User:Nihonjoe/Nicoji

Nicoji is a 1991 science fiction novel by M. Shayne Bell, based on the novelette by the same name. The novelette was published in the March 1988 issue of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. The novel was published in January 1991 by Baen Books.

Plot
Jake and Sam leave Earth in the hopes of making a better living working for the American Nicoji on another planet. They are hired to harvest nicoji, a lobster-like creatures harvested as a delicacy. Instead of finding a great way to earn a living, they find the company is ruthlessly capitalistic and treats its employees like lifetime indentured servants, promising them a way to pay off their debts but rigging things so that won't ever happen.

One day, the two learn a second company has set up shop on the planet, and they are offering better wages and conditions to experienced nicoji harvesters. Knowing that American Nicoji will never allow any of their employees to leave, Jake and Sam break their contracts and flee in the hopes of reaching the other company before American Nicoji can catch them. To reach the other company, they have to make their way across uncharted wilderness containing unknown, potentially dangerous alien fauna.

Publication history and reception
The novelette on which the novel is based was published in the March 1988 issue of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. It ranked fifth for Best Novelette in the 1989 Asimov's reader's poll. Almost three years later, Baen Books published the novel, Nicoji, in mass market paperback format in North America in January 1991. The cover art was created by Donald Clavette.

D. Michael Martindale, writing a review for the AML-List, says the book is one "that any general audience can enjoy", describing how Bell warns against "giving up freedom for security", but without getting preachy.


 * Review by Carolyn Cushman (1990) in Locus, #359 December 1990
 * Review by Algis Budrys (1991) in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May 1991
 * Review by Orson Scott Card (1991) in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, July 1991 (may be the same as http://www.hatrack.com/osc/reviews/f&sf/91-07.html)
 * Review by Baird Searles (1991) in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, July 1991