31 Jan, 2026
0 comments
Another year begins! January is the best month for stats, because January has the promise of new beginnings and because it is the month whose stats are easiest to assemble. All I need do is cut and paste month total onto year to date total!
The first new project this year is Homeward By Starlight, which will review twelve of Poul Anderson’s most notable short works.
31 Jan, 2026
0 comments
The Wolf Queen’s Curse by Kaylee Archer (September 2026)
In The Wolf Queen’s Curse, the much anticipated sequel to Witch of the Wolves, Cordelia and Bishop must seek alliances with other packs and confront their Alphas in order to restore their beloved Trevelyan, no matter the cost.
The previously quiet life of Cordelia Levine, half-werewolf, all witch, has been turned upside down. Both of her parents are now dead, and her grandmother’s vicious attack on Trevelyan, her pack’s home, has left the Albion Pack fleeing and severely reduced in number.
As they recover and strategize a path forward, Cordelia is navigating her role in the pack as well as her feelings for her new husband, the Alpha. But even as their love grows stronger, the fate of the pack lies in their hands, and they must focus on finding a way to survive.
The pack decides that the only way to defeat the cabal and forge a path back home is to rekindle old alliances. The journey proves complicated, however, as each Alpha they encounter has an agenda of his own. But Cordelia and Bishop will stop at nothing to protect their pack – and reclaim their rightful home.
20 Jan, 2026
My new review series, Homeward By Starlight, covers the work of the late Poul Anderson, noted Danish-American science fiction and fantasy author. Why cover Anderson in 2026, aside from him having once been my favourite author?
November 25, 2026 would have been Poul Anderson’s 100th birthday. As there is no guarantee any of us will see November 25, 2026, I’ll borrow an idea from Tom Lehrer’s That Was the Year That Was and start writing something appropriately celebratory now.
Anderson was one of fewer than a dozen authors who managed to make a living selling prose SF way back when. He was able to do this because:
You can build a career on “punctual” and “knows his lines”. People have2. However, Anderson had a third trick, the one that’s getting him this series of reviews:
Well, I care about that stuff.
I cannot review all the Anderson novels. There are too many! It would have been a good idea to review his masterpieces, the very best of the best. But there’s a problem3. Anderson never wrote any masterpieces. He had great strengths, also terrible weaknesses. When he was writing at novel length, you were almost guaranteed to get lavish helpings of both. Tau Zero, for example, combines awesome vision with awful gender politics.
Anderson published an immense amount of work that was competent and often much better than just competent… but I would rate his output as consistently at the top of the second tier. None of his books are mentioned in the same breath as Dune, The Left Hand of Darkness, or The Lord of the Rings.
His shorter pieces also veer between competent and great, but not in the same work. When he had to focus, he could write very very well. Picking out the twelve best novels by Poul Anderson would be a challenge, but picking out the twelve best short pieces? The only problem would be getting it down to twelve, one for each month4.
But I’m going to try5
1: Anderson’s utter fiascos? If I put my hand behind my ear, I can just hear some incoherent screaming, out of which only the words “Saturn” and “game” can be made out.
2: I sometimes muse to fellow theatre staff that casting directors value Charles Paris’ punctuality and basic competence more than they mind his alcoholism or the fact that if they hire him, one or more cast members will be murdered (not by Charles). Nobody who works in theatre finds it hard to believe.
Um, Charles Paris is the protagonist of a series of mystery novels.
3: Not least of which is “Do I really want to showcase another fucking American author at this time? Especially a conservative?” But Anderson is the best kind of American conservative, the long dead (in 2001) variety. More American conservatives should heed his example.
USA delenda est.
4: I said “short pieces” and not “short stories.” Don’t expect a run of short stories.
5: Note that this will that, as I have only a limited number of spaces per week for reviews, my series What’s The Worst That Could Happen will be on hiatus in 2026. Do not fear! If we’re still alive in 2027, I will resume poking science fiction and fantasy’s buboes.
17 Jan, 2026
0 comments
Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying (Alpha) by Adam Bradford & Tomas Härenstam (July 2026)
Forge your own superhero legend in the official Invincible RPG from Free League and Skybound, based on the groundbreaking comic book.
10 Jan, 2026
0 comments
Of Venom and Vengeance by Mikayla Bridge (July 2026)
A deliciously dark standalone set in the same world as the YA romantic fantasy Of Flame and Fury, where star-crossed enemies gamble with their hearts, empires, and the fate of a lost god.
On an island marred by pageantry and pain, power comes at an impossible price.
Inna is the perfect heiress to the Pallo crime family: poised, cunning, untouchable. Behind this glamorous facade, she hunts for the sinister truth of her sister’s death. Despite the cover-up she’s been led to believe, Inna can feel an enemy lurking in the shadows.
Rylan has sculpted himself into a talented thief for one reason: retribution for his family, who were murdered by Inna’s mother. Armed with illusion magic, Rylan plans to steal an ancient riddle from the Pallo vault, one that leads to a sleeping god. Whoever wakes the Serpent King will be granted any wish they desire. Rylan means to claim this power, and with it, Inna’s ruin.
But when Inna catches Rylan sneaking past her family’s security, they enter into a perilous alliance that neither intends to keep —even as bitter attraction unravels into something more.
Though some hearts aren’t meant to be stolen, and love knows nothing of blood-red revenge…
2 Jan, 2026
I don’t think I did one of these last year or if I did, I cannot find it. Cut-and-paste usually suffices, but not this year. This year, I am eligible in an entirely new category.
1 Jan, 2026
Happy New Year! How is it 2026 already?
James Nicoll Reviews is the only SF review site that does not turn pink in the tin! And you can be an important part of it, by funding it.
Your options are:
And what exciting plans for 2026 will you be funding?