James Nicoll Reviews

John Wyndham’s 1955 The Chrysalids is a stand-alone post-apocalyptic coming of age novel. The Chrysalids was also published under the title Re-Birth.

David Strorm lives in Waknuk, a thriving backwoods community in Labrador. The Tribulation that erased the Old People and their semi-mythical civilization left much of the world an uninhabitable desolation. Labrador and nearby Newf are exceptions, but even here the Tribulation left a legacy that has shaped the local culture.

Beware spoilers.

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James H. Schmitz’s 1970 A Pride of Monsters is a science fiction¹ collection. The contents all feature monsters… of a sort.

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Poul Anderson’s 1980 The Devil’s Game is a stand-alone speculative fiction thriller.

Elderly Sunderland Haverner owes his fantastic wealth in small part to good luck in choosing ancestors, but in far greater proportion to the infallible advice of his unseen and seemingly immaterial advisor, Samael.

Sunderland gained wealth and status. Samael gained the means by which the entity could affect Sunderland’s material world. The partnership has served Sunderland well. The old man will not hesitate to carry out Samael’s latest task: a curious psychological experiment.

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To quote its subtitle, Martin Gardner’s 1957 Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science studies ​“the curious theories of modern pseudoscientists and the strange, amusing, and alarming cults that surround them.” It is, to further quote the cover, ​“a study in human gullibility.”

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Monica Hughes’ 1978 The Tomorrow City is a stand-alone juvenile science fiction novel.

Joe Henderson what he believes will be a cure for the many ills that plague his home city of Thompsonville. He has invented a supercomputer. The City Central Computer — C3 for short — is the most powerful machine of its sort on Earth. Under its guidance, Thompsonville will enjoy efficient governance unmatched anywhere else on Earth.

The first sign of trouble is a malfunctioning elevator.

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Zenna Henderson’s 1965 The Anything Box is a collection of short speculative fiction stories.

Henderson is best remembered for her People stories, since collected in NESFA Press’s Ingathering. The People sequence formed only a fraction of Henderson’s work. The Anything Box collects a cross-section of her non-People work.

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Isaac Asimov’s 1968 Asimov’s Mysteries is a mystery collection — mostly but not entirely science fiction — containing only stories written by Isaac Asimov himself.

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1973’s High Deryni is the third and final volume in Katherine Kurtz’s Ruritanian historical fantasy series, The Chronicles of the Deryni. High Deryni is by no means the final Deryni book.

The reign of young King Kelson of Gwynedd may be as short-lived as Kelson is young. Kelson is beset by racist rabble-rousers, fanatical priests, and what amounts to an evil wizard/warlord. Also, recent revelations about Kelson’s heritage suggest that the boy king is as terrible as some of his enemies claim.

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1980’s Beyond Rejection is the first volume in Justin Leiber’s Beyond trilogy.

Had Ismael Forth perished in the barbaric 20^th century, no doubt he would have remained entirely dead. Thanks to 22^nd century mind-recording technology, he has a chance to live again…

But only a chance.

Spoilers may abound. The book is long out of print and the author is dead. I don’t think anyone should mind.

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Eric Frank Russell’s 1965 The Mindwarpers is a stand-alone science fiction thriller. The Mindwarpers previously appeared in 1964 as With a Strange Device.

In a world divided between allies of the United States of America and certain unnamed enemies, security is mission one. The research facility that employs master metallurgist Richard Bransome imposes the most stringent security measures possible. Yet the facility is helpless to prevent the loss of its top minds through an insidious process about which federal agents like Henderson can do nothing.

Why would America’s most talented men suddenly resign their positions to disappear into obscurity?

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