. 

Drownings are not rare in Vilnoc, a port. Drowned men who stand up and try to escape the morgue, on the other hand, are unusual. Clearly the ambulatory corpse is a matter for a sorcerer. Physician Tolga asks Penric and his demon Desdemona to help.

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Adrian Tchaikovsky’s 2021 Elder Race is a stand-alone science fiction novella. 

Plagued by demonic invasion, the people of Ordwood begged Lannesite for aid. Lannesite’s Queen decreed that Ordwood’s problems, while tragic, were not Lannesite’s problems. No aid would be forthcoming.

Outraged at her mother’s lack of compassion, the Queen’s least impressive offspring, Lynesse Fourth Daughter, convinced herself to embrace bold action. Nyrgoth Elder, last of the ancients, long ago promised that Lannesite could call on him in their hour of need. Whether the old sorcerer is still alive is unknown. Nobody has seen him in a lifetime. Nevertheless, Lynesse sets out for his isolated mountain tower. 

Old Nyrgoth is still alive, scarcely aged a day. However, he is no sorcerer.

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Corinne Duyvis’ 2020 The Art of Saving the World is a stand-alone contemporary fantasy novel. 

Hazel Stanczak faces some of the same challenges that confront other teens. Such as worrying that her attraction to Marybeth McKellan might mean that she is gay¹. But there’s one challenge no other teen on the planet faces: the interdimensional rift in her back yard.

The Mysterious Government Agency — so classified that the Stanczak family doesn’t know its actual name — wishes that it knew more than it does about the interdimensional rift on the Stanczak farm near West Asherton, Pa. The MGA does know that the rift appeared when Hazel Stanczak was born and that it goes wild whenever she gets more than a mile and a half away from it. The MGA’s determination to protect America from a rift run amok, while keeping the rift a secret, has defined Hazel’s life to date. 

On her sixteenth birthday, Hazel discovers who she really is: Earth’s Chosen One! Which, as it turns out, is a destiny not to be desired.

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Alix E. Harrow’s 2021 A Spindle Splintered is the first volume in the Fractured Fables series.

Twenty-one-year-old Zinnia Gray has her whole future ahead of her … which, thanks to the Generalized Roseville Malady she has lived with her entire life, will consist of the next few weeks. She is the last survivor of GRM and her disorder is very rapidly catching up with her.

This makes her 21^st birthday party special, since she will not have a 22^nd birthday.

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Susanna Clarke’s 2020 Piranesi is a stand-alone fantasy novel.

The labyrinthine Halls are vast. Within them live two men: one nicknamed Piranesi by his companion, the other dubbed the Other by the so-called Piranesi. Piranesi doubts that ​“Piranesi” is his true name. However, this does not matter to him. He has more important concerns.

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