tbutler | Reading

Aisha's unique senses could help the empire escape the ecological crisis the empire has inadvertently engineered. Too bad dynastic security requires her death.

The Girl from the West (Kokun, volume 1) by Nahoko Uehashi (Translated by Cathy Hirano)

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dw_maintenance

Hi all!

I'm doing some minor operational work tonight. It should be transparent, but there's always a chance that something goes wrong. The main thing I'm touching is testing a replacement for Apache2 (our web server software) in one area of the site.

Thank you!

james_davis_nicoll

I just got email from Fig's owner that Fig (who I owned from 2012 to 2017) passed away this evening. Cause unknown. My impression is Fig just didn't wake up.

james_davis_nicoll

QWP

Hey everyone,

**This year marks WATSFIC's 50th Anniversary!** To commemorate this we are releasing a new issue of our club fanzine Starsongs.

If you would like to become an officially published author, we are opening up submissions right now! Send us your **short stories, opinion pieces, open letters** [to systems, games, concepts, authors, or WATSFIC itself], **reviews of Sci-Fi/Fantasy** games, books, or other media, **your best drawings or paintings**, or whatever else you'd like to share with WATSFIC and the greater UW Community. We will endeavour to accept and print as many submissions as possible as long as they are club appropriate. If you're unsure if your idea is right for Starsongs, please don't hesitate to contact an exec and we'd be more than happy to discuss it and/or workshop it with you!

If you are looking for inspiration, you can find the 1970s releases of Starsongs on the University of Waterloo's Digital Library.

**We will be accepting submissions until the end of March, if you would like to contribute** please fill out this form here.

-# Submissions after March 31st may still be accepted, but we cannot promise anything, so please try to get any and all submission in before this deadline to ensure your work can be considered.

james_davis_nicoll

Decades after the PCs' last adventure, an old epic foe reappears, still bent on conquest.

Time to get the band back together!

Alas, the band isn't just dispersed. All but one member is long dead.

Happily, the last surviving member is a necromancer.

james_davis_nicoll

A moment of foolish charity drags impoverished Altair Jones into a deadly struggle.

Angel With a Sword (Merovingen Nights, volume 1) by C J Cherryh

james_davis_nicoll

"In 1947 and 1948, Agee wrote an untitled screenplay for Charlie Chaplin, in which the Tramp survives a nuclear holocaust; posthumously titled The Tramp's New World, the text was published in 2005."

james_davis_nicoll

Eight death-metal miniatures games from OptimisticNL inspired by, and compatible with, the artpunk tabletop roleplaying game Mörk Borg.

Bundle of Holding: Forbidden Psalm

james_davis_nicoll

Can the world, and more importantly, AMERICA! (patriotic song here) fend off a subversive attack from space?

The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein

affreca

2 spoons Irish Breakfast tea
200 g boiling water
200 g milk
30 g black tapioca bubbles
20 g rose syrup

Make tea with 200 g of boiling water and black tea, let steep for 5-10 minutes. Microwave milk in drinking cup for 1 minute. Bring more water to boil in small pot, and add bubbles when at a roiling boil. When the bubbles float, cover and cook for 4 minutes. Then turn off stove and let cook for an additional 4 minutes. Strain, add to cold water for 20 seconds, strain again and add to syrup. Froth milk, add tea and bubble to drinking cup. Stir with straw and enjoy.

For cold version, brew tea a few hours before, skip microwave and frothing milk, add ice.

james_davis_nicoll

Another year begins! I have a new In Review banner image!

The first new project this year is Homeward By Starlight, which will review twelve of Poul Anderson’s most notable short works.

January 2026 in Review

james_davis_nicoll

Ten books new to me. Five are fantasy, one non-fiction, two horror, one magazine, and I am not sure how to categorize the Tingle. Three are definitely fantasy.

Books Received, January 24 — January 30

Poll #34150 Books Received, January 24 — January 30

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 37

View Respondents

Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

The Wolf Queen’s Curse by Kaylee Archer (September 2026)
4 (10.8%)

Knight of the God King by Lauren Blackwood (October 2026)
5 (13.5%)

A Plagued Sea by Kim Bo-Young (August 2026)
14 (37.8%)

FIYAH Literary Magazine Issue # 37 published by FIYAH Literary Magazine LLC (January 2026)
16 (43.2%)

Among the Thorns by Jennifer K. Lambert (July 2026)
2 (5.4%)

Anne’s Cradle: The Life and Works of Hanako Muraoka, Japanese Translator of Anne of Green Gables by Eri Muraoka & Cathy Hirano (May 2021)
12 (32.4%)

To Vex & to Hex by Neena Noon (November 2026)
2 (5.4%)

Fear Farm by Vincent Ralph (September 2026)
0 (0.0%)

Fabulous Bodies by Chuck Tingle (July 2026)
15 (40.5%)

Kokun: The Girl from the West by Nahoko Uehashi & Cathy Hirano (January 2026)
13 (35.1%)

Some other option (see comments)
0 (0.0%)

Cats!
29 (78.4%)

james_davis_nicoll

A detail about the 2017 Hugo nomination long list I've never noticed before:

I checked and I did notice at the time James Nicoll Reviews was treated as different from me, but I seem to have failed to correct the typo for a decade.

james_davis_nicoll

A young man sets out to reinvent himself, far from home.

The First Thousand Trees (Annual Migration of Clouds, volume 3) by Premee Mohamed

james_davis_nicoll

What can be done about Mairilek's obsession with matters beyond male ken?

When Voiha Wakes (House of Kendreth, volume 3) by Joy Chant

james_davis_nicoll

RIP Agents Nevada and Alcala, whose reaction to a building-sized rooster was to empty their Mac 10s in its direction, thus ensuring it noticed them.

The player-characters, on the other hand, handled their immediate threat, a truck-sized centipede, more effectively.

( Read more... )

james_davis_nicoll

What dark motive leads a successful teen comedian who has vowed never to date anyone less funny than her to help an unfunny but otherwise personable young man work on his comedic skills?

Someone Hertz, volume 1 by Ei Yamano (Translated by David Evely)

james_davis_nicoll

I think the schtick is the crew gets sent out to investigate potentially revolutionary tech and it's always legitimately amazing but also not what they're expecting. Case in point, they were looking into a supposed teleporter and now everyone is ant-sized.

Among my other ideas

( Read more... )

james_davis_nicoll

Having successfully fled her home city with the proceeds of a spectacular heist, Aiah must now build a new life on that foundation.

City on Fire (Metropolitan, volume 2) by Walter Jon Williams