James Davis Nicoll
@jdnicoll.bsky.social
Reviewer, Essayist, Hugo, Aurora, and Darwin Award finalist.
I am trying to remember the title of an SF story by a white male author whose moral was that having to take other people into consideration is a dreadful, unforgivable burden. Any ideas?
February 20, 2026 at 3:09 PM
I am trying to remember the title of an SF story by a white male author whose moral was that having to take other people into consideration is a dreadful, unforgivable burden. Any ideas?
I lined up books by a particular author from a now effectively defunct* Canadian SF publisher and I cannot help but notice how diligently that publisher avoided having any two books the same dimensions.
* They still have a webpage but I don't see anything from the last 5 years.
* They still have a webpage but I don't see anything from the last 5 years.
February 20, 2026 at 2:41 PM
I lined up books by a particular author from a now effectively defunct* Canadian SF publisher and I cannot help but notice how diligently that publisher avoided having any two books the same dimensions.
* They still have a webpage but I don't see anything from the last 5 years.
* They still have a webpage but I don't see anything from the last 5 years.
The Friend Zone Experiment by Zen Cho
A successful businesswoman has the opportunity of a lifetime offered to her, only to have an old friend greatly complicate matters.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/cryst...
A successful businesswoman has the opportunity of a lifetime offered to her, only to have an old friend greatly complicate matters.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/cryst...
Crystal Clear
Zen Cho’s 2024’s The Friend Zone Experiment is a stand-alone romance novel.
Successful businesswoman Renee Goh set aside two weeks to spend with her hot pop-star boyfriend Jason Tsai. It’s an unfortun...
jamesdavisnicoll.com
February 20, 2026 at 2:10 PM
The Friend Zone Experiment by Zen Cho
A successful businesswoman has the opportunity of a lifetime offered to her, only to have an old friend greatly complicate matters.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/cryst...
A successful businesswoman has the opportunity of a lifetime offered to her, only to have an old friend greatly complicate matters.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/cryst...
Question that came up at bookclub: what's the worst Star Trek episode?
February 20, 2026 at 2:31 AM
Question that came up at bookclub: what's the worst Star Trek episode?
The theme of today's bus trips have been "Drivers who do not check their blind spot before veering back and forth between lanes," and "Exhausted mothers riding herd on poorly socialized children."
February 19, 2026 at 8:42 PM
The theme of today's bus trips have been "Drivers who do not check their blind spot before veering back and forth between lanes," and "Exhausted mothers riding herd on poorly socialized children."
Technically, the Canadian Monarchy is a different institution than the British Monarchy, so it's legally possible for the UK to become a Republic--all hail President Truss!--and Canada to remain a monarchy.
Would we be expected to house the Windsors? Is there a sufficiently isolated arctic island?
Would we be expected to house the Windsors? Is there a sufficiently isolated arctic island?
February 19, 2026 at 2:46 PM
Technically, the Canadian Monarchy is a different institution than the British Monarchy, so it's legally possible for the UK to become a Republic--all hail President Truss!--and Canada to remain a monarchy.
Would we be expected to house the Windsors? Is there a sufficiently isolated arctic island?
Would we be expected to house the Windsors? Is there a sufficiently isolated arctic island?
Former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor arrested by U.K. police | CBC
www.cbc.ca
February 19, 2026 at 2:10 PM
Can Katy Perry now meet Canadian Content guidelines?
February 19, 2026 at 2:08 PM
Can Katy Perry now meet Canadian Content guidelines?
Slow Gods by Claire North
Against the gleefully hypocritical, exploitative Shine, the very gods themselves contend in vain.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/just-...
Against the gleefully hypocritical, exploitative Shine, the very gods themselves contend in vain.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/just-...
Just Doing His Best
Claire North’s 2025 Slow Gods is a stand-alone space opera.
The United Social Venture, AKA the Shine, promises its people prosperity in return for hard work. What the masses get is mounting debt and r...
jamesdavisnicoll.com
February 19, 2026 at 1:52 PM
Slow Gods by Claire North
Against the gleefully hypocritical, exploitative Shine, the very gods themselves contend in vain.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/just-...
Against the gleefully hypocritical, exploitative Shine, the very gods themselves contend in vain.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/just-...
Question raised by an Actual Play I am listening to: what are people's favourite Nazis Dying scenes in films?
February 19, 2026 at 3:15 AM
Question raised by an Actual Play I am listening to: what are people's favourite Nazis Dying scenes in films?
Good news! My pulp writer managed to ace both his oratory and writing rolls while documenting the groups' latest horrifying discovery. Anyone who comes across his journals--or the stories he will write based on them--might have a change to gain a little mythos knowledge. Or lose SAN. Tomato tomato.
February 19, 2026 at 1:55 AM
Good news! My pulp writer managed to ace both his oratory and writing rolls while documenting the groups' latest horrifying discovery. Anyone who comes across his journals--or the stories he will write based on them--might have a change to gain a little mythos knowledge. Or lose SAN. Tomato tomato.
Is it time to open a second front against needlessly militarized figures of speech?
February 19, 2026 at 1:37 AM
Is it time to open a second front against needlessly militarized figures of speech?
Shakespears Sister - Stay (Official Video)
YouTube video by London Records
www.youtube.com
February 18, 2026 at 10:50 PM
Bundle of Holding: Wolves Upon the Coast
The Wolves Upon the Coast Grand Campaign, a bare-bones old-school tabletop roleplaying game by designer Luke Gearing.
bundleofholding.com/presents/Wol...
The Wolves Upon the Coast Grand Campaign, a bare-bones old-school tabletop roleplaying game by designer Luke Gearing.
bundleofholding.com/presents/Wol...
Wolves Upon the Coast Bundle
Adventurer! This all-new Wolves Upon the Coast Bundle presents the Wolves Upon the Coast Grand Campaign, a bare-bones old-school tabletop roleplaying game by designer Luke Gearing. Your history is gon...
bundleofholding.com
February 18, 2026 at 7:56 PM
Bundle of Holding: Wolves Upon the Coast
The Wolves Upon the Coast Grand Campaign, a bare-bones old-school tabletop roleplaying game by designer Luke Gearing.
bundleofholding.com/presents/Wol...
The Wolves Upon the Coast Grand Campaign, a bare-bones old-school tabletop roleplaying game by designer Luke Gearing.
bundleofholding.com/presents/Wol...
Vague idea for a TTRPG campaign: All Regulations Are Written in Blood
PCs are field agents in charge of finding and dealing with arcane occupational safety violations. That six-sided summoning pentagram? Flagged. That storeroom where the universal solvent is next to the lemonade? Flagged.
(con't)
PCs are field agents in charge of finding and dealing with arcane occupational safety violations. That six-sided summoning pentagram? Flagged. That storeroom where the universal solvent is next to the lemonade? Flagged.
(con't)
February 18, 2026 at 4:02 PM
Vague idea for a TTRPG campaign: All Regulations Are Written in Blood
PCs are field agents in charge of finding and dealing with arcane occupational safety violations. That six-sided summoning pentagram? Flagged. That storeroom where the universal solvent is next to the lemonade? Flagged.
(con't)
PCs are field agents in charge of finding and dealing with arcane occupational safety violations. That six-sided summoning pentagram? Flagged. That storeroom where the universal solvent is next to the lemonade? Flagged.
(con't)
One Way to Immunize Yourself Against Pseudoscience and Other Nonsense
Classic SF was chock-full of dubious ideas; Martin Gardner supplied the antidote.
reactormag.com/one-way-to-i...
Classic SF was chock-full of dubious ideas; Martin Gardner supplied the antidote.
reactormag.com/one-way-to-i...
One Way to Immunize Yourself Against Pseudoscience and Other Nonsense - Reactor
Classic SF was chock-full of dubius ideas; Martin Gardner supplied the antidote.
reactormag.com
February 18, 2026 at 3:09 PM
One Way to Immunize Yourself Against Pseudoscience and Other Nonsense
Classic SF was chock-full of dubious ideas; Martin Gardner supplied the antidote.
reactormag.com/one-way-to-i...
Classic SF was chock-full of dubious ideas; Martin Gardner supplied the antidote.
reactormag.com/one-way-to-i...
I woke up in a bad mood because I dreamed I discovered they'd cut the buses from TO to KW back to one bus per day, at 2:15 PM. And in my dream, it was just after 4 PM when I discovered this.
February 18, 2026 at 2:36 PM
I woke up in a bad mood because I dreamed I discovered they'd cut the buses from TO to KW back to one bus per day, at 2:15 PM. And in my dream, it was just after 4 PM when I discovered this.
Ah, memories of that time at a particularly horrible job, the bosses decided as an incentive to post the productivity levels of the workers... and it turned out my numbers were higher than their favourite employee, the person who made my time there hell.
I am reminded of a parallel situation where a person thought they were meeting high standards until they saw the standards others were meeting... I suppose it's too early for him to have been Manifesting the best grades.
February 18, 2026 at 2:33 PM
Ah, memories of that time at a particularly horrible job, the bosses decided as an incentive to post the productivity levels of the workers... and it turned out my numbers were higher than their favourite employee, the person who made my time there hell.
Ichi the Witch, volume 1 by Osamu NIchi & Shiro Usazaki (Translated by Adrienne Beck)
Only witches hunt demons, all witches are women, and Uroro cannot be defeated by any woman. Uroro feels entirely safe, right until the world's first male witch defeats him.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/loop-...
Only witches hunt demons, all witches are women, and Uroro cannot be defeated by any woman. Uroro feels entirely safe, right until the world's first male witch defeats him.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/loop-...
Loop Hole
2025’s Ichi the Witch, Volume 1 is the first tankōbon for Osamu NIchi and Shiro Usazaki’s Ichi the Witch secondary-universe fantasy manga. Ichi
has been serialized in Shueisha’s Weekly Shōnen Jump mag...
jamesdavisnicoll.com
February 18, 2026 at 2:18 PM
Ichi the Witch, volume 1 by Osamu NIchi & Shiro Usazaki (Translated by Adrienne Beck)
Only witches hunt demons, all witches are women, and Uroro cannot be defeated by any woman. Uroro feels entirely safe, right until the world's first male witch defeats him.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/loop-...
Only witches hunt demons, all witches are women, and Uroro cannot be defeated by any woman. Uroro feels entirely safe, right until the world's first male witch defeats him.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/loop-...
KWites: how loudly am I going to groan when I look out my front window?
February 18, 2026 at 2:11 PM
KWites: how loudly am I going to groan when I look out my front window?
There was a Canadian PSA about helmets that used a watermelon impacting on a road. Can't find it online...
1. NH didn't have motorcycle helmet laws, so to show us what happens when you don't wear a helmet he brought in a helmet and a sledgehammer and smashed it dramatically, spraying us all with juice and pull
(he was later forbidden from doing this but I thought it was effective)
(he was later forbidden from doing this but I thought it was effective)
February 18, 2026 at 4:53 AM
There was a Canadian PSA about helmets that used a watermelon impacting on a road. Can't find it online...
Odd but true: Doc Savage's tailor financed his kids' uni purely off shirt sales to Doc Savage.
Happy 93rd birthday to Doc Savage!
The first issue of the Man of Bronze's magazine hit stands OTD in 1933.
The first issue of the Man of Bronze's magazine hit stands OTD in 1933.
February 18, 2026 at 4:11 AM
Odd but true: Doc Savage's tailor financed his kids' uni purely off shirt sales to Doc Savage.
I would not have made it out of the crib. I might not have made it into the crib.
I sometimes try and work out when I would have died in my life in earlier times - from infection or disease. I think the earliest might be appendicitis at 10 years old.
February 18, 2026 at 12:49 AM
I would not have made it out of the crib. I might not have made it into the crib.
Overheard on public transit, one end of an extremely angry phone conversation. The last bit that I heard just before I disembarked:
"I suggest, [NAME], you shut up and turn yourself in!"
"I suggest, [NAME], you shut up and turn yourself in!"
February 17, 2026 at 11:19 PM
Overheard on public transit, one end of an extremely angry phone conversation. The last bit that I heard just before I disembarked:
"I suggest, [NAME], you shut up and turn yourself in!"
"I suggest, [NAME], you shut up and turn yourself in!"
I think I just got a very funny idea for a TTRPG adventure.
My friend who is about to defend told me the point of a PhD is to turn you into an insane person but a very specific kind of insane person.
So FYI Thursday you’ll see a giant thread on the derivation of the Differential Chapman Kolmogorov equation.
And I might act a little weird and crazy until June.
And I might act a little weird and crazy until June.
February 17, 2026 at 10:51 PM
I think I just got a very funny idea for a TTRPG adventure.