James Nicoll Reviews

Jane Gaskell’s 1969 A Sweet Sweet Summer is a near future dystopic black comedy novel.

Vast alien ships appear over Britain and isolate it from the rest of the world¹. Millions die as food stops arriving at British ports. Under alien direction, the UK dissolves into a patchwork of communist and fascist strongholds.

Pelham Cecil Garfield (Rat to his… well, friends may be too strong…associates) just wants to continue living his simple life as a pimp. The aliens have thoughtlessly complicated his business.

Read more ➤

1977’s Some Summer Lands is either the fourth or the fifth book in Jane Gaskell’s Atlan series^1. Either way, Some Summer Lands is the final book in the series².

Cija! As alluring as Helen of Troy, innocent and ignorant, she is fated to be her kingdom’s doom. So far in this series, doom hasn’t arrived.

At least not until this volume.

Read more ➤

Jane Gaskell’s 1957 Strange Evil is a stand-alone free love portal fantasy.

Professional model Judith Henderson is enormously put out to discover that her cousin Dorinda has invited herself to stay with Judith. This is the first Judith has heard of Dorinda, Dorinda’s mother having vanished following a scandalous marriage to an Italian aristocrat. Judith has little choice but to host Dorinda while Dorinda visits her mother’s birthland.

Judith soon discovers that there’s an upside to the unwanted guest. The guest has brought her fiancé, Zameis, with her. Judith is immediately besotted with Zameis.

Read more ➤

1966’s The City is either the third or the fourth volume in Jane Gaskell’s Atlan series¹.

Having survived many terrible betrayals, Cija is no longer a naïve, ignorant maiden. She is armed with caution fueled by bitter experience.

Nevertheless, no sooner does she arrive in the City than she is sold to a brothel, escaping only to discover that her rescuers have their own brothel. The seeming rescue was a ruse to avoid paying for Cija.

Read more ➤

1965’s Atlan is the third volume in Jane Gaskell’s sword-and-sorcery Atlan series … unless you purchased 1963’s The Serpent before it was divided into The Dragon (1975) and The Serpent (1975), in which case Atlan is the second volume. It was followed by two other volumes in the series, The City (1966) and Some Summer Lands (1977).

Naïve, cosseted Cija, having survived many unpleasant educational experiences, has married man-serpent Zerd, now Emperor of Atlan. One might think this would confer on Cija a measure of security, but no, Cija is beset on all sides. 

Read more ➤

The Dragon is the second half of the original 1963 hardcover edition of Jane Gaskell’s The Serpent, which in turn is the first part of the Atlan series. Publishers, am I right? Let’s call it book two of the Atlan series and move on. 

Thanks to the tumultuous events towards the end of the previous instalment, Cija is on the run. She manages to hide in plain sight, as her friend Smahil’s lover. Smahil insists on making this pretense real. It’s probably for the best that Cija does not know that Smahil is her half-brother. 

Read more ➤

1963’s The Serpent is the first volume in Jane Gaskell’s Atlan series. 

Long, long ago, before Atlan and Mu sank, when humanity still lived alongside the brontosaurus, Cija was raised in an isolated palace by servants of her Dictatress mother. Now seventeen, Cija chafes at the restrictions under which she must live. 

The Dictatress descends upon the palace and Cija’s life changes in an instant. 

Read more ➤