James Nicoll Reviews

Philip Wylie’s 1954 Tomorrow! is a cautionary tale… ABOUT TOMORROW!

Sure, the Communist Russians and their Chinese pawns hate goodness, peace, freedom, and probably puppies as well, and every promise they’ve made in the past turned out to be a barefaced lie. Is that any reason to doubt their current offers of peace? More importantly, suppose the Russians are lying, even though the odds of a thousandth falsehood following nine-hundred-and-ninety-nines lies seems to violate the laws of probability. What can anyone do to blunt the fury of atomic Armageddon if war comes?

Green Prairie, Missouri, arrives at one answer to that question. River City, across the state line in Kansas, embraces its opposite.

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George Dyson’s 2003 Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship is the biography of an atomic rocket that never was. Strike that, the atomic rocket that never was. Atomic rockets like NERVA or DUMBO may have used the power of the atom, but their approach was not so very different from conventional chemical rockets and their performance not so much better. Orion promised delta vees more than an order of magnitude better than NERVA at its best.

All it asked in return for its astounding performance was a studied tolerance for proximity to nuclear explosions. Repeated explosions. 

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2023’s Her Little Reapers is the second graphic novel in Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda’s The Night Eaters horror series.

Four months ago, a home-renovation project revealed to twins Milly and Billy Ting that their mother is a demon, their father is a demon, and thus … the Ting twins are also demons.

Dealing with their new-found status would ordinarily demand intensive training. Too bad for the Tings that their terrifying mother Ipo belongs to the sink or swim school of parenting. Laid-back dad Keon disagrees but is unwilling to cross Ipo. The Wonder Tings are on their own.

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1987’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Fourth Annual Collection is the fourth volume in Gardner Dozois’ long-running annual anthology series, showcasing the previous year’s best short SF. 

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I could be mistaken, but I do believe that Harry Martinson’s 1963 poem Aniara is the very first science fiction novel by a Nobel Laureate that I have ever read [1]. It’s also the very first work of poetry I’ve ever reviewed [2] (that is, all poetry rather than just containing poetry).

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There are those who would paint old-time SF as an exclusively masculine affair. Those people are wrong and a subset of them is willfully lying. Margaret St. Clair (1911 – 1995), to pick just a single woman working in the field, is proof SF was never exclusively male. She was a fairly prolific pulp writer (over 130 short works and eight novels), specializing in short works in the 1950s before moving into novels in the 1960s. Although she was armed with a Master of Arts in Greek Classics, she seemed content to play in the pulps, where she published works unlike anyone else’s. 

Rather frustratingly, St. Clair is out of print these days; if there are any modern editions of her books, I was unable to find them. If she is known to younger readers at all, it is because of a particularly dire bit of cover copy inflicted on her by some editor (who seems to have been an idiot and also bad at his job). Luckily for me, I was sent a copy of her 1985 collection The Best of Margaret St. Clair and luckily for you, I was paid to review it. 

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Douglas Terman’s 1980 Free Flight is a post-apocalyptic thriller. 

Believing that political and economic trends favored the US, Soviet Politburo extremists decided to take advantage of the Soviet’s existing superiority before it vanished. One bold first strike and they would unify the world under Soviet rule for the comparatively small cost of a few tens of millions dead. Mistakes were made. Billions died. Nevertheless, the Soviet Union prevailed. 

Air Force Officer Gregory Mallen picked the perfect time to holiday at his isolated Vermont cabin with doomed girlfriend Anne. Makeshift counter-measures protected Mallen¹ from the fallout. In the two years since 1985’s Seven Hour War, Mallen has lived in his cabin, occasionally bartering for necessities. Until now, America’s new government has ignored him. 

That respite is now over.

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Gerry Turner’s 1967 Stranger From the Depths is a stand-alone science fiction novel.

Desperate to keep the family newspaper afloat, college student/editor Gary and highschooler Jordan Howard perch on a promontory in the hope of photographing an incoming tsunami. Their effort costs them their vehicle, but the resulting images earn them a healthy $1200 (about $11,000 in 2024 currency). The Bellbrook Times can survive for a little while longer.

In the aftermath left by the wave, the two orphans make a very curious find, a statue of curious design and even more astonishing age, embedded in an ancient cliff.

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Jerry Pournelle’s 1979 A Step Farther Out is a collection of science essays, some of which have aged more gracefully than others. All of them first appeared in the late, lamented Galaxy Magazine.

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1961’s 6^th Annual Edition: The Year’s Best S‑F (also published as The 6^th Annual of the Year’s Best S‑F and as The Best of Sci-Fi) is the sixth annual anthology in Judith Merril’s The Year’s Best S‑F series. The stories included were first published in 1960 and 1961.

Alas, every series has its duds and volume six appears to be the dud in this series.

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