Posts Tagged ‘novella’
A story with no romance and friendships stronger than death is hella awesome.
A story with lots of sensuality and healthy relationships, also hella awesome.
I really can’t choose because I get so much satisfaction out of both.
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let me tell you a bunch of hella awesome things about Benjanun’s Sriduangkaew’s Machine Mandate series:
- The series is all novellas and short stories
- it’s a series that all takes place in the same universe, but you can read them in any order.
- Super kick ass ladies who don’t take shit from anyone
- Queer representation
- Sriduangkaew’s prose is fucking gorgeous, and her action scenes are cinematic
- How the AI’s interact with humanity (and choose not to) is fascinating
- hard scifi + healthy adult relationships, what?
- Oh, and the sex is plasma hot
yes, yes, I know I’m behind, there is a ton of stories in this series that I haven’t read yet.
The stories all take place in the same far future world – humanity created AI’s and colonized vast sections of the galaxy. After many generations, the AI’s realized they could probably live a better life without humans, so they ditched us and created their own AI-run communities. Humans gotta human, so there’s plenty of warfare and private armies and political machinations and amazing spaceships and space stations and FTL travel, and plenty of alien creatures for us to do inhumane things to. It’s a big galaxy out there, surely there is plenty of place for people and AI’s to live and not get all up in each other’s business.
Of course everyone is all up in each other’s business. Of course the humans not-so-secretly want to get rid of all ,the AI’s and of course the AI’s are lying when they say “we just want to be left alone, we mean humans no harm”. Cue the drama, trickery, flirting, and revenge, cyborgs, and cinematic action!
The Alabaster Admiral, Admiral Anoushka, shows up in a handful of Machine Mandate stories. Sometimes characters who are up to no good will mention the Alabaster Admiral because they are desperately trying to stay off her radar, and in other stories the Admiral is one of the main characters.
Storytelling in the Goldilocks Zone
Posted on: July 15, 2019
Ten years ago I wouldn’t have known a novella if one bit me on the ass.
Five years ago, novellas were those things in short story collections that I avoided, because I thought they were too long.
Novellas are weird little things – way way too long to be short story, way way to short to be a novel. The author doesn’t have to worry about the space limitations of a short story, but they don’t have the space to tell a generation spanning sprawling epic, either.
if short stories are the Tiny Houses of the story telling world, and doorstopper novels are the McMansions, then novellas sit in the goldilocks zone of just the right size. You know that house that’s just big enough for your family and your pets and all your stuff (and it’s got a great backyard!), but no so large that you have to “fill it up” with furniture, clutter, and other crap you don’t need? That’s a novella.
Because there are space limitations, the author does have to make every word, every scene count, there’s no space for extraneous scenes that don’t push the story forward. But because the author has more space than they would if they were writing say, a 5,000 word story, there’s plenty of space for characterization, great dialog, action, plenty of space (between 100 and 200 pages worth!) for the reader to get completely immersed in what is going on.
These last few years, Tor has been absolutely rocking the novella game. Ten years ago I would have said “you want how much money for a 150 page book???” and because of the excellent novellas that have been coming out recently, these days I’m more like “A book I can read in an afternoon? Shut up and take my money!”
Introduction over, let’s talk about super fun science fiction and fantasy novellas that have come out these last few years. This is no where close to an exhaustive list of all the wonderful novellas that have come out in the last few years, just a handful of my favorites. If you’re not sure about novellas, here are some great ones to start with:
All Systems Red by Martha Wells – you haven’t read Murderbot yet? Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Go to the bookstore and get yourself some Murderbot diaries novellas! you can thank me later. There are four novellas in this series, and if they aren’t yet available as an omnibus, I’m sure they will be soon.
Binti by Nnedi Okorafor – Oh, you like brilliant mathematicians who have to sneak out of the house in the middle of the night, and survive and alien attack, all so she can go the galactic university? yeah, things get kinda awkward when she does back home. Another must read, there are 3 novellas in this series, and it is available as an omnibus.
Acadie by Dave Hutchinson – if you like snark, strong narrative voices, and the best twist of the year, this is the novella for you! yes, this is one of those stories where once you’ve read it once and you know what the twist is, what’s the point of reading it again? That said, I’ve read this at least three times because it’s just that entertaining.
If you enjoy the Iron Druid series from Kevin Hearne, then you’ll love his novella series of Oberon’s Meaty Mysteries, which starts with The Squirrel on the Train. told from Oberon’s point of view, these are hilarious and adorable cozy mysteries. But really, it’s about Oberon getting good snacks, and Atticus not getting the spotlight.
The Inconvenient God by Francesca Forrest – if you like mythology, and how people have a bad habit of changing myths and gods to match what they happen to need that year, this is the novella (or maybe a novelette?) for you.
Winterglass by Benjanun Sriduangkaew – a scifi retelling of The Snow Queen, but with better characters than the original, climate change, aunties who play the long game, and ghost kilns which I am still scared of. Sriduangkaew’s prose is gorgeous and poetic, transporting the reader to lush semi-tropical worlds, virtual mazes, and iced over landscapes.
Time Was by Ian McDonald – time travel, romance, dusty bookstores, secret messages left across the world tucked into strange books that the bookseller isn’t allowed to sell. Excellent characters that leap off the page. Another novella I’ve read a few times now, just for the excuse of spending more time with these characters.
Vigilance by Robert Jackson Bennett – do you have a strong stomach? You’ll need it, but it’s worth it for this hard hitting, harder to swallow story about staying armed, staying vigilant, and reality tv gone farther than it ever should. More people need to read this vicious little cautionary tale, I need to talk about it with people!
Penric’s Demon by Lois McMaster Bujold – she writes fantasy too! When a “demon” attaches itself to Penric, that boy is gonna have to grow up real, real fast. As it turns out, Penric was exactly the right person for Desdemona to bind herself to. Compelling, heartfelt, and humorous, the first novella reads as a stand alone, and if you like it, there’s a few more short reads in this series.
this list barely scratches the surface of all the novella wonderfulness out there! what have been some of your fave novellas to read? What recommendations do you have for folks who haven’t yet discovered the goldilocks land of novellas?
Permafrost by Alastair Reynolds
Posted on: July 7, 2019
Permafrost by Alastair Reynolds
published in March 2019
where I got it: purchased new
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Time travel is quickly becoming my favorite science fiction subgenre. I blame Doctor Who, who made it look fun, safe, and something that can be resolved in an hour. I blame my love for the phrase “what could possibly go wrong?”. So yeah, time travel is the best! Novellas? Also my new fave, and the best.
If you enjoy time travel stories, if you want a novella that’s excellently paced and grabs you on page one, a story that’s packed full of smart information but never info dumps, a story will great characters and a compelling story line, Permafrost is for you.
50 years from now, we’ve just about killed the Earth, our crops are dying, our soil can’t grow anything, seed banks that we thought would sustain us have either failed or the seeds won’t grow in our dead soil. The last generation of humans has already been born. It’s looking pretty grim. Remember the opening of the movie Interstellar? It’s a little like that, except we don’t have space travel, we don’t have a black hole, and we don’t have any other planets we can maybe colonize. We don’t have any of those things, but what we do have is math and a fledgling time travel project. The goal is to go back in time, get viable seeds, and bring them to the future.
Except you can’t send people or objects back and forth through time. But you can send pairs of particles. The goal of Dr. Cho’s Permafrost project is to send messages back in time so that seeds can be placed somewhere, so that in the future his project can find them. Cho recruits the elderly school teacher Valentina to his cause, her connection to his work is even more vital than the fact that her mother invented the mathematical equations that time travel hinges on.
Ok, so what really happens if you do successfully change the past? No one ever put a cache of seeds somewhere, but then time travelers go back in time do exactly that. Once upon a time, did that event never occur? On a smaller scale, if the time travel math shows that in five minutes you will drop your pen, and then the moment comes and your purposely drop two pens, what happens?
Imprinted (available January 2018) is the forthcoming novelette in Jim C. Hines’s Libriomancer series, and The Squirrel on the Train (November 2017, Subterannean Press) is Kevin Hearne’s latest Oberon’s Meaty Mysteries novella. Two super fun and funny little stories!
Jim C. Hines concluded his Magic Ex Libris series with the fourth book in the series, Revisionary. The magic of this series sounds rather basic at first – the world’s collective love for books, stories, and the items found therein allows Libriomancers to pull physical items out of books. Urban fantasy awesomeness and characters who will absolutely shred your heart ensue. Because character relationships, people’s abilities, and the danger ramp up pretty quickly, this is a series that needs to be read in order. But. . . with an itty bitty spoiler (that really doesn’t spoil anything) you can read Imprinted even if you are not caught up on Magic Ex Libris. That’s me, by the way. I’m the person who isn’t caught up on Magic Ex Libris.
Revisionary was supposed to have been the end of the series, right? Well, it wasn’t for Jeneta. She still has a story to tell!
Seventeen year old Librariomancer Jeneta Aboderin has a unique libriomantic ability, it’s an ability Isaac might never even thought of had he not met Jeneta. But her power brings risk with it. What if she isn’t strong enough to control her ability? What if she is able to control it, and ends up disrupting the foundations of libriomancy?
June reading
Posted on: July 1, 2017
June, where did you go? Last I checked it was June 2nd, how is it already July?? I didn’t post many reviews in June, but I did get a lot of reading done. Some of these I’ll write reviews for, some of them will get a capsule review in this post. Here’s what I was up to this month:
I finished this fun little gem:
Spock Must Die is the famous novel where thanks to a transporter malfunction, the Enterprise now has two Spocks. Which one is the “real” one? What will they do with the other one? When war breaks out at the Klingon border, the importance of solving the mystery ratchets up. Even when Kirk is sure which Spock is the true, original Spock, he insists on calling his friend “Spock Two”. When questioned why, Kirk responds that by saying “two” every time he says his friend’s name, it forces him to remember how important it is to solve the problem at hand. Fun little book, right around 200 pages. Great beginning, satisfying end, a little slow in the middle.
then there was this other little gem:
Mightier than the Sword is the new novella out from K.J. Parker. I’m not going to say much because I do plan to write a review, but it was fun, smart, snarky, and a joy to read. I’ve read it at least twice now, maybe three times? I read these quick little novellas, and then I get ready to write a review, realize I don’t remember the details, so I read the whole thing again. If you like Parker, you will love Mightier than the Sword.
The Dispatcher, by John Scalzi
Posted on: April 29, 2017
The Dispatcher, by John Scalzi
published in print in 2017, audible version in 2016
where I got it: received advanced reading copy from the publisher (Thanks Subterranean!)
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.Wow was this a fun little novella!
The story is nearly all dialog, and while I was reading I kept thinking to myself “All this banter and chatter, this would make a fantastic audio book!”. I hopped online, wondering if there were any reviews up yet of this novella to learn that I live under a rock.
Last year, Scalzi wrote The Dispatcher as an audio only novella, to be exclusively offered on Audible.com for a certain length of time. And Zachary Quinto narrates it! As a huge thank you to his fans and everyone who loves audible, the download was free for a short window. So, I am apparently the last person to know that Scalzi wrote a very fun little novella called The Dispatcher. I’m ok with this.
I recently reviewed Mira Grant’s Last Girls, and my experience with Scalzi has been similar to my experience reading Grant/McGuire: I’m mostly meh on their novel length works, but I usually enjoy their short fiction.
The Dispatcher is just over 120 pages, but feels much shorter since it is nearly all dialog. The gist of the story is that people aren’t really dying anymore. Sure, you can die from old age, or from driving drunk and wrapping your car around a tree, but if someone else intentionally kills you, you’ll wake up a few hours later at home, as good as new.
No one quite understands how or why this is happening, but 999 times out a thousand, it works. What about people who are on the edge of death? They’ve been brought to the emergency room after a terrible car accident, or they had a surgery that had horrible complications? This is where professional dispatchers come in. If you’re about to die, a dispatcher shoots you in the head, intentionally causing your death. About five minutes later, you wake up good as new, at home. About five minutes after that, the dispatcher cashes their check from your health insurance company. It sounds ridiculous, but it works, and it makes for an increasingly fun little story.
Final Girls, by Mira Grant
Posted on: April 24, 2017
- In: Mira Grant
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Final Girls, by Mira Grant
Available April 30th, 2017
where I got it: received review copy from the publisher (thanks Subterranean!)
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Mira Grant (also known as Seanan McGuire), is famous for her novels and series – the Newsflesh series, the October Daye series, and plenty of stand alones. Having read a small sample of her work, my opinion is that Grant’s talent shines brightest in her short fiction. Her new stand alone novella, Final Girls, can be enjoyed over the course of an afternoon. And trust me, you’ll only need the one afternoon to read this novella, because you won’t be able to put it down.
I wrote an entire page of notes just in the first 30 pages of this 112 page novella, and by the time I finished the story, all my notes were irrelevant because the story had twisted and turned in about hundred unexpected directions.
Esther Hoffman, a journalist who specializes in debunking quackery, has been assigned to do an investigative report on Dr. Jennifer Webb’s new methods of therapy. Dr. Webb uses dream therapy – her patients read about a horrific scenario in which they face their deepest fears, and then they are put into a hypnotic dream state where they dream the scenario and play it out to it’s conclusion. The person is physically perfectly safe, and a technician watches their vital signs to pull them out if anything dangerous happens. Ideally, the patient learns that they can, and will survive whatever hardships they’ve been facing, and that they can now move on and live a mentally healthier life.
At first blush, Final Girls feels like a cross between the movies Paprika and Inception. Except Esther brings plenty of baggage to Dr. Webb’s office, and Dr. Webb is only interested in seeing her name on research papers or a nobel prize. Dr. Webb convinces Esther that the only way she can honestly judge the quality of this new research is to do a session of therapy, and see how or even if it changes her thoughts. As Esther signs the release forms, you can practically see Webb’s ulterior motives in the corner of her toothy grin.
Lost Souls by Kelley Armstrong
Posted on: April 19, 2017
Lost Souls, by Kelley Armstrong (Cainsville series)
published March 31 2017
Where I got it: received ARC from the publisher. Thanks Subterranean!!
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These ongoing series are fantastic, aren’t they? Kevin Hearne’s Iron Druid series, Seanan McGuire’s October Daye series, Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files. You never run out of books to read!
On the downside, a huge series like that can be daunting for someone who hasn’t even started it yet. You mean I have to read 7 novels before the backstory starts up? You most certainly do not. Find yourself a short story or novella that takes place in that world as a “dipping your toes in”, as it were. Will you be reading things out of order? Yeah. Might there be spoilers? Yep! But, you’ll get a feel for if this is a world you want to invest more time in.
Kelley Armstrong’s first novel, Bitten, came out in 2001, and since then she’s written over 25 novels, primarily supernatural urban fantasy, but also mystery and a few books for kids.
Her newest novella, Lost Souls, is part of her Cainsville series, in which people are desperately trying to escape their past and live normal lives. This novella was my first first Armstrong (I know, right?), and I’m pleased to say I came out of it caring about these characters and wanting to keep their secrets safe. Even better news? If, like me, you haven’t read any of the Cainsville urban fantasy novels, this Lost Souls is a good jumping in point. Spoilers? Oh,sure, a few. But knowing the future is kinda fun, because when you go back and read the first two Cainsville novels, you’ll feel like you’re in on a big secret that no one else knows.
Aztechs, by Lucius Shepard
Posted on: May 5, 2011
Aztechs by Lucius Shepard
published in 2003
where I got it: library
why I read it: Author came highly recommended, this was the first title of his I came across.
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I first heard the name Lucius Shepard a few weeks ago. Since then, I’ve learned he’s been writing award winning scifi and sci-fantasy since the 1980’s, and is apparently once of science fictions best kept secrets.
Although much of his discography is out of print, much of his shorter works are available online, including Aztechs, available here for free. Hit up your local library (like I did), or start doing some downloading.
In this near future Mexico, a deadly laser fence locally known as El Rayo runs the entire US / Mexican border, sharing it’s name with the poverty stricken border town that runs it’s length. When he isn’t co-starring on his girlfriend Lupe’s loosely scripted and continually filming reality show, Eddie Poe makes his living running a security company. With Samurai drugs running rampant, there’s no shortage of brawlers, known as “Sammy”, and in a semi-lawless region of Mexico, there’s no shortage of contracts for Eddie.
In the last 10 years, a tech company called Aztechs has shown up, offering cheap tech to anyone who visits them. With offices in bizarre monuments out in the desert, the rumor is that Aztechs was founded by an escaped US born AI, who goes by the name Montezuma. Eddie’s latest contract is to escort the Aztechs representative, known as Zee, to meet with a local gangster family. Zee arranges for Lupe to film the entire thing, guaranteeing her a ratings boost when the world learns what Aztechs is willing to offer the right business partner. Montezuma is interested in creating a new country between Mexico and the US, putting the right family in charge of the whole thing, and throwing in immortality to sweeten the deal. Who could possibly refuse? Why would you want to? Imagine the possibilities!
the Little Red Reviewer 
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