Search Results for: "James Nicoll"

James Nicoll on Five Classic SFF Collections Too Good to Be Forgotten

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A Pride of Monsters (Collier Books, 1973), Eyes of Amber (Signet, 1983) and Neutron Star (Ballantine, 1976). Covers by Richard Jones, Tom Kidd, and Rick Sternbach Over at Tor.com, James Davis Nicoll looks at a fine set of vintage SF collections, including Eyes of Amber and Other Stories by Joan D. Vinge. Vinge began her publishing career with memorable novellas and novelettes. It’s therefore quite frustrating that, to my knowledge, there are only three collections of her work, all out…

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James Nicoll on Amazons! edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson

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Amazons! (DAW, 1979). Cover by Michael Whelan Every once in a while I get asked to recommend other sites out there for readers who enjoy Black Gate. There are some top-notch book blogs, of course — like Rich Horton’s excellent Strange at Ecbatan, and Mark R. Kelly’s overlooked Views from Crestmont Drive — and the usual publisher sites, like Tor.com and Locus Online. But recently I’ve been spending a lot of time at James Nicoll Reviews, partly because of the wide range of…

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Giving People What They Want: James Nicoll on The Traveler in Black by John Brunner

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The Traveler in Black (Ace Books, 1971). Cover by Diane Dillon and Leo Dillon Outside of Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, and Michael Moorcock, the 20th Century didn’t produce a great many enduring Sword and Sorcery series. Which is why we cherish those we have, like John Brunner’s The Traveler in Black. The Traveler in Black first appeared in a short story in Science Fantasy in 1960. He was a captivating and enigmatic figure, and he proved popular enough that Brunner returned…

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Vintage Treasures: Tales By Moonlight edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson

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Tales by Moonlight, volumes One and Two (Tor, January 1985 and July 1989). Covers by Mark E. Rogers and Jill Bauman Jessica Amanda Salmonson has produced only a handful of anthologies, but they are all highly regarded. Her first, Amazons!, won the World Fantasy Award in 1980, and the two Heroic Visions volumes she edited in the mid-80s are still enjoyed and discussed today, with an original Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser novella by Fritz Leiber, plus terrific sword and…

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Vintage Treasures: The Gate of Ivory Trilogy by Doris Egan

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The Gate of Ivory, Two-Bit Heroes, and Guilt-Edged Ivory (DAW Books, 1989-1992). Cover art by Richard Hescox Doris Egan is a successful screenwriter and producer with a very impressive resume. She’s worked on dozens of shows since the early 90s, with screenwriting credits on Dark Angel, Smallville, Numb3rs, House, Torchwood, Black Sails, and The Good Doctor. She was a producer for Smallville, NCIS, Skin, Tru Calling, House, Krypton, Swamp Thing, and many others. But before Hollywood came calling, she was…

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New Treasures: Ion Curtain by Anya Ow

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Ion Curtain (Solaris, July 19, 2022). Cover by John Harris I love Space Opera but, wow. Why does is exclusively seem to come in 5-book series? Aren’t there any bite-sized nuggets of Space Opera out there that don’t require a three-month commitment? Something that I could enjoy in, say, a weekend in early March? Solaris Books to the rescue. Anya Ow’s second novel Ion Curtain is a fast-action slice of Space Opera that includes sinister machine intelligences, derelict spacecraft, galactic…

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James Davis Nicoll on Five Thrilling SF Stories About Patrolling Space

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Crashing Suns (Ace, 1965), A Matter of Oaths (Questar, 1990), and The Prefect (Ace Books, 2009). Covers by Ed Valigursky, Martin Andrews, and Chris Moore What’s better than thrilling stories of patrolling space?? (No need to email an answer; it’s a rhetorical question. And the answer is “nuthin’”). Mind you, I’d be hard pressed to cite actual examples. Star Trek books maybe? EC Comics Weird Science, naturally. After that, I got nothing. Fortunately James Nicoll reads a lot more than…

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Catch-22 in Space: The Small Colonial War Series by Robert Frezza

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A Small Colonial War, Fire in a Faraway Place, and Cain’s Land by Robert Frezza (Del Rey/Ballantine, 1990-96). Covers by Stephen Hickman and Peter Peebles Anyone else out there read stray book comments on the internet that send them off in search of 30-year old paperbacks? No? Yeah, that figures. Well, that’s what happened to me when I stumbled on this brief mention of Robert Frezza’s 1990 military SF novel A Small Colonial War on Reddit last night. Anyone read A Small Colonial War?…

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Unbearable Utopias and Harrowing Adventures on Alien Planets: The Best of Jack Williamson

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The Best of Jack Williamson (Del Rey, 1978). Cover by Ralph McQuarrie The Best of Jack Williamson (1978) was, according to my research, the fifteenth installment in Lester Del Rey’s Classic Science Fiction Series. Frederik Pohl (1919–2013) provided the introduction (his second in the series, he also did the intro for The Best of C. M. Kornbluth). Jack Williamson (1908–2006), who was still living at the time, does the Afterword. The famous sci-fi artist Ralph McQuarrie (1929–2012) provides his first (and only)…

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Ten RPG Moments of Awesome

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And now for something more positive: ten awesome little moments in RPGs, beginning with a very self-serving one. 1) Ex Machina Bruce Baugh, Rebecca Borgstrom, Christian Gossett, Bradley Kayl and Michelle Lyons’ 2004 Ex Machina was a cyperpunk roleplaying game, published by Canadian game company Guardians of Order. It got a very favorable review from BoingBoing. It was also my first professional editing credit. It only took me a quarter century of playing and selling RPGs to get into the…

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