James Davis Nicoll
@jdnicoll.bsky.social
Reviewer, Essayist, Hugo, Aurora, and Darwin Award finalist.
Reposted by James Davis Nicoll
Because my children are Gen Alpha monsters, they want to know if I've sold 67 copies of Year's Best Canadian F&SF Vol 3 this month--get it? 6-7 * makes flailing juggling motion and despairs * I'm about 20 copies shy. For Black Friday, want to help an indie publisher pull one over on his kids?
Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction: Volume Three
Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction: Volume Three: Kotowych, Stephen: 9781738187539: Books - Amazon.ca
a.co
November 26, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Because my children are Gen Alpha monsters, they want to know if I've sold 67 copies of Year's Best Canadian F&SF Vol 3 this month--get it? 6-7 * makes flailing juggling motion and despairs * I'm about 20 copies shy. For Black Friday, want to help an indie publisher pull one over on his kids?
Bundle of Holding: SR5 Essentials (from 2019)
The core rules plus essentials for the 2013 Fifth Edition of Shadowrun, the cyberpunk-fantasy tabletop roleplaying game from Catalyst Game Labs.
bundleofholding.com/presents/202...
The core rules plus essentials for the 2013 Fifth Edition of Shadowrun, the cyberpunk-fantasy tabletop roleplaying game from Catalyst Game Labs.
bundleofholding.com/presents/202...
SR5 Essentials Bundle
Runner! We've resuscitated (for a third time!) our February 2019 Shadowrun 5E Essentials Bundle featuring .PDF ebooks for the 2013 Fifth Edition of Shadowrun, the cyberpunk-fantasy tabletop roleplayin...
bundleofholding.com
November 26, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Bundle of Holding: SR5 Essentials (from 2019)
The core rules plus essentials for the 2013 Fifth Edition of Shadowrun, the cyberpunk-fantasy tabletop roleplaying game from Catalyst Game Labs.
bundleofholding.com/presents/202...
The core rules plus essentials for the 2013 Fifth Edition of Shadowrun, the cyberpunk-fantasy tabletop roleplaying game from Catalyst Game Labs.
bundleofholding.com/presents/202...
Well, crap. It was just pointed out to me that SF artist Stephen Fabian died age 95 back in May.
November 26, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Well, crap. It was just pointed out to me that SF artist Stephen Fabian died age 95 back in May.
Have we done return horror stories recently?
IIRC Spider Robinson once asserted that a store ordered in a ton of his books for a signing, and when most of them didn't sell, sent enough back to measurably affect his sold to return ratio.
A million dollar return helped kill TSR.
(con't)
IIRC Spider Robinson once asserted that a store ordered in a ton of his books for a signing, and when most of them didn't sell, sent enough back to measurably affect his sold to return ratio.
A million dollar return helped kill TSR.
(con't)
The publisher pays you based on what bookstores (not customers) buy, BUT they hold back a chunk because bookstores can return books later for a full refund, and how many returns you will get can be hard to predict. 8/
November 26, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Have we done return horror stories recently?
IIRC Spider Robinson once asserted that a store ordered in a ton of his books for a signing, and when most of them didn't sell, sent enough back to measurably affect his sold to return ratio.
A million dollar return helped kill TSR.
(con't)
IIRC Spider Robinson once asserted that a store ordered in a ton of his books for a signing, and when most of them didn't sell, sent enough back to measurably affect his sold to return ratio.
A million dollar return helped kill TSR.
(con't)
The disconnect between the voice-over and what that guy is actually saying is incredibly distracting for me.
Anyway, as risky as it looks, tobogganing is perfectly safe, provided you don't break any bones or die.
The farmer next to my two-room country schoolhouse let kids use his hill.
(con't)
Anyway, as risky as it looks, tobogganing is perfectly safe, provided you don't break any bones or die.
The farmer next to my two-room country schoolhouse let kids use his hill.
(con't)
I’m sorry but I can’t stop laughing, yeah we would sled down hills in the winter with whatever we had on hand, toboggans, crazy carpets, tubes 😂 someone always got injured because of jumps on the hills or wipeouts #Canada
Credit to momodoulk
Credit to momodoulk
November 26, 2025 at 2:13 PM
The disconnect between the voice-over and what that guy is actually saying is incredibly distracting for me.
Anyway, as risky as it looks, tobogganing is perfectly safe, provided you don't break any bones or die.
The farmer next to my two-room country schoolhouse let kids use his hill.
(con't)
Anyway, as risky as it looks, tobogganing is perfectly safe, provided you don't break any bones or die.
The farmer next to my two-room country schoolhouse let kids use his hill.
(con't)
I said a kid on TV looked like he was wearing a Buster Brown. Turns out this phrase is no longer in common use.
BB was a scamp (basically a Dennis the Menace with rich parents) but he had something in common with Charlie Brown: a talking dog: Tige.
(con't)
BB was a scamp (basically a Dennis the Menace with rich parents) but he had something in common with Charlie Brown: a talking dog: Tige.
(con't)
November 26, 2025 at 2:06 PM
I said a kid on TV looked like he was wearing a Buster Brown. Turns out this phrase is no longer in common use.
BB was a scamp (basically a Dennis the Menace with rich parents) but he had something in common with Charlie Brown: a talking dog: Tige.
(con't)
BB was a scamp (basically a Dennis the Menace with rich parents) but he had something in common with Charlie Brown: a talking dog: Tige.
(con't)
7thgarden, volume 1 by Mitsu Izumi
If you can't trust a scantily-clad demon to aid you in your war with heaven, who can you trust?
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/all-m...
If you can't trust a scantily-clad demon to aid you in your war with heaven, who can you trust?
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/all-m...
All My Demons
2014’s 7thgarden, Vol. 1 is the first tankōbon of Mitsu Izumi’s secondary universe fantasy1 manga series. As Akuma no Boku, 7thGarden
was serialized in Shueisha’s Jump Square from August 2014 to March...
jamesdavisnicoll.com
November 26, 2025 at 1:51 PM
7thgarden, volume 1 by Mitsu Izumi
If you can't trust a scantily-clad demon to aid you in your war with heaven, who can you trust?
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/all-m...
If you can't trust a scantily-clad demon to aid you in your war with heaven, who can you trust?
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/all-m...
It is my belief people who listen to audiobooks do so because regular books are very, very quiet.
November 26, 2025 at 5:07 AM
It is my belief people who listen to audiobooks do so because regular books are very, very quiet.
I was told that this list of books on tor dot com measurably altered their Amazon standings...
reactormag.com/100-sf-f-boo...
reactormag.com/100-sf-f-boo...
November 26, 2025 at 3:06 AM
I was told that this list of books on tor dot com measurably altered their Amazon standings...
reactormag.com/100-sf-f-boo...
reactormag.com/100-sf-f-boo...
My mother once had a cake-tastrophe. Result: a cake with the texture of a cinder block. My father thought it was hilarious and demonstrated to his parents how indestructible the cake was, put it in a paper grocery bag and dropped it on the floor. The cake did not break.
(con't)
(con't)
yes, hello, I would like to place an order for everyone’s funniest stories of holiday food-related family grudges / drama / chaotic incidents / lore
I feel like we need this
I feel like we need this
November 26, 2025 at 1:26 AM
My mother once had a cake-tastrophe. Result: a cake with the texture of a cinder block. My father thought it was hilarious and demonstrated to his parents how indestructible the cake was, put it in a paper grocery bag and dropped it on the floor. The cake did not break.
(con't)
(con't)
What was sliced bread the best thing since?
November 25, 2025 at 11:05 PM
What was sliced bread the best thing since?
Consider Setting Your Space Operas on Saturn
...or more precisely, on one of its many, many moons!
reactormag.com/consider-set...
...or more precisely, on one of its many, many moons!
reactormag.com/consider-set...
Consider Setting Your Space Operas on Saturn - Reactor
...or more precisely, on one of its many, many moons!
reactormag.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Consider Setting Your Space Operas on Saturn
...or more precisely, on one of its many, many moons!
reactormag.com/consider-set...
...or more precisely, on one of its many, many moons!
reactormag.com/consider-set...
Can democratically elected leaders hope to match the peerless wisdom of hereditary autocrats such as Emperor Yōzei, Charles VI of France, and the Chongzhen Emperor?
November 25, 2025 at 2:39 PM
Can democratically elected leaders hope to match the peerless wisdom of hereditary autocrats such as Emperor Yōzei, Charles VI of France, and the Chongzhen Emperor?
Aristoi by Walter Jon Williams
A utopia (of sorts) is endangered by a discontented, powerful, malcontent.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/even-...
A utopia (of sorts) is endangered by a discontented, powerful, malcontent.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/even-...
Even The Genius
Walter Jon Williams’ 1992 Aristoi is a stand-alone science fiction novel.
Humanity has become as gods! Unfortunately, not inherently wise gods. Thus, following the loss of the Earth1 to mataglap nano ...
jamesdavisnicoll.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Aristoi by Walter Jon Williams
A utopia (of sorts) is endangered by a discontented, powerful, malcontent.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/even-...
A utopia (of sorts) is endangered by a discontented, powerful, malcontent.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/even-...
"A Canadian settler hates a tree, regards it as his natural enemy, as something to be destroyed, eradicated, annihilated by all and any means."
Anna Brownell Jameson, Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada (1838)
Anna Brownell Jameson, Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada (1838)
November 25, 2025 at 5:09 AM
"A Canadian settler hates a tree, regards it as his natural enemy, as something to be destroyed, eradicated, annihilated by all and any means."
Anna Brownell Jameson, Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada (1838)
Anna Brownell Jameson, Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada (1838)
It's at least a little weird that I am almost 65, I've lived in Canada most of my life and I've never owned even one flannel shirt.
November 25, 2025 at 3:40 AM
It's at least a little weird that I am almost 65, I've lived in Canada most of my life and I've never owned even one flannel shirt.
Is there a recommended site I can use to familiarize 20-something players with Disco-era fashion? Not the hilariously bad stuff nobody actually wore. The hilariously bad stuff we did wear.
(Smoking. Smoking will be an adjustment)
(Smoking. Smoking will be an adjustment)
November 24, 2025 at 11:37 PM
Is there a recommended site I can use to familiarize 20-something players with Disco-era fashion? Not the hilariously bad stuff nobody actually wore. The hilariously bad stuff we did wear.
(Smoking. Smoking will be an adjustment)
(Smoking. Smoking will be an adjustment)
Adventures of Superman, Double Trouble.
"The fingerprints in the stateroom and on the gun were male prints."
I have questions.
"The fingerprints in the stateroom and on the gun were male prints."
I have questions.
November 24, 2025 at 10:56 PM
Adventures of Superman, Double Trouble.
"The fingerprints in the stateroom and on the gun were male prints."
I have questions.
"The fingerprints in the stateroom and on the gun were male prints."
I have questions.
Bundle of Holding: Cornucopia 2025
Bundle of Holding's 13th annual feast of top-quality tabletop roleplaying game ebooks.
bundleofholding.com/presents/Cor...
Bundle of Holding's 13th annual feast of top-quality tabletop roleplaying game ebooks.
bundleofholding.com/presents/Cor...
Cornucopia 2025
Adventurer! In time for the American Thanksgiving holiday, we present this all-new Cornucopia 2025, our 13th annual feast of top-quality tabletop roleplaying game ebooks. For just US$12.95 you get all...
bundleofholding.com
November 24, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Bundle of Holding: Cornucopia 2025
Bundle of Holding's 13th annual feast of top-quality tabletop roleplaying game ebooks.
bundleofholding.com/presents/Cor...
Bundle of Holding's 13th annual feast of top-quality tabletop roleplaying game ebooks.
bundleofholding.com/presents/Cor...
Reposted by James Davis Nicoll
Hurrah! My article on the Twilight 2000 RPG in the Journal of American Studies is now open access (OA), so anyone who wants to can have a read. OA is important to me, as I want my work on RPG history to go beyond the academy and reach the gaming public.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
When You Say, “Thermonuclear War,” I Think You Mean “the Call to Adventure”! The Twilight: 2000 Tabletop Role-Playing Game and the Postapocalyptic World’s Imaginary Spaces | Journal of American Studie...
When You Say, “Thermonuclear War,” I Think You Mean “the Call to Adventure”! The Twilight: 2000 Tabletop Role-Playing Game and the Postapocalyptic World’s Imaginary Spaces
www.cambridge.org
November 14, 2025 at 11:03 AM
Hurrah! My article on the Twilight 2000 RPG in the Journal of American Studies is now open access (OA), so anyone who wants to can have a read. OA is important to me, as I want my work on RPG history to go beyond the academy and reach the gaming public.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
2023: King Charles III is the most unpopular British King in the last 60-odd years, Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Cabinet Secretary Simon Case’s comic routine is poorly received, and Sunak’s government ushers in a golden age of soaring STD rates.
November 24, 2025 at 2:26 PM
2023: King Charles III is the most unpopular British King in the last 60-odd years, Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Cabinet Secretary Simon Case’s comic routine is poorly received, and Sunak’s government ushers in a golden age of soaring STD rates.
My three most recent searches:
Great Fire of Rome
Europe's first farmers
Funny Cat Videos
Great Fire of Rome
Europe's first farmers
Funny Cat Videos
November 24, 2025 at 2:06 PM
My three most recent searches:
Great Fire of Rome
Europe's first farmers
Funny Cat Videos
Great Fire of Rome
Europe's first farmers
Funny Cat Videos
The Coming Golden Age of Used Books
Just as the Great Fire of Rome was a boon for the building trade, so too will a modern catastrophe be a boon for used book stores.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/post/the-com...
Just as the Great Fire of Rome was a boon for the building trade, so too will a modern catastrophe be a boon for used book stores.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/post/the-com...
The Coming Golden Age of Used Books
Another piece bounced by ReacTor.Reactor has published an assortment of pieces praising the good old physical book, in particular the paperback. Each essayist (which include me) has talked about the v...
jamesdavisnicoll.com
November 24, 2025 at 1:51 PM
The Coming Golden Age of Used Books
Just as the Great Fire of Rome was a boon for the building trade, so too will a modern catastrophe be a boon for used book stores.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/post/the-com...
Just as the Great Fire of Rome was a boon for the building trade, so too will a modern catastrophe be a boon for used book stores.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/post/the-com...
November 23, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Benefits by Zoë Fairbairns
Mother's Benefits become the means by which British governments provide British women with the same benevolent management Britain once provided to India, Ireland, and Africa.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/on-nu...
Mother's Benefits become the means by which British governments provide British women with the same benevolent management Britain once provided to India, Ireland, and Africa.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/on-nu...
On Nursery Hill
Zoë Fairbairns’ 1979 Benefits
is a dystopian near-future novel.
In the sunset years of the welfare state, having made irreconcilable promises to the (almost entirely male) trade unionists and to mothe...
jamesdavisnicoll.com
November 23, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Benefits by Zoë Fairbairns
Mother's Benefits become the means by which British governments provide British women with the same benevolent management Britain once provided to India, Ireland, and Africa.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/on-nu...
Mother's Benefits become the means by which British governments provide British women with the same benevolent management Britain once provided to India, Ireland, and Africa.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/on-nu...