James Nicoll Reviews

Devouring Gods by Jedediah Berry (March 2027)

Award-winning author Jedediah Berry and bespoke barbarian Gotchimus return in Devouring Gods, an action-packed sword & sorcery heist. To steal their prize from the goddess of keys, Gotch’s crew face battle-nuns, drunken gentry, and giant frogs in evening wear.

They’re off to steal a wizard!

The noble families of Inwardly have gathered for the social event of the season. Hosted by the captive goddess Culavu and her devoted warrior nuns, the Festival of Keys offers the rich and powerful a chance to dine on choice morsels and amuse themselves with age-old sorceries. And this year’s special guest is a spectacle like no other: Gotchimus, the great barbarian, the wizard slayer.

While his hosts debauch themselves, Gotchimus has bigger plans. Trapped in Culavu’s prison realm is a wizard possessing knowledge he and his allies need. To free him, the barbarian will have to outwit the nobles, protect his own dark secret, and turn the party of the year into the heist of the century.

And somehow he has to pull it all off without killing the wizard. 

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The Astronaut Among the Flowers and Other Stories by P.A. Cornell (August 2026)

This debut collection by Nebula-nominated author P.A. Cornell brings together twenty-one tales of fantasy and science fiction that run the gamut from lighthearted to dark. The stories examine our connections to each other, to technology, to the world that surrounds us, and even to ourselves. Journey through circumstances that defy explanation, and explore events yet to come, that have come before, or that exist outside of time altogether. Included are Cornell’s acclaimed story ​“Once Upon a Time at The Oakmont,” as well as the award-winning ​“Splits,” and two brand new works published here for the first time. 

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Fool’s Landing by Matt Goldman (April 2027)

From New York Times bestselling author and Emmy Award-winner Matt Goldman, danger runs rampant in the idyllic town of Riverwood.

Riverwood Police Chief Zoey Jensen has her hands full. A murdered fishing guide, the theft of a gold brick from a home safe, Zoey’s menacing ex-husband who’s followed her to southeast Minnesota, and her current boyfriend who keeps canceling dates. Add a spate of home break-ins, and Zoey feels pushed to her limit. Her biggest hope is that all this chaos is somehow related, and if she can solve one crime, it’ll open the door to solve the others. But it’s not easy as she struggles to overcome the mounting challenges in her personal life.

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Blade of Honey by Hafsah Faizal (March 2027)

In a competition for the hand of the king, she only wants his head…

Yasmine Ra’ad has a vendetta against the most powerful man in Arawiya: the king himself. Altair al-Badawi’s throne was built upon the bones of her family, and though she’s never wielded a blade, she dreams of the day she can end his life.

That day arrives with an invitation — for the king is in need of a bride, and anyone is eligible to participate in the competition to become queen.

Yasmine knows she must act the part of a doting suitor if she wishes to remain in the palace long enough to enact her revenge. She plays the part well. Too well. If she’s not careful, Yasmine’s ploy to win his hand could lead her into the greatest predicament of all – love.

The first book in a duology, this masterfully told page-turning romantic fantasy will appeal to readers of Tahereh Mafi, Tricia Levenseller, and Sabaa Tahir. 

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July just raced by. Not sure where it went. At least I managed to review some books.

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Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane (June 2022)

Drawing on ancient texts and modern archeology to reveal the trans woman’s story hidden underneath the well-known myths of The Iliad, Maya Deane’s Wrath Goddess Sing weaves a compelling, pitilessly beautiful vision of Achilles’ vanished world, perfect for fans of Song of Achilles, The Witch’s Heart, and the Inheritance trilogy.

The gods wanted blood. She fought for love.

Achilles has fled her home and her vicious Myrmidon clan to live as a woman with the kallai, the transgender priestesses of Great Mother Aphrodite. When Odysseus comes to recruit the ​“prince” Achilles for a war against the Hittites, she prepares to die rather than fight as a man. However, her divine mother, Athena, intervenes, transforming her body into the woman’s body she always longed for, and promises her everything: glory, power, fame, victory in war, and, most importantly, a child born of her own body. Reunited with her beloved cousin, Patroklos, and his brilliant wife, the sorceress Meryapi, Achilles sets out to war with a vengeance.

But the gods — a dysfunctional family of abusive immortals that have glutted on human sacrifices for centuries — have woven ancient schemes more blood-soaked and nightmarish than Achilles can imagine. At the center of it all is the cruel, immortal Helen, who sees Achilles as a worthy enemy after millennia of ennui and emptiness. In love with her newfound nemesis, Helen sets out to destroy everything and everyone Achilles cherishes, seeking a battle to the death.

An innovative spin on a familiar tale, this is the Trojan War unlike anything ever told, and an Achilles whose vulnerability is revealed by the people she chooses to fight…and chooses to trust. 

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(Date corrected. No, I am not sleeping especially well)

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1: Yes, ​“promises” and ​“delivers” are different words. Why do you ask? 

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In March 2026, long-time Theatres at Waterloo employee Nadia V. Ursacki died. In her honour, the theatre inaugurated the Nadia Ursacki Award, which will go to people who make outstanding contributions to the theatre.

Someone has to be one of the first two people to receive that award. One such person was me. At some point, I will get a plaque. I got a hat!

I am completely gobsmacked and very grateful.

On to F&SF:

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Mickey Prime by Edward Ashton (February 2027)

Mickey7 (inspiration for the film Mickey 17) is back in Edward Ashton’s latest novel in which a plague on Niflheim forces Mickey to return to his old job as an expendable.

Mickey Barnes is an ex-Expendable. For the past five years he’s spent his time tending tomatoes and cleaning out rabbit hutches instead of mucking around inside active reactor cores and getting dissected by creepers. When a sudden, virulent plague strikes the fledgling human colony on Niflheim, though, he’s forced to return to his old job. Mickey is pressed into duty as both a first responder and a lab rat, expected to die and be replaced as many times as necessary to find a cure.

Funny thing, though. Despite the best efforts of the colony’s medical team, Mickey seems to be the only person unable to contract the bug. As more and more colonists sicken and die and the colony spirals into panic, Command is forced to contemplate Reset — sterilizing the colony completely to eradicate the plague, then repopulating it with hundreds of stored embryos, to be raised under the watchful eye of a dozen freshly printed copies of Mickey Barnes.

No matter how bad things get, Mickey can’t let that happen. He has a daughter of his own now, and even if he has to die a hundred times in a hundred different ways, he’s determined to find a way to make sure that she survives.

It’s a lot, but after all, Mickey’s already died seven times. After that, how hard could this be?

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