James Nicoll Reviews

Fears: Tales of Psychological Horror edited by Ellen Datlow (September 2024)

Bestselling horror editor Ellen Datlow (Body Shocks) returns with twenty-one stories of extreme psychological dread from such horror icons as Stephen Graham Jones, Priya Sharma, Josh Malerman, Margo Lanagan, and more. The unsettling tales explore the nature of fear as it stirs in dysfunctional families, toxic friendships, and mismatched lovers, which culminates in relentless stalkers, remorseless killers, and perpetrators of savage rituals.

Far beneath the mere supernatural lives something worse: the depths of human depravity. Your child is sacrificed in compensation for your social misstep. You compete in a sick game to save your loved ones. Your mom is insane, your dad is dying, your brother is not your brother, and you’re stuck in the same house until one or all of you are dead. In her newest landmark anthology, Ellen Datlow has unearthed twenty-one exemplary tales of what people should fear the most: other people. 

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The Naming Song by Jedediah Berry (September 2024)

When the words went away, the world changed. 

All meaning was lost, and every border fell. Monsters slipped from dreams to haunt the waking while ghosts wandered the land in futile reveries. Only with the rise of the committees of the named — Maps, Ghosts, Dreams, and Names — could the people stand against the terrors of the nameless wilds. They built borders around their world and within their minds, shackled ghosts and hunted monsters, and went to war against the unknown. 

For one unnamed courier of the Names Committee, the task of delivering new words preserves her place in a world that fears her. But after a series of monstrous attacks on the named, she is forced to flee her committee and seek her long-lost sister. Accompanied by a patchwork ghost, a fretful monster, and a nameless animal who prowls the shadows, her search for the truth of her past opens the door to a revolutionary future — for the words she carries will reshape the world. 

The Naming Song is a book of deep secrets and marvelous discoveries, strange adventures and dangerous truths. It’s the story of a world locked in a battle over meaning. Most of all, it’s the perfect fantasy for anyone who’s ever dreamed of a stranger, freer, more magical world. 

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A huge shout-out to my donors, subscribers and audience, for their part in my nomination to the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association Hall of Fame¹.

James Nicoll Reviews is supported by spontaneous donations, review commissions and Patreon subscribers. If you would like to commission a review, please see my guidelines. My Patreon is here. Spontaneous donations can be done via my Paypal. Advice on how to better promote my Patreon is also welcome. 

1: Contrary to my expectation last month, the nomination high has not worn off. It helps that in addition to the CSFFA Hall of Fame nomination, Young People Read Old SFF is an Aurora Award finalist.

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April’s news: on the heels of the public announcement that I was a Hugo Award finalist, I discovered that I am a nominee for the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association Hall of Fame, and that my Young People Read Old SFF is a finalist for the Aurora Award. May will have to work very hard to top that.

This year, the Hugo Award Ceremony and the Aurora Award Ceremony are both on August 11^th, about two hours apart.

April marked the 10^th anniversary of my Rediscovery Reviews, which would in a few months time develop into James Nicoll Reviews. I should probably be thinking how I want to acknowledge that anniversary.

April 2024

21 works reviewed. 10 by women (48%), 9 by men (43%), 2 by non-binary authors (10%), 0 by authors whose gender is unknown (0%), and 8 by POC (38%).

2024 to Date

86 works reviewed. 46 by women (53%), 37 by men (43%), 2 by
non-binary authors (2%), 1 by authors whose gender is unknown (1%), and 33 by POC (38%).

Grand Total to Date

2615 works reviewed. 1458 by women (56%), 1092 by men (42%), 42 by non-binary authors (2%), 23 by authors whose gender is unknown (1%), and 804.75 by POC (31%).

Government Types April 2024

Total 22, Not Applicable 1 (5%), Unclear 2 (9%), Anarchy 2 (9%), Pure democracy 0 (0%), Representative democracy 6 (27%), Oligarchy 10 (45%), Autocracy 1 (5%).

Government Type 2024 TD

Total 65, Not Applicable 8 (12%), Unclear 4 (6%), Anarchy 4 (6%),
Pure democracy 0 (0%), Representative democracy 21 (32%), Oligarchy 25 (38%), Autocracy 3 (5%).

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Metal From Heaven by August Clarke (October 2024)

For fans of The Princess Bride and Gideon the Ninth: a bloody lesbian revenge tale and political fantasy set in a glittering world transformed by industrial change – and simmering class warfare. 

Ichorite is progress. More durable and malleable than steel, ichorite is the lifeblood of a dawning industrial revolution. Yann I. Chauncey owns the sole means of manufacturing this valuable metal, but his workers, who risk their health and safety daily, are on strike. They demand Chauncey research the hallucinatory illness befalling them, a condition they call ​“being lustertouched.” Marney Honeycutt, a lustertouched child worker, stands proud at the picket line with her best friend and family. That’s when Chauncey sends in the guns. 

Only Marney survives the massacre. She vows bloody vengeance. 

A decade later, Marney is the nation’s most notorious highwayman, and Chauncey’s daughter seeks an opportune marriage. Marney’s rage and the ghosts of her past will drive her to masquerade as an aristocrat, outmaneuver powerful suitors, and win the heart of his daughter, so Marney can finally corner Chauncey and satisfy her need for revenge. But war ferments in the north, and deeper grudges are surfacing… 

H. A. Clarke’s adult fantasy debut, writing as August Clarke, Metal from Heaven is a punk-rock murder ballad tackling labor issues and radical empowerment against the relentless grind of capitalism. 

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The Last Song of Penelope by Claire North (June 2024)

Following the critically acclaimed Ithaca and House of Odysseus comes the final novel in Claire North’s Songs of Penelope trilogy — an exquisite, gripping tale that breathes life into ancient myth. This is the story of Penelope of Ithaca, famed wife of Odysseus, as it has never been told before. 

Many years ago, Odysseus sailed to war and never returned. For twenty years his wife Penelope and the women of Ithaca have guarded the isle against suitors and rival kings. But peace cannot be kept forever, and the balance of power is about to break …A beggar has arrived at the Palace. Salt-crusted and ocean-battered, he is scorned by the suitors — but Penelope recognises in him something terrible: her husband, Odysseus, returned at last. Yet this Odysseus is no hero. By returning to the island in disguise, he is not merely plotting his revenge against the suitors — vengeance that will spark a civil war — but he’s testing the loyalty of his queen. Has she been faithful to him all these years? And how much blood is Odysseus willing to shed to be sure?The song of Penelope is ending, and the song of Odysseus must ring through Ithaca’s halls. But first, Penelope must use all her cunning to win a war for the fate of the island and keep her family alive, whatever the cost …

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Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan (July 2024)

Her fictional crush is the villain. And he’s about to meet his match… Rae is a bookworm who prefers fictional men over real life boyfriends. But her life takes a strange turn when she is trapped by magic inside her favourite fantasy series, and she finds herself pitted against her suddenly living and breathing crush, the ​‘Once and Forever Emperor’. In a palace on the brink of war, she has become the villainess in his tale, and she needs to take control of the narrative before it, and the Emperor, take control of her… fatally. This adult epic fantasy debut from Sarah Rees Brennan puts the reader in the villainess’s shoes, for an adventure that is both ​‘supremely satisfying’ (Leigh Bardugo) and ​‘brilliant’ (Holly Black): expect a cast of dilettante aristocrats, knights-in-armour, magic-wielding warriors, sarcastic servants and one particularly murderous, if annoyingly handsome, bodyguard. 

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FIYAH No. 30 published by FIYAH Literary Magazine (April 2024)

Issue #30 of FIYAH Literary Magazine 

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A huge shout-out to my donors, subscribers and audience, without whose support I would not have been nominated for Best Fan Writer¹.

James Nicoll Reviews is supported by spontaneous donations, review commissions and Patreon subscribers. If you would like to commission a review, please see my guidelines. My Patreon is here. Spontaneous donations can be done via my Paypal. Advice on how to better promote my Patreon is also welcome.

1: I promise the nomination high will wear off soon, probably right after I get chided for imprecise terminology vis-à-vis ​“nominee” vs ​“finalist”.

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I always forget something when I do these little reports. I mean to create checklists but then I forget. I need to create a checklist with ​“create checklist” right above ​“read checklist.” Or perhaps just below.

The big news this month is that I am a Hugo finalist for Best Fan Writer. This is the fifth time I have been a finalist for this award. Experience suggests I will lose for the fifth time… but since I also was sure I’d never be finalist again after 2011 and 2020, maybe I will be wrong this time. In any case, it is an honour to be a finalist.

March 2024

22 works reviewed. 11 by women (50%), 10 by men (45%), 0 by a non-binary author (0%), 1 by an author whose gender is unknown (5%), and 9 by POC (41%).

2024 to Date

65 works reviewed. 36 by women (55%), 28 by men (43%), 0 by a 
non-binary author (0%), 1 by an author whose gender is unknown (2%), and 25 by POC (38%).

Grand Total to Date

2594 works reviewed. 1448 by women (55%), 1083 by men (42%), 40 by non-binary authors (2%), 23 by authors whose gender is unknown (1%), and 796.75 by POC (31%).

Government Types March 2024

Total 22, Not Applicable 1 (5%), Unclear 2 (9%), Anarchy 2 (9%), Pure democracy 0 (0%), Representative democracy 6 (27%), Oligarchy 10 (45%), Autocracy 1 (5%).

Government Type 2024 TD

Total 65, Not Applicable 8 (12%), Unclear 4 (6%), Anarchy 4 (6%),
Pure democracy 0 (0%), Representative democracy 21 (32%), Oligarchy 25 (38%), Autocracy 3 (5%).

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