James Nicoll Reviews

1979’s secondary universe comedic fantasy fix-up The Incredible Umbrella is the first volume in Marvin Kaye’s Incredible Umbrella tetralogy.

James Adrian Fillmore traveled for research. The trip was a failure, as the records on which he hoped to base his dissertation were denied to him. Worse yet, he returned to his small American college to discover that he had lost his thesis advisor to promotion, leaving Fillmore with two unpromising potential replacements.

One solution would be to arrive at some brilliant new thesis with which to impress his superiors. Fillmore makes a good effort at that. Another solution would be to purchase an enchanted umbrella that would sweep him off to another universe. In this second alternative, Fillmore enjoys total (but unexpected) success.

Read more ➤

2024’s The Gods Below is the first volume in Andrea Stewart’s Hollow Covenant epic fantasy trilogy¹.

Vast Numinar trees were the basis of the world’s ecology. However, the wood of vast Numinar trees supplied the magic on which mortal civilization depended, a resource for which demand exceeded supply. End result: a world transformed into an impoverished desert.

The mortal Tolemne appealed to the gods to save mortals from their folly. The gods refused… all save Kluehnn. Kluehnn agreed to save mortal-kind… for a price. Part of the price was that Kluehnn would become the only god.

Almost six centuries later, most of the other gods are dead but Kluehnn is still working on Restoration.

Read more ➤

M. T. Anderson’s 2024 Nicked is a stand-alone historical heist novel.

Bari, an Italian city on the Adriatic, is plagued by 1) Normans, and by 2) disease. While there is no known cure for the first, the bones of St. Nicolas are said to exude a miraculous elixir that heals disease. Indeed, were the bones in Bari, not only would the Italian city’s medical misfortunes be erased, legions of the faithful would flock to Bari and fill the city’s coffers.

Alas, the sacred bones are not in Bari, nor have they ever been. They are where they have rested for the last seven hundred years, in distant Myra, more than 1300 kilometres away.

Enter Brother Nicephorus.

Read more ➤

2014’s 7thgarden, Vol. 1 is the first tankōbon of Mitsu Izumi’s secondary universe fantasy¹ manga series. As Akuma no Boku, 7^thGarden was serialized in Shueisha’s Jump Square from August 2014 to March 2017, at which point it seems to have been effectively cancelled. The English translation came out in 2016.

Awyn Gardener is but a humble gardener, tending to his beloved mistress Marie’s garden (when he is not quietly committing acts of formidable derring-do to ensure his employer’s safety).

One day, Awyn falls into a deep hole.

Read more ➤

Walter Jon Williams’ 1992 Aristoi is a stand-alone science fiction novel.

Humanity has become as gods! Unfortunately, not inherently wise gods. Thus, following the loss of the Earth¹ to mataglap nano (gray goo to you and me), certain innovative social arrangements were embraced.

Half the galaxy falls under a regime of meritocratic autocracy.

Read more ➤

Zoë Fairbairns’ 1979 Benefits is a dystopian near-future novel.

In the sunset years of the welfare state, having made irreconcilable promises to the (almost entirely male) trade unionists and to mothers, the government chose to please the first and anger (many of) the second by deferring the long-promised child benefit.

It seemed a safe bet. After all, men matter and women don’t, save as a means to an end. As well, women, particularly those in that ramshackle bastion of Women’s Liberation, Collindeane Tower¹, were not united in the matter of benefits. Surely, no crisis would result?

Read more ➤

2025’s The Door on the Sea is the first volume of Caskey Russell’s The Raven and the Eagle secondary-universe fantasy series.

Little concrete is known about the Koosh beyond the fact that where there was once only one Koosh, that single Koosh summoned others from another universe. Now there are many, slowly expanding their empire across the Aaní islands. Anything beyond that — why they are so relentless about conquest, how their great dzanti weapons work, whether they have the shape-shifting and mental powers ascribed to them — is unclear.

Raven has scouted the Koosh. If only Raven weren’t so compulsively obstructive.

Read more ➤

Laura Jean McKay’s 2020 Arthur C. Clarke Award winning The Animals in That Country is a stand-alone science fiction novel.

Outback wildlife-park guide Jean has a straightforward life. She guides tourists around the park, helps with the animals, dotes on her granddaughter Kimberly, and coexists awkwardly with her boss Angela, who is also Kimberly’s single mother.

Enter a novel super flu, zoanthropathy.

Read more ➤

2023’s The Color of the End: Mission in the Apocalypse, Volume Two is the first tankōbon of Haruo Iwamune’s post-apocalyptic manga. The Color of the End has been serialized in Enterbrain’s seinen manga magazine Harta since March 2022. John Neal’s translation came out in 2025.

Saya has been searching for any sign of human survivors in a world depopulated by the alien Executioners¹. Eluding the aliens is just part of the job. Now, however, she faces a challenge for which the post-human is not prepared:

An overdue book!

Read more ➤

Randall Garrett’s 1958 The Queen Bee is a stand-alone science fiction novelette. Wait, no. Randall Garrett’s 1958 The Queen Bee is an infamous stand-alone science fiction novelette.

Victim of a space calamity, the interstellar cruiser Generatrix barely manages to deliver its passengers and crew to safety on an uncharted world. The starship will never lift again. Nor is there any hope of rescue.

There is, however, Brytell’s Law!

I don’t usually offer content warnings. Have a content warning.

Read more ➤