James Nicoll Reviews

The First Thousand Trees is the third and final (?) volume of Premee Mohamed’s Annual Migration of Clouds post-apocalyptic¹ coming-of-age series.

When Henryk Mandrusiak’s best and only friend Reid left for college and a life far away, Henryk concluded that nothing remained for him in the town² in which they both grew up. His uncle Dex lives in Sprucedown. Henryk sets out to join his uncle.

Moving from one community to another is always challenging, but even more so after the apocalypse.

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1983’s When Voiha Wakes is the third and final volume in Joy Chant’s House of Kendreth secondary world series.

Rahiké returns from Halkal-Mari to her native Naramethé bearing welcome trade news¹. The Young Mistress of Naramethé also brings a small, but extremely expensive, package for young Mairilek. It contains a stringed instrument.

Looked at another way, the package contains chaos and unhappiness. Mairilek has a small flaw in his character; what is in the package will only exacerbate it.

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2026’s Someone Hertz, Volume One¹ is the first tankōbon for Ei Yamano’s ongoing romantic comedy manga (Samuwan Herutsu in the original Japanese). Someone Hertz has been serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump since September 2025. David Evely’s English translation came out in 2026.

Mimei Fukimori: responsible, intelligent, energetic! A formula for success at every activity he embraces.

Almost every activity. As hard as he tries, he isn’t funny.

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1997’s City on Fire is the critically acclaimed second book in Walter Jon Williams’ Metropolitan series.

Having successfully absconded with a huge stock of magic-powering plasm, Aiah now encounters a challenge many heist stories ignore:

What follows the One Last Job?

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Doris Lessing ​‘s 1974 The Memoirs of a Survivor is a novel about an oncoming apocalypse.

Surviving the slow, inexorable collapse of civilization is vexing enough. It would be even more so if a stranger were to dump a young girl on one’s doorstep, thus forcing one to become the little girl’s guardian.

As happens to the unnamed, middle-aged, middle-class narrator.

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2024’s The Angsana Tree Mystery is the eighth volume in Ovidia Yu’s Crown Colony series.

Japan has been defeated, Singapore liberated from colonist occupiers, and normalcy has been restored… which means that the former colonist occupiers are back in charge¹.

At least for the moment.

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W.P. Kinsella’s 1986 The Iowa Baseball Confederacy is a stand-alone historical baseball-fantasy novel. It could be considered CanLit, if published in Canada but set in the USA counts as CanLit.

Gideon Clarke inherited a house and a thriving insurance business from his late father. Gideon need never work. Convenient, because Gideon also inherited his father’s obsession with the Iowa Baseball Confederacy. As a consequence, Gideon may well be unemployable.

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2023’s The Ayakashi Hunter’s Tainted Bride Volume One is the first tankōbon for Midori Yūma and Mamenosuke Fujimaru’s The Ayakashi Hunter’s Tainted Bride fantasy manga series. The Sarah Kellis English translation came out in 2025.

Fourteen-year-old Nanao is beautiful, hails from a powerful clan, and is engaged to the handsome and charming Reito. When she misplaces the hairpin Reito gave her, Nanao is distraught. Happily, with the help of her conniving, jealous cousin Akemi, Nanao finds it again… out in the open, just beyond the household’s mystical protections.

Still, how risky could it possibly be to step beyond the barrier, pick up the hairpin and return?

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Poul Anderson’s 1978 On Thud and Blunder is a non-fiction essay, first published in Andy Offutt’s swords & sorcery anthology, Swords Against Darkness III. It is a blast of trumpets against poorly thought-out sword & sorcery settings.

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Fletcher Knebel’s 1965 Night of Camp David is a stand-alone near-future political thriller. Or possibly a fantasy.

Life is sweet for Iowa Senator Jim MacVeagh. He has won high office, his doting wife is conveniently far away in Iowa, and his politically savvy mistress Rita is conveniently at hand in Washington.

Then comes a nighttime meeting with President Mark Hollenbach at Camp David, and the offer of the vice-presidency.

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