James Nicoll Reviews

Gu Byeong-Mo’s 2018 Apartment Women is a stand-alone mainstream novel. The 2024 English translation is by Chi-Young Kim.

Is Apartment Women also a dystopia? More on that later.

For Seo Yojin, husband Joen Euno, and six-year-old Jeon Siyul, the Dream Future Pilot Communal Apartments is a solution to pressing housing issues. Getting in wasn’t easy, but Yojin and her family were among the lucky few to be selected.

One small catch: The Dream Future Pilot Communal Apartments is a bold attempt to address South Korea’s negligible birthrate. In exchange for new homes in an invigorating rural setting, certain conditions need to be met.

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2021’s Touring After the Apocalypse, Volume One is the first tankōbon in Sakae Saito’s post-apocalyptic Iyashikei manga. Touring has been serialized in in ASCII Media Works’ seinen manga magazine Dengeki Maoh since September 2020. Amanda Haley’s English translation was published in 2022.

Exuberant Youko and stoic Airi set out on an electric motor bike to tour Japan’s many wonders. Their guide? Digital photographs from Youko’s sister, who took her own trip long ago.

Too bad about the end of the world.

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Faiqa Mansab’s 2025 The Sufi Storyteller is a stand-alone mystery.

The library in a rarely-visited building doubles as Professor Layla Rashid’s office. It offers both books and solitude. Today the office contains an unwanted gift: a corpse.

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Witch and Mercenary, Volume One is the first volume in Chohokiteki Kaeru’s Witch and Mercenary light novel series. Illustrations are by Kanase Benchi.

A prince determined to prove to his father that the prince (and not his twin brother) should inherit the throne has assembled an impressive army and set out to obliterate the witch Siasha. Witches being notorious dangerous, surely killing one would prove the prince’s worthiness.

Another possibility is that the witch will virtually annihilate the mercenary army, along with the prince, which is what happens. This greatly simplifies the succession, but it leaves surviving mercenary Zig Crane with a problem. Who will pay him now that the prince is dead?

Siasha is alive, rich, and the solution to Zig’s problems.

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2023’s Magus of the Library, Volume Seven is the seventh tankōbon in Mitsu Izumi’s secondary-universe fantasy manga series (Toshokan no Daimajutsushi in the original Japanese). Magus has been serialized in Good! Afternoon since November 2017. The English translation of Volume Seven appeared in 2024.

Theo is a poor, mixed-race young man on his way to becoming a kafna, as librarians are known. He will be one of a legion of kafnas in the employ of the Great Library. Created in the aftermath of a continent-wide genocidal conflict, the Great Library preserves knowledge.

What does that mean in practice?

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Haruki Murakami’s 2023 The City and Its Uncertain Walls is a surrealistic novel¹. The 2024 translation is by Philip Gabriel.

Ah, young love. How could it possibly go wrong?

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2016’s Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Volume One is the first tankōbon in Gotouge’s historical-fantasy manga series. Kimetsu no Yaiba was serialized in Shueisha’s shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from February 2016 to May 2020. The English translation of Volume One was released in 2018.

Young Tanjiro Kamado sets off to sell charcoal in town so that his widowed mother and his beloved siblings may enjoy a bountiful New Year feast. Because mid-winter travel is hard, Tanjiro wishes to travel fast; because his siblings are young, Tanjiro travels alone.

By so doing, he leaves most of his family to a horrible death.

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2023’s Daemons of the Shadow Realm, Volume 4 is the fourth tankōbon in Hiromu Arakawa’s ongoing modern fantasy manga series, Yomi no Tsugai in the original Japanese, Daemons has been serialized in Monthly Shōnen Gangan magazine since December 2021. Volume 4 in English translation was released in 2024.

What should have been a magically shielded refuge where Yuru can contemplate recent revelations¹ turns out to be anything but.

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2016’s Ansuz is the first volume in Malene Sølvsten’s Whisper of the Ravens teen contemporary fantasy series. The 2023 English translation is by Adrienne Alair.

Black-haired Danish teen Anna Sakarias’ life thus far has been less than ideal. Abandoned by her parents as a baby, Anna has been handed from foster-parent to foster-parent, finally ending up living on her own under the watchful eye of caseworker Greta. Although she saved one set of fosters from a fire, she was then blamed for the fire. When she defended herself from the local bully, Anna was the one who faced charges. If the preceding were not bad enough, Anna dreams of terrible murders.

Now Anna’s life will be utterly transformed… but not for the better.

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2024’s Witch Hat Atelier, Volume 13 is the thirteenth tankōbon of Kamome Shirahama’s Witch Hat Atelier fantasy manga series. Witch Hat Atelier (Tongari Bōshi no Atelier in the original Japanese) has been serialized in Kodansha’s Monthly Morning Two magazine since July 2016. The English translation of Volume 12 first appeared in 2025.

Imprisoned and stripped of his rank for misusing magic, cunning old Engendale orchestrated his escape by unleashing a vast, blood-sucking monster to distract his jailors while he fled. This very nearly perfect plan would have succeeded, were it not for plucky young Coco and her mentor, Qifrey.

Intercepting and confronting the old reprobate is easy enough. Surviving the encounter is another matter.

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