James Davis Nicoll
@jdnicoll.bsky.social
Reviewer, Essayist, Hugo, Aurora, and Darwin Award finalist.
Books Received, November 22 — November 28
Eight books new to me. Five fantasy, one horror, two science fiction, of which two are series and six may not be. First four!
jamesdavisnicoll.com/post/books-r...
Eight books new to me. Five fantasy, one horror, two science fiction, of which two are series and six may not be. First four!
jamesdavisnicoll.com/post/books-r...
November 29, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Books Received, November 22 — November 28
Eight books new to me. Five fantasy, one horror, two science fiction, of which two are series and six may not be. First four!
jamesdavisnicoll.com/post/books-r...
Eight books new to me. Five fantasy, one horror, two science fiction, of which two are series and six may not be. First four!
jamesdavisnicoll.com/post/books-r...
Man, I am batting way above average for finding unconscious people at public transit stops .
November 28, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Man, I am batting way above average for finding unconscious people at public transit stops .
"I support stringent Can Con requirements for porn" isn't something I ever expected to say but here we are...
November 28, 2025 at 4:07 PM
"I support stringent Can Con requirements for porn" isn't something I ever expected to say but here we are...
Context for Southern Former British North America: the Beaverton is a parody news site. The SFBNA ambassador is a fellow who had he been ambassador to Genghis Khan, would have been sent home in instalments, possibly as book covers, but he didn't say this. Yet, anyway.
November 28, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Context for Southern Former British North America: the Beaverton is a parody news site. The SFBNA ambassador is a fellow who had he been ambassador to Genghis Khan, would have been sent home in instalments, possibly as book covers, but he didn't say this. Yet, anyway.
The Gods Below (Hollow Covenant, volume 1) by Andrea Stewart
Two sisters, separated during calamity, join opposing sides of a divine war.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/own-t...
Two sisters, separated during calamity, join opposing sides of a divine war.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/own-t...
Own Two Feet
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 s...
jamesdavisnicoll.com
November 28, 2025 at 1:57 PM
The Gods Below (Hollow Covenant, volume 1) by Andrea Stewart
Two sisters, separated during calamity, join opposing sides of a divine war.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/own-t...
Two sisters, separated during calamity, join opposing sides of a divine war.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/own-t...
Well, that was more close brushes with performing CPR than I consider ideal for a commute...
November 28, 2025 at 6:00 AM
Well, that was more close brushes with performing CPR than I consider ideal for a commute...
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
(I checked outside to see if the snow arrived. I have a shift at the other end of town)
(I checked outside to see if the snow arrived. I have a shift at the other end of town)
November 27, 2025 at 7:58 PM
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
(I checked outside to see if the snow arrived. I have a shift at the other end of town)
(I checked outside to see if the snow arrived. I have a shift at the other end of town)
Nicked by M. T. Anderson
A pious monk is dispatched on a mission about which he has serious reservations: steal the bones of St. Nicolas.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/holy-...
A pious monk is dispatched on a mission about which he has serious reservations: steal the bones of St. Nicolas.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/holy-...
Holy Fool
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, th...
jamesdavisnicoll.com
November 27, 2025 at 2:39 PM
Nicked by M. T. Anderson
A pious monk is dispatched on a mission about which he has serious reservations: steal the bones of St. Nicolas.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/holy-...
A pious monk is dispatched on a mission about which he has serious reservations: steal the bones of St. Nicolas.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/holy-...
The curious detail that Dev Em lived next to Kal El supports endless jokes about Kryptonians being housed in alphabetical order. The Ems justify the memes.
November 27, 2025 at 5:03 AM
The curious detail that Dev Em lived next to Kal El supports endless jokes about Kryptonians being housed in alphabetical order. The Ems justify the memes.
As one might expect, Pringle picked mostly men.
I seem to have read most of them (in some cases, recently). The ones I am sure I missed are (bt decade):
The Paradox Men by Charles L. Harness (1953)
Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick (1959)
(con't)
I seem to have read most of them (in some cases, recently). The ones I am sure I missed are (bt decade):
The Paradox Men by Charles L. Harness (1953)
Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick (1959)
(con't)
Bought this in a charity shop yesterday. Then bold claim of the title is somewhat tempered inside: it’s the 100 best English language SF novels from 1949 to 1984 (!). Still, here’s the list.
![Contents
FOREWORD BY MICHAEL MOORCOCK
AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION
BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell [1949]
Earth Abides by George R. Stewart [1949]
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury [1950]
The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein [1951]
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham [1951]
Limbo by Bernard Wolfe [1952]
The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester [1953]
Fabrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury [1953]
Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke [1953]
The Paradox Men by Charles L. Harness [1953]
Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore [1953]
The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth [1953]
Ring Around the Sun by Clifford D. Simak [1953]
More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon [1953]
Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement [1954]
A Mirror for Observers by Edgar Pangborn (1954]
The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov [1955)
The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett [1955]
The Inheritors by William Golding [1955]
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester [1956]
The Death of Grass by John Christopher [1956]
The City and the Stars by Arthur C. Clarke [1956]
The Door into Summer by Robert A. Heinlein [1957)
The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham [1957]
Non-Stop by Brian Aldiss [1958]
A Case of Conscience by James Blish [1958)
Have Space-Suit-Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein [1958)
Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick [1959)
Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank [1959]
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller [1959)](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2cadvbwpkxtuvmv2gpy5laml/bafkreifjgbleevwjre56cyjt5znr5ocfebu3tyhuzlgwgmst26hbk5bwyi@jpeg)
![The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut [1959]
Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys [1960]
Venus Plus X by Theodore Sturgeon [1960]
Hothouse by Brian W. Aldiss [1962]
The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard [1962]
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess [1962]
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick [1962]
Journey Beyond Tomorrow by Robert Sheckley [1963]
Way Station by Clifford D. Simak 1963]
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (1963]
Greybeard by Brian W. Aldiss [1964]
Nova Express by William S. Burroughs [1964]
Martian Time-Slip by Philip K. Dick 1964]
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick [1964]
The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber [1964]
Norstrilia by Cordwainer Smith [1964-68]
Dr Bloodmoney by Philip K. Dick [1965]
Dune by Frank Herbert [1965]
The Crystal World by J.G. Ballard [1966]
Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison 1966]
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes [1966]
The Dream Master by Roger Zelazny [1966]
Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner [1968]
Nova by Samuel R. Delany [1968]
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick [1968]
Camp Concentration by Thomas M. Disch [1968]
The Final Programme by Michael Moorcock [1968]
Pavane by Keith Roberts [1968]
Heroes and Villains by Angela Carter 1969]
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin [1969]
The Palace of Eternity by Bob Shaw (1969]
Bug Jack Barron by Norman Spinrad [1969]
Tau Zero by Poul Anderson (1970]
Downward to the Earth by Robert Silverberg [1970]
The Year of the Quiet Sun by Wilson Tucker [1970]
334 by Thomas M. Disch [1972]
The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe [1972]
The Dancers at the End of Time by Michael Moorcock [1972-76]
Crash by J.G. Ballard [1973]
Looking Backward, From the Year 2000 by Mack Reynolds (1973]
The Embedding by lan Watson [1973]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2cadvbwpkxtuvmv2gpy5laml/bafkreid43ixcmwn776je2lfngislmraujkkrhvbkvxbeo2wjz7hey6elle@jpeg)
![Walk to the End of the World by Suzy McKee Charnas [1974]
The Centauri Device by M. John Harrison [1974]
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin [1974]
Inverted World by Christopher Priest [1974]
High-Rise by J.G. Ballard 1975)
Galaxies by Barry N. Malzberg [1975]
The Female Man by Joanna Russ [1975]
Orbitsville by Bob Shaw [1975]
The Alteration by Kingsley Amis [1976]
Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy [1976]
Man Plus by Frederik Pohl [1976]
Michaelmas by Algis Budrys [1977]
The Ophiuchi Hotline by John Varley [1977]
Miracle Visitors by lan Watson [1978]
Engine Summer by John Crowley [1979]
On Wings of Song by Thomas M. Disch [1979]
The Walking Shadow by Brian Stableford [1979]
Juniper Time by Kate Wilhelm [1979]
Timescape by Gregory Benford [1980]
The Dreaming Dragons by Damien Broderick [1980]
Wild Seed by Octavia A. Butler [1980]
Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban [1980]
Roderick and Roderick at Random by John Sladek [1980-83]
The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe [1980-83]
The Unreasoning Mask by Philip José Farmer [1980]
Oath of Fealty by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle [1981]
No Enemy But Time by Michael Bishop [1982]
The Birth of the People's Republic of Antarctica by John
Calvin Batchelor [1983]
Neuromancer by William Gibson [1984]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2cadvbwpkxtuvmv2gpy5laml/bafkreiewn6xkrnfthzr3sehlh4yooubcszuymzuseiw3vrpuay2jc54k4a@jpeg)
November 27, 2025 at 2:36 AM
As one might expect, Pringle picked mostly men.
I seem to have read most of them (in some cases, recently). The ones I am sure I missed are (bt decade):
The Paradox Men by Charles L. Harness (1953)
Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick (1959)
(con't)
I seem to have read most of them (in some cases, recently). The ones I am sure I missed are (bt decade):
The Paradox Men by Charles L. Harness (1953)
Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick (1959)
(con't)
Reposted by James Davis Nicoll
Because my children are Gen Alpha monsters, they want to know if I've sold 67 copies of Year's Best Canadian F&SF Vol 3 this month--get it? 6-7 * makes flailing juggling motion and despairs * I'm about 20 copies shy. For Black Friday, want to help an indie publisher pull one over on his kids?
Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction: Volume Three
Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction: Volume Three: Kotowych, Stephen: 9781738187539: Books - Amazon.ca
a.co
November 26, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Because my children are Gen Alpha monsters, they want to know if I've sold 67 copies of Year's Best Canadian F&SF Vol 3 this month--get it? 6-7 * makes flailing juggling motion and despairs * I'm about 20 copies shy. For Black Friday, want to help an indie publisher pull one over on his kids?
Bundle of Holding: SR5 Essentials (from 2019)
The core rules plus essentials for the 2013 Fifth Edition of Shadowrun, the cyberpunk-fantasy tabletop roleplaying game from Catalyst Game Labs.
bundleofholding.com/presents/202...
The core rules plus essentials for the 2013 Fifth Edition of Shadowrun, the cyberpunk-fantasy tabletop roleplaying game from Catalyst Game Labs.
bundleofholding.com/presents/202...
SR5 Essentials Bundle
Runner! We've resuscitated (for a third time!) our February 2019 Shadowrun 5E Essentials Bundle featuring .PDF ebooks for the 2013 Fifth Edition of Shadowrun, the cyberpunk-fantasy tabletop roleplayin...
bundleofholding.com
November 26, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Bundle of Holding: SR5 Essentials (from 2019)
The core rules plus essentials for the 2013 Fifth Edition of Shadowrun, the cyberpunk-fantasy tabletop roleplaying game from Catalyst Game Labs.
bundleofholding.com/presents/202...
The core rules plus essentials for the 2013 Fifth Edition of Shadowrun, the cyberpunk-fantasy tabletop roleplaying game from Catalyst Game Labs.
bundleofholding.com/presents/202...
Well, crap. It was just pointed out to me that SF artist Stephen Fabian died age 95 back in May.
November 26, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Well, crap. It was just pointed out to me that SF artist Stephen Fabian died age 95 back in May.
Have we done return horror stories recently?
IIRC Spider Robinson once asserted that a store ordered in a ton of his books for a signing, and when most of them didn't sell, sent enough back to measurably affect his sold to return ratio.
A million dollar return helped kill TSR.
(con't)
IIRC Spider Robinson once asserted that a store ordered in a ton of his books for a signing, and when most of them didn't sell, sent enough back to measurably affect his sold to return ratio.
A million dollar return helped kill TSR.
(con't)
The publisher pays you based on what bookstores (not customers) buy, BUT they hold back a chunk because bookstores can return books later for a full refund, and how many returns you will get can be hard to predict. 8/
November 26, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Have we done return horror stories recently?
IIRC Spider Robinson once asserted that a store ordered in a ton of his books for a signing, and when most of them didn't sell, sent enough back to measurably affect his sold to return ratio.
A million dollar return helped kill TSR.
(con't)
IIRC Spider Robinson once asserted that a store ordered in a ton of his books for a signing, and when most of them didn't sell, sent enough back to measurably affect his sold to return ratio.
A million dollar return helped kill TSR.
(con't)
The disconnect between the voice-over and what that guy is actually saying is incredibly distracting for me.
Anyway, as risky as it looks, tobogganing is perfectly safe, provided you don't break any bones or die.
The farmer next to my two-room country schoolhouse let kids use his hill.
(con't)
Anyway, as risky as it looks, tobogganing is perfectly safe, provided you don't break any bones or die.
The farmer next to my two-room country schoolhouse let kids use his hill.
(con't)
I’m sorry but I can’t stop laughing, yeah we would sled down hills in the winter with whatever we had on hand, toboggans, crazy carpets, tubes 😂 someone always got injured because of jumps on the hills or wipeouts #Canada
Credit to momodoulk
Credit to momodoulk
November 26, 2025 at 2:13 PM
The disconnect between the voice-over and what that guy is actually saying is incredibly distracting for me.
Anyway, as risky as it looks, tobogganing is perfectly safe, provided you don't break any bones or die.
The farmer next to my two-room country schoolhouse let kids use his hill.
(con't)
Anyway, as risky as it looks, tobogganing is perfectly safe, provided you don't break any bones or die.
The farmer next to my two-room country schoolhouse let kids use his hill.
(con't)
I said a kid on TV looked like he was wearing a Buster Brown. Turns out this phrase is no longer in common use.
BB was a scamp (basically a Dennis the Menace with rich parents) but he had something in common with Charlie Brown: a talking dog: Tige.
(con't)
BB was a scamp (basically a Dennis the Menace with rich parents) but he had something in common with Charlie Brown: a talking dog: Tige.
(con't)
November 26, 2025 at 2:06 PM
I said a kid on TV looked like he was wearing a Buster Brown. Turns out this phrase is no longer in common use.
BB was a scamp (basically a Dennis the Menace with rich parents) but he had something in common with Charlie Brown: a talking dog: Tige.
(con't)
BB was a scamp (basically a Dennis the Menace with rich parents) but he had something in common with Charlie Brown: a talking dog: Tige.
(con't)
7thgarden, volume 1 by Mitsu Izumi
If you can't trust a scantily-clad demon to aid you in your war with heaven, who can you trust?
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/all-m...
If you can't trust a scantily-clad demon to aid you in your war with heaven, who can you trust?
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/all-m...
All My Demons
2014’s 7thgarden, Vol. 1 is the first tankōbon of Mitsu Izumi’s secondary universe fantasy1 manga series. As Akuma no Boku, 7thGarden
was serialized in Shueisha’s Jump Square from August 2014 to March...
jamesdavisnicoll.com
November 26, 2025 at 1:51 PM
7thgarden, volume 1 by Mitsu Izumi
If you can't trust a scantily-clad demon to aid you in your war with heaven, who can you trust?
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/all-m...
If you can't trust a scantily-clad demon to aid you in your war with heaven, who can you trust?
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/all-m...
It is my belief people who listen to audiobooks do so because regular books are very, very quiet.
November 26, 2025 at 5:07 AM
It is my belief people who listen to audiobooks do so because regular books are very, very quiet.
I was told that this list of books on tor dot com measurably altered their Amazon standings...
reactormag.com/100-sf-f-boo...
reactormag.com/100-sf-f-boo...
November 26, 2025 at 3:06 AM
I was told that this list of books on tor dot com measurably altered their Amazon standings...
reactormag.com/100-sf-f-boo...
reactormag.com/100-sf-f-boo...
My mother once had a cake-tastrophe. Result: a cake with the texture of a cinder block. My father thought it was hilarious and demonstrated to his parents how indestructible the cake was, put it in a paper grocery bag and dropped it on the floor. The cake did not break.
(con't)
(con't)
yes, hello, I would like to place an order for everyone’s funniest stories of holiday food-related family grudges / drama / chaotic incidents / lore
I feel like we need this
I feel like we need this
November 26, 2025 at 1:26 AM
My mother once had a cake-tastrophe. Result: a cake with the texture of a cinder block. My father thought it was hilarious and demonstrated to his parents how indestructible the cake was, put it in a paper grocery bag and dropped it on the floor. The cake did not break.
(con't)
(con't)
What was sliced bread the best thing since?
November 25, 2025 at 11:05 PM
What was sliced bread the best thing since?
Consider Setting Your Space Operas on Saturn
...or more precisely, on one of its many, many moons!
reactormag.com/consider-set...
...or more precisely, on one of its many, many moons!
reactormag.com/consider-set...
Consider Setting Your Space Operas on Saturn - Reactor
...or more precisely, on one of its many, many moons!
reactormag.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Consider Setting Your Space Operas on Saturn
...or more precisely, on one of its many, many moons!
reactormag.com/consider-set...
...or more precisely, on one of its many, many moons!
reactormag.com/consider-set...
Can democratically elected leaders hope to match the peerless wisdom of hereditary autocrats such as Emperor Yōzei, Charles VI of France, and the Chongzhen Emperor?
November 25, 2025 at 2:39 PM
Can democratically elected leaders hope to match the peerless wisdom of hereditary autocrats such as Emperor Yōzei, Charles VI of France, and the Chongzhen Emperor?
Aristoi by Walter Jon Williams
A utopia (of sorts) is endangered by a discontented, powerful, malcontent.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/even-...
A utopia (of sorts) is endangered by a discontented, powerful, malcontent.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/even-...
Even The Genius
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 ...
jamesdavisnicoll.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Aristoi by Walter Jon Williams
A utopia (of sorts) is endangered by a discontented, powerful, malcontent.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/even-...
A utopia (of sorts) is endangered by a discontented, powerful, malcontent.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/even-...
"A Canadian settler hates a tree, regards it as his natural enemy, as something to be destroyed, eradicated, annihilated by all and any means."
Anna Brownell Jameson, Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada (1838)
Anna Brownell Jameson, Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada (1838)
November 25, 2025 at 5:09 AM
"A Canadian settler hates a tree, regards it as his natural enemy, as something to be destroyed, eradicated, annihilated by all and any means."
Anna Brownell Jameson, Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada (1838)
Anna Brownell Jameson, Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada (1838)