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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Twelve books new to me. Four fantasies, one horror, one non-fiction, and six (!) science fiction works, of which at least four are series instalments.

Books Received, September 27 — October 3

Poll #33688 Books Received, September 27 — October 3
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 43


Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

Children of Fallen Gods by Carissa Broadbent (December 2025)
2 (4.7%)

Enchanting the Fae Queen by Stephanie Burgis (January 2026)
3 (7.0%)

The Language of Liars by S. L. Huang (April 2026)
17 (39.5%)

We Burned So Bright by T. J. Klune (April 2026)
15 (34.9%)

We Could Be Anyone by Anna-Marie McLemore (May 2026)
2 (4.7%)

These Godly Lies by Rachelle Raeta (July 2026)
0 (0.0%)

The New Prometheans: Faith, Science, and the Supernatural
12 (27.9%)

Every Exquisite Thing by Laura Steven (July 2026)
2 (4.7%)

The Infinite State by Richard Swan (August 2026)
5 (11.6%)

Green City Wars by Adrian Tchaikovsky (June 2026)
18 (41.9%)

Moss’d in Space by Rebecca Thorne (July 2026)
14 (32.6%)

Platform Decay by Martha Wells (May 2026)
33 (76.7%)

Some other option (see comments)
0 (0.0%)

Cats!
29 (67.4%)

Book Tour Starting Next Week

Oct. 3rd, 2025 05:00 pm
marthawells: (Witch King)
[personal profile] marthawells
I don't think I posted about this yet: https://us.macmillan.com/tours/martha-wells-queen-demon/

There's more info at that link, but here's a brief list of the tour stops and dates:


- Mon. Oct. 6 at 7:30pm: Brookline Booksmith with Holly Black, offsite at Arts at the Armory (Brookline, MA)

- Tues. Oct. 7 at 7pm: Politics & Prose (Union Market location) moderated by Leigha McReynolds (Washington DC)

- Wed. Oct. 8 at 7pm: The Strand, with Meg Elison (NYC, NY)

- Fri. Oct. 10 at 6pm: Let’s Play Books, with Chuck Wendig, offsite at Muhlenberg College (Allentown, PA)

- Tues. Oct. 14 at 7pm, Third Place Books (Seattle, WA)

- Wed. Oct. 15 at 7pm, Iron Dog Books, with Nalo Hopkinson offsite at Waterfront Theatre on Granville Island (Vancouver, BC, Canada)

- Thurs. Oct. 16 at 7pm, Powell's (Cedar Hill location) with Jenn Reese (Beaverton, OR)

- Mon. Oct. 20 at 7pm: Bookpeople, with Ehigbor Okosun (Austin, TX)

- Tue. Oct. 21 at 6:30pm: Murder by the Book (Houston, TX)

- Thurs. Oct. 23 at 6pm: Nowhere Bookshop (San Antonio, TX)

- Saturday Nov. 8-9 Texas Book Festival, Austin TX

- Sat. Nov. 15 at 2pm: Hyperbole Bookstore, offsite at Ringer Library (College Station, TX)
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Forgotten again by her family, Joan Greenwood discovers that this time her witch-kin had a legitimate excuse: a potentially existential threat to Greenwood power and privilege.

An Unlikely Coven (Green Witch Cycle, volume 1) by AM Kvita

Queen Demon Playlist

Oct. 2nd, 2025 08:42 pm
marthawells: (Witch King)
[personal profile] marthawells
I did a playlist for Witch King (https://marthawells.dreamwidth.org/627157.html) when it first came out in 2023, and now here's one for Queen Demon:



Seven Devils - Florence + Machine

Burning - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Bando - ANNA with MadMan and Gemitaiz

Bringing Murder to the Land - Anton Newcombe and Dot Allison

Bulletproof vs. Release Me - The Outfit

I Owe You Nothing - Seinabo Sey

W.I.T.C.H. - Devon Cole

Egun (theme from Manhunt) - Danielle Ponder

Warm - SG Lewis

Disease - Lady Gaga

Which Witch (Demo) - Florence + Machine

you should see me in a crown - Billie Eilish

Bakunawa - Rudy Ibarra, with June Millington, Han Han, and Ouida.
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


A field agent armed with privacy-violating technology searches for Nazi loot--stolen diamonds--on behalf of a South African diamond cartel.

Probe (Search, # 1) by Leslie Stevens & Russ Mayberry

Last night's dream

Oct. 2nd, 2025 08:28 am
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
I dreamed I discovered a weapon in Half Life 2 that would generate and hurl at considerable speed empty shipping containers.

Bundle of Holding: The Far Roofs

Oct. 1st, 2025 02:01 pm
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


The complete tabletop RPG about the heroic rats of Fortitude

Bundle of Holding: The Far Roofs

October 2025 Patreon Boost

Oct. 1st, 2025 10:59 am
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


You too can support James Nicoll Reviews.

October 2025 Patreon Boost
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Akiko's plan to become Japan's foremost manga artist is manifestly reasonable, so why will reality not cooperate?

Blank Canvas: My So-Called Artist's Journey„ volume 1 by Akiko Higashimura

September 2025 in Review

Sep. 30th, 2025 12:22 pm
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


21 works reviewed. 11 by women (52%), 9 by men (43%), 1 by non-binary authors (5%), 0 by authors whose gender is unknown (0%), and 8 by POC (38%).

The chart is breaking formatting. Need to fix or remove it. I do like charts, though.

September 2025 in Review

Bundle of Holding: 5E Treasures

Sep. 29th, 2025 02:01 pm
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


A magical hoard for Fifth Edition roleplaying

Bundle of Holding: 5E Treasures

Clarke Award Finalists 2016

Sep. 29th, 2025 12:15 pm
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
2016: The Chilcot Inquiry illustrates the meticulous process by which the UK went to war in Iraq, Lord Lucan is declared dead, and the UK’s narrow vote to leave the EU is at worst the second stupidest collective decision made by a Western democracy in 2016.

Pretend I caught that the poll autofilled the wrong question and that it reads "which 2016 Clarke Award finalists did you read?"

Poll #33672 Clarke Award Finalists 2016
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 52


Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
22 (42.3%)

Arcadia by Iain Pears
2 (3.8%)

Europe at Midnight by Dave Hutchinson
7 (13.5%)

The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor
12 (23.1%)

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
44 (84.6%)

Way Down Dark by James Smythe
0 (0.0%)



Bold for have read, italic for intend to read, underline for never heard of it.

Which 2016 Clarke Award finalists did you read??
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Arcadia by Iain Pears
Europe at Midnight by Dave Hutchinson
The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Way Down Dark by James Smythe

I don't know what to make of this

Sep. 28th, 2025 08:37 pm
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


The Cherryh titles I dropped into ngram fell into 3 patterns:

Ones whose titles don't play nicely with ngrams. I dropped those.
Ones where the mentions per year decline fairly steadily year to year.
Cyteen. What's up with Cyteen? Did Jo Walton mention it on tor dot com around 2009?

Short Story

Sep. 28th, 2025 07:11 pm
marthawells: Murderbot with helmet (Default)
[personal profile] marthawells
The audio version of “Data Ghost” my short story from the recent Storyteller: the Tanith Lee Tribute Anthology is now online at Pseudopod!

https://pseudopod.org/2025/09/26/pseudopod-995-data-ghost/



Also, Queen Demon, the sequel to Witch King, will be out on October 7, in ebook, hardcover, and audiobook narrated by Eric Mok.

https://bookshop.org/p/books/queen-demon-martha-wells/b7abd63577bd30a5?ean=9781250826916&next=t
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Six works new to me: four fantasy, one mystery, one non-fiction (from an unexpected source)... unless you count the fantasy-mystery as mystery, in which case it's three fantasy and two mysteries. At least two are series. I don't know why publishers are so averse to labelling series.

Books Received, September 20 — September 26

Poll #33662 Books Received, September 20 — September 26
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 44


Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

An Ordinary Sort of Evil by Kelley Armstrong
12 (27.3%)

Sea of Charms by Sarah Beth Durst (July 2026)
13 (29.5%)

Following My Nose by Alexei Panshin (December 2024)
12 (27.3%)

The Fake Divination Offense by Sara Raasch (May 2026)
8 (18.2%)

The Harvey Girl by Dana Stabenow (February 2026)
9 (20.5%)

Scarlet Morning by ND Stevenson (September 2025)
18 (40.9%)

Some other option (see comments)
1 (2.3%)

Cats!
33 (75.0%)

Bound Feet by Kelsea Yu

Sep. 26th, 2025 09:17 am
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


A grieving mother and her best friend break into a ghost museum to conduct illicit but surely harmless Ghost Day celebrations. Revelations await.

Bound Feet by Kelsea Yu

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