October is National Fantasy Month so we would like to take this moment to highlight some recently published fantasy novellas. The genre of fantasy has long been home to thick paperback books and series spanning several volumes. Short stories too have had wonderful and strange tales thanks to the likes of Fantasy Magazine and other literary collections. But what about the happy middle of stories that are not exactly long but also not quite short? Perhaps something on this list will suit your fancy.
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The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo is both part of The Singing Hills Cycle and a standalone story. To see if this was true, I picked up the latest book from the series and easily enough enjoyed this novella without reading any of the other books. Chih is a cleric, and in this setting, clerics are those who collect stories and archive them in their temples. While traveling, Chih has come to accompany a young bride to her wedding. Her family’s former glory as wealthy merchants has waned over the years. Meanwhile, the groom Lord Guo lives in luxury with residences in different parts of the country—a perfect match in the eyes of these families. When they arrive, however, a mysterious and disheveled young man spots the bride’s party meeting her soon-to-be husband. To Chih the man warns, “Tell her to ask him how many wives he’s had.” He promises those wives will not be found in the lord’s other residence. |
| Thornhedge is by the unique and versatile author Ursula Vernon under her pen name T. Kingfisher. In a fairytale-like setting, we meet Toadling, a fairy whose skin resembles the soft inner flesh of a mushroom and cries tears like runny ink caps. As the story has been told many times before, knights seek to rescue a princess from a tower, the very kind that Toadling guards. She has trapped herself within hedges familiar and accepted her lonesome fate. That is. Until a stubborn and awkward knight comes along. But like the grim tales that many beautiful fairy tales come from, this tower’s origins are not as pretty as the golden gilded books written about it. |
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Flowers of the Sea by Zin E. Rocklyn features Iraxi, who lives on a ship, stinking and bitter and pregnant. Much of the world has been swallowed by water as a result of a changing climate and most pregnancies don’t make it very far. As such, she is prioritized on this ship despite her crass attitude. In this world the creatures of the seas are far more monstrous, and the children born now have pupilless eyes with shifting colors unlike the humans that came before them. The pains of labor take up a significant portion of the story. This was an interesting read and might be a good fit if you enjoy a dark and vicious story. |
| This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar has been recommended to me again and again. For this very blog post, I finally took the time to read it! Some scifi is so magical and unexplained that it can also be considered fantasy. This is such a case. The story centers around the characters Red and Blue. Both are agents of wars fought through time, each so far removed from the concept of death that the dance between their sides feels more like a game than a battlefield. Through a series of scenes and exchanged letters, we discover the two rivals have gotten to know each other's work over time, enjoying the elusive sabotages they play in their enemy’s schemes. Some readers find it difficult to follow the story, which I can’t blame them for. The setting is constantly shifting and changing, jumping into alternate timelines at every shift in perspective. But it’s a fun bit of chaos for those who like that sort of thing. This was first recommended to me by a person who introduced their taste in books as someone who enjoys unique narratives styles. If this is your taste as well, you'll be pleased. |
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We hope you’ll take some time to celebrate National Fantasy Month with your library this October!
Zaivy Luke-Alemán is a clerk at the Grinton I. Will Library. She is a lover of fantasy and well–lived in worlds. They’ve also been a fan of shorter formats like live-action limited series and miniseries long before her recent dip into the realm of novellas.