polyphonyin5

Welcome, visitor, to Mystery Flesh Pit National Park: The RPG, the Cypher System tabletop roleplaying game rulebook from Ganza Gaming about the Permian Basin Superorganism.

Bundle of Holding: Mystery Flesh Pit

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Three short works by Kawakami.

Record of a Night Too Brief by Hiromi Kawakami

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Union technocrats had a plan for Gehenna, a plan that failed to take into account local conditions.

Forty Thousand in Gehenna by C J Cherryh

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Everything you need for Nazi-punching Mythos adventures

Bundle of Holding: Achtung! Cthulhu

james_davis_nicoll

2017: The Royal College of Nursing’s alarming description of conditions in the NHS inspires the government to do worse, the Tories succeed in freezing British lifespans after a century of progress, and the UK begins that political equivalent of autoerotic asphyxiation known as Brexit.

Poll #33694 Clarke Award Finalists 2017

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 60

View Respondents

Which 2017 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?

View Answers

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
6 (10.0%)

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
41 (68.3%)

After Atlas by Emma Newman
10 (16.7%)

Central Station by Lavie Tidhar
9 (15.0%)

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee
47 (78.3%)

Occupy Me by Tricia Sullivan
4 (6.7%)

Bold for have read, italic for intend to read, underline for never heard of it.

Which 2017 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
After Atlas by Emma Newman
Central Station by Lavie Tidhar
Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee
Occupy Me by Tricia Sullivan

james_davis_nicoll

Pacifist Dorsai, space forts, duelling reviews, a rant about that mean Mr. Einstein and more in this issue of Destinies.

Destinies, February-March 1980 (Destinies, # 6) edited by Jim Baen

james_davis_nicoll

Twelve books new to me. Four fantasies, one horror, one non-fiction, and six (!) science fiction works, of which at least four are series instalments.

Books Received, September 27 — October 3

Poll #33688 Books Received, September 27 — October 3

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 58

View Respondents

Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

Children of Fallen Gods by Carissa Broadbent (December 2025)
4 (6.9%)

Enchanting the Fae Queen by Stephanie Burgis (January 2026)
9 (15.5%)

The Language of Liars by S. L. Huang (April 2026)
22 (37.9%)

We Burned So Bright by T. J. Klune (April 2026)
21 (36.2%)

We Could Be Anyone by Anna-Marie McLemore (May 2026)
8 (13.8%)

These Godly Lies by Rachelle Raeta (July 2026)
4 (6.9%)

The New Prometheans: Faith, Science, and the Supernatural
16 (27.6%)

Every Exquisite Thing by Laura Steven (July 2026)
5 (8.6%)

The Infinite State by Richard Swan (August 2026)
7 (12.1%)

Green City Wars by Adrian Tchaikovsky (June 2026)
25 (43.1%)

Moss’d in Space by Rebecca Thorne (July 2026)
20 (34.5%)

Platform Decay by Martha Wells (May 2026)
43 (74.1%)

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

Cats!
40 (69.0%)

james_davis_nicoll

STARS MOVE! STARS MOVE! STARS MOVE!

Here Is Your Periodic Reminder that Stars Move

james_davis_nicoll

Forgotten again by her family, Joan Greenwood discovers that this time her witch-kin had a legitimate excuse: a potentially existential threat to Greenwood power and privilege.

An Unlikely Coven (Green Witch Cycle, volume 1) by AM Kvita

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Merriam-Webster NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.

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A field agent armed with privacy-violating technology searches for Nazi loot--stolen diamonds--on behalf of a South African diamond cartel.

Probe (Search, # 1) by Leslie Stevens & Russ Mayberry

james_davis_nicoll

I dreamed I discovered a weapon in Half Life 2 that would generate and hurl at considerable speed empty shipping containers.

james_davis_nicoll

The complete tabletop RPG about the heroic rats of Fortitude

Bundle of Holding: The Far Roofs

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You too can support James Nicoll Reviews.

October 2025 Patreon Boost

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Akiko's plan to become Japan's foremost manga artist is manifestly reasonable, so why will reality not cooperate?

Blank Canvas: My So-Called Artist's Journey„ volume 1 by Akiko Higashimura

beatrice_otter

Back in the day, there were a lot of different fanfic archives. And then AO3 came along, and everyone moved there. And there's a lot to be said for having a central multifandom archive! I love AO3! But there's also something to be said for communities having their own space.

The OTW has always said they their code is open source and they want people to use it to make their own archives, but it is ... not very user-friendly, shall we say. But now there are several people who have gotten their own instance of the OTW-A code up and running for their own archives.

And now there is another! There is now a femslash-focused archive called Sunset! It was just created and is still very tiny, but if you are into femslash, either writing it or reading it, you might find it interesting. It is run by Agnes the Alien.

Sunset is a website established in 2025 dedicated to hosting femslash (F/F) fanworks. It holds pro-freedom of fiction, queer and trans inclusive, anti-racist and generally compassionate ideals. We're here to have fun and love women. Sunset is run by one person, Agnes the Alien, who dreamed this up in zher bedroom. Please be nice to zher!

...

THIS IS AN 18+ ARCHIVE.

I'd also like to shout out Squidgeworld, Superlove, Ad Astra, and Comic Fanfiction Authors Archive.

james_davis_nicoll

21 works reviewed. 11 by women (52%), 9 by men (43%), 1 by non-binary authors (5%), 0 by authors whose gender is unknown (0%), and 8 by POC (38%).

The chart is breaking formatting. Need to fix or remove it. I do like charts, though.

September 2025 in Review

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Two stories about beautiful people partying their way through time.

Elegy for Angels and Dogs /The Graveyard Heart (Tor SF Double, volume 24) By Walter Jon Williams & Roger Zelazny

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A magical hoard for Fifth Edition roleplaying

Bundle of Holding: 5E Treasures

Reading

Bundle of Holding: Mystery Flesh Pit

Good news for Canadian orange growers!

Record of a Night Too Brief by Hiromi Kawakami

Forty Thousand in Gehenna by C J Cherryh

Bundle of Holding: Achtung! Cthulhu

Clarke Award Finalists 2017

Destinies, February-March 1980 (Destinies, # 6) edited by Jim Baen

Books Received, September 27 — October 3

Here Is Your Periodic Reminder that Stars Move

An Unlikely Coven (Green Witch Cycle, volume 1) By AM Kvita

New LLM

Probe (Search, # 1) by Leslie Stevens & Russ Mayberry

Last night's dream

Bundle of Holding: The Far Roofs

October 2025 Patreon Boost

Blank Canvas: My So-Called Artist's Journey„ volume 1 by Akiko Higashimura

New archive just dropped

September 2025 in Review

Elegy for Angels and Dogs /The Graveyard Heart by Williams and Zelazny

Bundle of Holding: 5E Treasures

Profile

October 2025

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