Novellas are my new greatest love. I already did one post covering Of Dragons, Feasts and Murder by Aliette de Bodard, The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo, A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djèlí Clark(which I now realize is a short story) and This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. Novellas work really well with my nonexistent attention span this year.
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 returns to the alternate Cairo of Clark’s short fiction, where humans live and work alongside otherworldly beings; the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities handles the issues that can arise between the magical and the mundane. Senior Agent Hamed al-Nasr shows his new partner Agent Onsi the ropes of investigation when they are called to subdue a dangerous, possessed tram car. What starts off as a simple matter of exorcism, however, becomes more complicated as the origins of the demon inside are revealed.
P. Djeli Clark quickly made his way into my top authors list, with his alternate history clockwork + djinn in Cairo setting. I love new interesting settings, and this one is just great. The premise is that a scholar managed to open the way for Djinn to come into our world, and the knowledge they came with allowed the Egyptians to overthrow the British much sooner, and we see Cairo as a thriving steampunk city.
The first story in the series, a Dead Djinn in Cairo, is a murder mystery that includes clockwork Angels. The second book follows a different investigator sent to check out a haunted tram car. I think you could probably read this one without having read the first, but they’re quick reads, so might as well start at the beginning. There will also be a full-length novel coming and I cannot wait.
The Haunting has a lot of dealing with bureaucracy, tight budgets, and having to get very creative with investigating and ghost banishment techniques. It was a lot of fun. There’s also the dynamic duo of bright-eyed newbie working with a veteran in the field. And it’s all set on the background of the Women’s Suffrage movement. I missed the main character from book 1, but I really liked all the new characters that were introduced, so for once I got over myself very quickly about the PoV change.
r/fantasy Bingo: Number in Title, r/Fantasy Book Club
BLM Bingo: HIGH PRIESTESS: mystery, TOWER: building or structure on the cover, WORLD: set in a country that’s not your own
Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh
There is a Wild Man who lives in the deep quiet of Greenhollow, and he listens to the wood. Tobias, tethered to the forest, does not dwell on his past life, but he lives a perfectly unremarkable existence with his cottage, his cat, and his dryads.
When Greenhollow Hall acquires a handsome, intensely curious new owner in Henry Silver, everything changes. Old secrets better left buried are dug up, and Tobias is forced to reckon with his troubled past—both the green magic of the woods, and the dark things that rest in its heart.
I loved this. Come for the sweet romance, stay for the kickass mum.
This novella is based on the Green Man myth, of a dude being some sort of forest spirit. So the story is told from the PoV of loner-buff-dude, living in a mysterious forest, in his small, maybe magical, cottage. His life is disturbed by Henry Silver, moving into the house that the forest “belongs” to. Henry’s a bit of an airhead dandy, and he’s very into Tobias. It’s super cute.
I was mightly surprised by the story itself because it did not end up being a sweet, chill romance. There was a lot going on in the second half, things got pretty dark. We also meet my favorite character in the form of a kick-ass no-nonsense taking older lady.
I really enjoyed the setting, the old forest was very easy for me to picture, and for some reason, now as I’m typing the review, the memories are coming with a sound track as well. I didn’t listen to any music while reading this. I guess I’m just weird. Anyhow what I meant to say was that I thought it was a great example of using a familiar setting and tropes to tell an unexpected story.
r/fantasy Bingo: Colo(u)r in the Title, A Book that Made You Laugh, Romantic Fantasy / Paranormal Romance
The Deep by Rivers Solomon with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, Jonathan Snipes
The water-breathing descendants of African slave women tossed overboard have built their own underwater society—and must reclaim the memories of their past to shape their future in this brilliantly imaginative novella inspired by the Hugo Award nominated song “The Deep” from Daveed Diggs’ rap group Clipping.
Yetu holds the memories for her people—water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners—who live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly, is forgotten by everyone, save one—the historian. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu.
Yetu remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. And so, she flees to the surface, escaping the memories, the expectations, and the responsibilities—and discovers a world her people left behind long ago.
Yetu will learn more than she ever expected to about her own past—and about the future of her people. If they are all to survive, they’ll need to reclaim the memories, reclaim their identity—and own who they really are.
Inspired by a song produced by the rap group Clipping for the This American Life episode “We Are In The Future,” The Deep is vividly original and uniquely affecting.
I was convinced I shouldn’t read The Deep because it was too dark for me and I wouldn’t like it. I mean, it’s about a race of mermaids born of pregnant women thrown overboard to their deaths from slaver ships. That’s some horrible starting premise, and I tend to stay away from books based on real life horrors. I ended up loving the book, because it’s so well done, and the focus isn’t actively on the trauma of the past, but on dealing with it and how it affects future generations. I really liked how it explored the effect of past generational trauma on a community.
There’s an afterward in the audiobook, which I highly recommend, in which Daveed Diggs explains how great it was that Rivers Solomon told a such a personal story in this super interesting setting that they had thought up, and I loved how that story talked about how history and memory are such an important part of identity.
I’d been putting it off because I thought it would be grim, but while it is harsh and often about pain, the story itself had enough hope for me to enjoy it. The story is very tied into the history because the main character is her people’s memory keeper, and she’s struggling to deal with that, and also chafing against her constraints.
r/fantasy Bingo: Graphic Novel or Audiobook
BLM Bingo: MARTYR: change, surrender or letting go, JUSTICE: basedon or inspired by real life injustice, MOON: explore mental health, DEVIL: book you’ve been putting off
Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi
Rooted in foundational loss and the hope that can live in anger, Riot Baby is both a global dystopian narrative an intimate family story with quietly devastating things to say about love, fury, and the black American experience.
Ella and Kev are brother and sister, both gifted with extraordinary power. Their childhoods are defined and destroyed by structural racism and brutality. Their futures might alter the world. When Kev is incarcerated for the crime of being a young black man in America, Ella—through visits both mundane and supernatural—tries to show him the way to a revolution that could burn it all down.
A very timely novella, if it hadn’t been published in January I would’ve said it was written this June, but the author had a lot of previous examples of police brutality to draw from. Another book that I wouldn’t have normally read as it’s deeply rooted in real-world, everyday horrors, and I know being removed from them, both racially and geographically is a privilege I have. I can finish the book and put it away and not have it affect me in my daily life. This is not a book I can say I enjoyed, with it being so harsh and dark, but I thought it was very well written. The story is told through short vignettes, painting a picture that shifts from bright future and potential to grim present, and then to dystopian near-future. I think its a mark of a good dystopia how plausible it is, how small the changes, and how easy it is to imagine the current world slipping there. The mindset seems to be already here, the tech is just a little bit behind.
r/fantasy Bingo: Novel Published in 2020,
BLM Bingo: MARTYR: change, surrender or letting go, JUSTICE: basedon or inspired by real life injustice, EMPRESS: mother MC or mother-child relationship
Penric’s Demon by Lois McMaster Bujold
On his way to his betrothal, young Lord Penric comes upon a riding accident with an elderly lady on the ground, her maidservant and guardsmen distraught. As he approaches to help, he discovers that the lady is a Temple divine, servant to the five gods of this world. Her avowed god is The Bastard, “master of all disasters out of season”, and with her dying breath she bequeaths her mysterious powers to Penric. From that moment on, Penric’s life is irreversibly changed, and his life is in danger from those who envy or fear him.
I’ve been meaning to start this novella series since forever, and reading the first book was, as expected, a complete joy. I didn’t know anything going in, so I laughed out loud when we met Desdemona. A light, fun, short, read.
It’s set in the familiar world of the five gods, from The Curse of Chalion, but this novella in particular is a lot more focussed on the gods part of the world as Penric gets drawn into the religious world.
The characters are just great, Penric’s cheerful friendly approach to demonology confuses the church but it seems to be going great for him. The demon from the novella’s title is also lots of fun, I really like it when an ancient being still has curiosity and a sense of humor.
It’s short and sweet, and little getting to know everyone, a little mystery, a little danger, a little adventure, I’m looking forward to continuing this series, it seems like the novellas work as great pick me ups between slower or sadder books.
r/fantasy Bingo: Optimistic, A Book that Made You Laugh
My sister and I just did a buddy read of Silver in the Wood. “Come for the sweet romance, stay for the kickass mum.” haha I agree with that!
I’m really looking forward to the sequel, in no small part to see whether she makes a comeback.