James Nicoll

For the Scottish paediatric surgeon, see James Henderson Nicoll. For people with a similar name, see James Nicol (disambiguation).

James Nicoll
Born (1961-03-18) March 18, 1961 (age 63)
NationalityCanadian
External image
image icon James Nicoll, 2001 photo

James Davis Nicoll (born March 18, 1961)[1] is a Canadian freelance game and speculative fiction reviewer, former security guard and role-playing game store owner, and five-time Hugo nominee, who also works as a first reader for the Science Fiction Book Club.[2][3] As a Usenet personality, Nicoll is known for writing a widely quoted epigram on the English language, as well as for his accounts of suffering a high number of accidents, which he has narrated over the years in Usenet groups like rec.arts.sf.written and rec.arts.sf.fandom. He is now a blogger on Dreamwidth and Facebook, and an occasional columnist on Tor.com. In 2014, he started his website, jamesdavisnicoll.com, dedicated to his book reviews of works old and new; and later added Young People Read Old SFF, where his panel of younger readers read pre-1980 science fiction and fantasy, and Nicoll and his collaborators report on the younger readers' reactions.

  1. ^ Silver, Steven. "SF Birthday Calendar: March". Archived from the original on 2021-06-13. Retrieved 2007-05-15.
  2. ^ Wheeler, Andrew (2006-11-20). "SFBC's Top 50 Books List Goes Walkabout". Science Fiction Book Club. Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-05-20.
  3. ^ Nicoll, James Davis (2022-01-31). "Five Flawed Books That Are Still Worth Rereading". Tor.com. Archived from the original on 2022-02-01. Retrieved 2022-02-01. Most importantly for me at the time, the paperback fit nicely in my security-guard uniform's inside pocket and helped me stay awake through long night shifts.