James Nicoll Reviews

Another year finished. Thanks to my editor Karen Lofstrom for transforming my word-salad into standard English. Thanks again to my web person Adrienne L. Travis for giving me a place to post. Thanks to my patrons for giving the means to create said posts.

2025 saw my 3000^th review (of Terese Mason Pierre’s 2025 As The Earth Dreams: Black Canadian Speculative Stories) go live. Review 4000 should appear August 17, 2029, and Review 5000 June 17, 2033. I should plan ahead for those. 

James Nicoll Reviews got an Aurora Award nomination, the site’s first (possibly only), and my fifth. Another pin for the box, or it would be if the Aurora handed out pins for every nomination and not just the first.

Now for the exciting stuff: NUMBERS AND CHARTS!

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The King Must Die by Kemi Ashing-Giwa (November 2025)

From the USA TODAY bestselling author of The Splinter in the Sky comes a pulse-pounding science fiction adventure following the daughter of rebel instigators and the heir of a power-drunk ruler who team up to save their empire…or destroy it in the process. 

Fen’s world is crumbling. Newearth, a once-promising planet gifted by the all-powerful alien Makers, now suffers from failed terraforming, leaving its people on the brink of collapse. Fen has spent her life working as a mercenary bodyguard for a cunning magistrate, entangled in the politics of the empire that shattered her family. But then her fathers — her last remaining tether to hope — are executed by the ruthless Sovereign, who marks Fen for the same fate. 

With nothing left to lose, Fen escapes with a single map and an old quarterstaff, embarking on a dangerous quest to seek out the last remnants of her parents’ rebellion. But the underground insurgents she finds may be even more dangerous than the Sovereign’s army. At the center of it all stands Alekhai, the Sovereign’s heir — a brutal, power-hungry force of destruction. Though he embodies everything Fen despises, his dangerous plans might be the empire’s last chance at survival…or the final push to its doom.

Perfect for fans of fast-paced dystopian adventures, intergalactic intrigue, and morally complex heroes, The King Must Die weaves an unforgettable story of rebellion, survival, and impossible choices. Will Fen save her world — or ensure its destruction? 

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Katabasis by R. F. Kuang (August 2025)

Katabasis, noun, Ancient Greek:

The story of a hero’s descent to the underworld

Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality: her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world.

That is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault.

Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams….

Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the very same conclusion.

With nothing but the tales of Orpheus and Dante to guide them, enough chalk to draw the Pentagrams necessary for their spells, and the burning desire to make all the academic trauma mean anything, they set off across Hell to save a man they don’t even like.

But Hell is not like the storybooks say, Magick isn’t always the answer, and there’s something in Alice and Peter’s past that could forge them into the perfect allies…or lead to their doom.

(Jólabókaflóðið is the Icelandic Christmas book flood)

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May your solstice experiences harmoniously conform to your preferences!

I think Roger Zelazny spoke for everyone when he said:

Insofar as I may be heard by anything, which may or may not care what I say, I ask, if it matters, that you be forgiven for anything you may have done or failed to do which requires forgiveness. Conversely, if not forgiveness but something else may be required to insure any possible benefit for which you may be eligible after the destruction of your body, I ask that this, whatever it may be, be granted or withheld, as the case may be, in such a manner as to insure your receiving said benefit. I ask this in my capacity as your elected intermediary between yourself and that which may not be yourself, but which may have an interest in the matter of your receiving as much as it is possible for you to receive of this thing, and which may in some way be influenced by this ceremony. Amen.

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New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine: Volume I, Number 5 edited by Oliver Brackenbury (December 2025)

New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine: Volume I, Number 5 

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