We read this for Orcs & Aliens in January, and Regan did a much better job summing it up than I ever will. While the world was intriguing, the story was too short and felt too much like a writing prompt (assignment: write a Sherlock & Watson tale set in your fictional universe). This somehow won the Nebula Award for best novella, and I'm not entirely sure how, unless it was a bum field that year. Meh.
Coup de Grâce by Sofia Ajram, 139 pages.
This strange, experimental novel is twisty in a way that is frequently hard to follow. It's unsettling and weird, but I also found it very compelling at times. A good spooky season read.
Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells, 168 pages.
This was a fun little murder mystery. It was a pleasure to get to see Murderbot doing what it's good at, although I do wish there were slightly more clues to help the reader solve the case. I also had to check several times to make sure I hadn't accidentally read books out of order, because I think this story realistically makes more sense coming before book 5. This was a funny novella, and a worthy continuation to the series.
When her predecessor messes up one too many times, housemaid Dalia finds herself promoted to keeper of the keys at the manor home of Anatema, a huge spiderlike creature who eats those she finds objectionable (RIP former keeper of the keys). On her first day attending to Anatema, Dalia learns that someone has stolen a precious item from Anatema, and her life is on the line if she doesn't find the culprit. However, as she spends more time with her strange mistress, Dalia finds herself becoming more and more drawn to the creature.
This is an unnerving short novel that's very atmospheric, and particularly creepy if you fear spiders as I do. However, it's also almost an odd love story (or Stockholm Syndrome, depending on who you ask), which makes it hard to categorize. No matter what, however, it's captivating and impossible to put down.
The Border Keeper by Kerstin Hall, 208 pages.
This was an extremely effective novella. The world Hall builds is immersive, and although we only see a small portion of this in these 200 pages, I feel as if I understand the scope of it anyway. Which does not stop me from being very excited to read more in the setting. It is also absolutely stuffed with twists, which all feel well-earned, and never leave the plot feeling contrived. This is a really excellent story in a surprisingly small package, and I would definitely recommend it.
When Among Crows by Veronica Roth, 166 pages.
The discovery of pocket worlds means big things for researchers, including archaeologist Raquel and her botanist wife. But hopping between these worlds can cause big problems, especially when the timestream of some worlds runs much faster or slower than the world we're used to. Such is the case when Raquel accidentally misses 40 years of our world after a super short trip to a pocket universe. She returns to find that everything has changed, from the people she thought she knew, to the technology, to the new-to-her uses for pocket worlds.
This is a fascinating short book that examines capitalism's innate exploitative nature of anything new, as well as the ramifications of humans not protecting those things that need it. It's a bit heavy-handed at times, but overall worth reading.
Mr. Berger has taken an early retirement with the intention of spending his time immersed in reading. His quiet life is disrupted when he witnesses a young woman throw herself under a train. But incident reminiscent of Anna Karenina leaves no body or other evidence. Berger investigates further and finds the Caxton Private Lending Library in a old warehouse type building on a deserted street. The library is run by a curious man known as Mr. Gedeon who maintains a collection of first and special editions of classic literature as well as a cast of characters come to life who live in the library. Anna Karenina is one of those residents. Berger has given himself the task of making sure Anna doesn't try to harm herself again. This brief novella is a quick and light read that draws you into its world.
What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher, 165 pages.
This was a truly unsettling book and, much like the central fungus, that atmosphere grew slowly and greatly as this short little book went on. While not my favorite Kingfisher (which is a very high bar to clear), I still found this novella masterfully executed, and I think I will be thinking about the climax of the story for a while yet. Even though I knew where this story and guessed most of the twists, it didn't feel like that impacted my enjoyment at all; which is to me a sign of a very well-written book. I also found the pronoun situation in our protagonists native language to be a fascinating little world building detail, although the strange conjugation choices were sometimes a little distracting. I will likely pick up the sequel (not a House of Usher retelling) before spooky season is out, and I would definitely recommend this book to others.
The Fireborne Blade by Charlotte Bond, 176 pages.
Maddileh, Knight of the Stairs, has been cast out of the king's favor and the knighthood unless she can do something truly impressive to win back her place. So she decides to pursue the legendary Fireborne Blade in the lair of an equally legendary dragon. Only dragon's lairs are full of strange magic, and things may not be what they seem.
This novella is told alternating between Maddileh's story, both in the past and the present, and in primary source documents about other dragonslayers. This book felt like everything I would love, but somehow it didn't come together for me. Despite being less than 200 pages long, it felt like it dragged, and while it felt like there were a whole lot of elements that felt like they could be really interesting if they were further explored, overall I couldn't point to anything that I found particularly compelling. I'm afraid I have to mark this one down as a disappointment.
I'll start off saying I am not a big fan of short stories. However, I am a fan of Amor Towles writing. So, in spite of this being a series of short stories and one novella, I enjoyed it, a lot. The short stories all take place in New York City and encompass various takes on relationships in people young and old. All the short stories are written in a way that make you want to know what happens to the characters after the story ends. The novella, however, does exactly that. The main character is Evelyn (Eve) Ross who first appeared in Towles novel The Rules of Civility. That book ends with the unfortunate Evelyn leaving New York by train to be met by her parents in Chicago. As the train pulls into Chicago she buys passage to Los Angeles without getting off the train. Each chapter of the novella is titled with the names of the different characters Eve encounters. Eventually Eve becomes friends with the actress Oliva de Haviland and ends up helping her with a problem that could impact her career. This is an engaging collection, masterfully written. I wonder what Mr. Towles will come up with next. I listened to the audiobook version well read by Edoardo Ballerini and J. Smith-Cameron. Here is a link to Amor Towles discussing the Los Angeles novella on NPR.
On their never-ending quest for stories, cleric Chih has found themself in the company of a bride-to-be and her parents on the way meet the groom at his estate. When they arrive, however, something seems off, with fortified walls surrounding the compound, odd sculptures spread throughout, and, perhaps most unnerving, the groom-to-be's insane son locked in a labyrinth. Soon Chih learns that stories are even more powerful than they thought, and that monsters are not always hidden in the shadows.
This is the fifth entry in Vo's Singing Hills Cycle of novellas, and just like all the others, it's excellent. Not really much more to say than that, and also, read these books (in any order, though I wouldn't necessarily start with this one).
All Systems Red by Martha Wells, 144 pages.
This was a really fun little novella! Murderbot is a really funny character, and its perspective is a unique twist on the story. I'm excited to see where Wells is going with this, and luckily for me I'm coming to this series pretty late, so there are plenty of books to catch up on.
In our present day, a woman named Damira is fighting a never-ending war against elephant poachers in Africa. Far in the future, after elephants have gone almost entirely extinct (there are just a few Asian elephants left in captivity), scientists have brought back woolly mammoths and have reintroduced them to their previous habitat in Russia, where they are led by a matriarch named Damira. But when species come back, so do their predators, including poachers...
For a very large portion of this book (more than 30 pages), I was VERY confused... until the a-ha moment when everything made sense and the story became infinitely compelling. Nayler has a track record for writing "angry endangered animal taking it out on humans" stories in a very compelling way — his novel, The Mountain in the Sea, had me firmly on the side of the hostile octopus species — and this novella is no exception. I do hope, however, that this isn't the ONLY type of story he writes, and that he shows off those skills soon, so he doesn't get a reputation as a one-trick pony. Because his writing is great and it would be a shame to have him swept under the rug.
The Navigating Fox by Christopher Rowe, 160 pages.
Quintus Shu'al is the world's only knowledgeable fox, and he alone has the power to navigate people through the silver roads. But his reputation is in shambles after the total loss of his last expedition party, so when the chance to redeem himself is presented (and to get the answers about himself that he so desperately craves) he has to take it, even if it means navigating a party of knowledgeable beasts and humans to the literal gates of hell.
This was a really cool little book. I especially liked the worldbuilding that sat comfortably between fantasy and an alternate history where Rome never fell. Unfortunately, I feel like this cool worldbuilding might have contributed a bit to the structural confusion of this book. The bones of The Navigating Fox feel like it wants to be a fable, especially with the talking animals on a quest. However, the novella isn't really structured like a fable (for example, a strong emphasis on setting and complex characters is good for a story, but not very important for a fable), and this conflict of identity feels like it held the story back a little. That being said, it was still very fun to read! It was exciting and engaging, and I'm definitely still glad I read it, even if the ending leaves something to be desired.
Assembly by Natasha Brown, 106 pages.
This novella follows an unnamed black British woman through the struggles of modern life in England. She works at a bank and constantly deals with racism, sexism, and the countless small and nameless ways the world tries to break her down. Her wealthy white boyfriend's parents invite her to an upscale garden party, where she spends more time thinking about her place in the world, and if she wants to remain there.
This book is extremely non-linear, which makes it difficult to judge the order and scale that things are happening in. It also seems terrified of giving characters names, which makes it hard to tell many of the various men apart, making an already difficult to follow story even more difficult to follow. Overall this novella felt like it was more interested in being perceived as "literary" than anything else, and I'm afraid that that goal inhibited anything else it was trying to do.
Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher, 116 pages.
Kara wrote about this wonderful Sleeping Beauty retelling here a few months ago, and I entirely agree with everything she had to say. I find myself especially infatuated with the characters. Toadling is not much of a fairytale hero (like at all), but she is extremely compelling, as is the knight who drives the story.
This is an incredibly gentle little novella, and reading it feels very cozy. Unsurprisingly, it reminds me quite a bit of Kingfisher's Nettle and Bone, which was an Orcs & Aliens selection recently. The books feel like they could exist in the same world, although this one has more of a character focus than a plot focus. I would also recommend it for fans of Alix E. Harrow's A Spindle Splintered, which has the same formula of a fairytale with a very different configuration combined with a lot of introspection. Overall, a really phenomenal novella.
Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark, 185 pages.
In this retelling of Sleeping Beauty, Toadling is a homely person who has lived hundreds of years at a tower surrounded by thorns and brambles, wishing and hoping that no knights will come close to break the curse upon it. But when a young knight arrives searching for the source of an ancient story, Toadling is forced to reckon with the past, and more importantly, the present, specifically how to deal with this surprisingly bookish and gentle man.
T. Kingfisher has a wonderful way of looking at fairy tale tropes and forcing her readers to reexamine our own biases (in the gentlest and most humorous way possible) when it comes to the tales we all grew up with. Thornhedge is an excellent example of how to do that, and other fairy tale-twisters should use this as a guide going forward. A great short read.
The Refrigerator Monologues by Catherynne M. Valente, 160 pages.
The Hell Hath club is something like a support group, and something like a group of friends. It's made up of the fridged residents of Dead Town, women who died to advance a male hero's story. The six women who tell their stories in this novella have very little in common; they all had different careers, interests, and personal arcs. Yet they all understand what it is to be treated badly by the narrative.
This was a really interesting little novella. I know just enough about comics to be familiar with the phenomenon that this book is critiquing, and I feel like I definitely have a more complete understanding having finished it. Outside of that, I also found the Valente's characters to be very compelling (which is, I suppose, the point). I also quite enjoyed how the novella alternated between the monologues and scenes of the characters together in Dead Town, which I felt gave the story a lot of cohesion. I would definitely recommend this book to comic book fans, but honestly probably to other people as well.
