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novella

Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi

July 31, 2020 by Zannah Leave a Comment

Started: 7/29/20
Finished: 7/31/20

I don’t know exactly how to talk about this book.  It’s about black kids with powers, set in the real world, with the backdrop of Rodney King and Watts and police brutality and the prison system, and it’s HARD.  And it’s good.

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Posted in: What I've Been Reading Tagged: ebook, novella, powers, SF, source: the world, source: Tor.com

Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom by Ted Chiang

July 19, 2020 by Zannah Leave a Comment

Started: 7/19/20
Finished: 7/19/20

Fascinating near-future story with tech that allows you to communicate with yourself in a parallel universe, which is really cool, but it’s about free will and how people use that tech to make decisions, to justify their actions.  The tech is just the next thing (but it’s a very cool next thing to consider).

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Posted in: What I've Been Reading Tagged: ebook, Hugo nominee, Hugo packet, novella, SF, source: Hugo Awards, tech

The Deep by Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes

July 19, 2020 by Zannah Leave a Comment

Started: 7/18/20
Finished: 7/19/20

This novella was inspired by the song The Deep (by clipping.), which I haven’t listened to yet.  The premise is that the pregnant and going-into-labor slaves who were thrown overboard midocean (true) gave birth to mer-people (probably not true) who built a whole civilization and society around a historian who remembers everything so that the rest of them don’t have to.  The story is mostly about the current historian who is having difficulties with this burden, but it also goes back into the memories.  It’s very good.

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Posted in: What I've Been Reading Tagged: ebook, fantasy, Hugo nominee, Hugo packet, mer-people, novella, source: Hugo Awards

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djeli Clark

July 18, 2020 by Zannah Leave a Comment

Started: 7/16/20
Finished: 7/18/20

Supernatural detectives in a supernatural version of 1912 Cairo with sky trams and djinn and women’s suffrage as a backdrop.  I would read a whole series about this.

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Posted in: What I've Been Reading Tagged: ebook, fantasy, Hugo nominee, Hugo packet, magic, novella, period, source: Hugo Awards

This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

July 15, 2020 by Zannah Leave a Comment

Started: 7/12/20
Finished: 7/15/20

I had heard nothing but wonderful things about this one, but the one time I tried a Max Gladstone book, I couldn’t get into it.  That turned out to apply to this novella, too, even though he had a co-author.  The premise is really cool, but I seriously considered just putting it down and walking away.  The writing was not working for me.  I got involved eventually, and I think I liked it…?   Interesting, but not really my speed.

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Posted in: What I've Been Reading Tagged: ebook, Hugo nominee, Hugo packet, Hugo winner, novella, SF, source: Tor.com, time travel

To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers

July 12, 2020 by Zannah Leave a Comment

Started: 7/8/20
Finished: 7/12/20

Astronauts doing science!  Science fiction, but heavy on the science, and oh so optimistic.

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Posted in: What I've Been Reading Tagged: ebook, Hugo nominee, Hugo packet, novella, SF, source: trusted author, space

In An Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire

July 8, 2020 by Zannah Leave a Comment

Started: 7/5/20
Finished: 7/8/20

Fourth in the Wayward Children series, this one takes one of our characters back in time to when she found her door.  It’s so good, and the ending is so sad.  It felt sadder than the others, but I’m not sure why – they’re all sad stories because they can’t find their way back to where they feel they belong.  I should re-read the first one, at least.

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Posted in: What I've Been Reading Tagged: ebook, fairy, fantasy, Hugo nominee, Hugo packet, novella, source: trusted author, Wayward Children

Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh

March 27, 2020 by Zannah 2 Comments

Started: 3/26/20
Finished: 3/27/20

A Green Man story, but completely different from any other Green Man story I’ve ever read.  Really good, and it has a sequel…which isn’t out yet, but it’s due out in June!  And there are only supposed to be two, so anyone worried about getting stuck in the neverending wait that comes with a new series can stop worrying.

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Posted in: What I've Been Reading Tagged: ebook, fantasy, Green Man, Greenhollow Duology, Hugo nominee, magic, novella, source: Tor.com

The Lost Sisters by Holly Black

February 2, 2020 by Zannah Leave a Comment

Started: 2/1/20
Finished: 2/2/20

A novella about the main characters of the Folk of the Air trilogy, set between the first and second books. Nice to have part of the story told from the point of view of the other sister.

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Posted in: What I've Been Reading Tagged: ebook, fairy, fantasy, library, novella, source: trusted author, The Folk of the Air, YA

The Days of Tao by Wesley Chu

October 2, 2019 by Zannah Leave a Comment

Started: 10/1/19
Finished: 10/2/19

I chose this novella deliberately as something I knew I would like, since I gave up on the last four books I tried to read.  Imagine my relief to find I still like this universe and could enjoy this story.  Yay for this series!

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Posted in: What I've Been Reading Tagged: aliens, ebook, novella, SF, source: trusted author, Tao

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

July 24, 2019 by Zannah Leave a Comment

Started: 7/18/19
Finished: 7/24/19

This is the second novella in the Murderbot Diaries series, and it’s so great!  Poor Murderbot.

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Posted in: What I've Been Reading Tagged: ebook, Hugo nominee, Hugo packet, Murderbot Diaries, novella, robot, SF, source: trusted author

Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach by Kelly Robson

July 14, 2019 by Zannah Leave a Comment

Started: 7/8/19
Finished: 7/14/19

I was just getting into the swing of things when it ended!  That’s the problem with novellas, I suppose.  Good story, but there’s a lot about the world and their mission that I didn’t completely follow.  I care enough to wish I could find out more, but that also means I’m a little disappointed in it.

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Posted in: What I've Been Reading Tagged: ebook, Hugo nominee, novella, post-apocalyptic, SF, source: Hugo Awards

The Unkindness of Ravens by Abra Staffin-Wiebe

May 10, 2019 by Zannah Leave a Comment

Started: 5/7/19
Finished: 5/10/19

A good novella, interesting magic. The story is the member-of-nobility-hides-with-the-common-people-and-learns-a-lesson type, but it’s done well.

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Posted in: What I've Been Reading Tagged: ebook, fantasy, gods, magic, novella, source: Tor.com, Trickster's Mark

The Black God’s Drums by P. Djèlí Clark

April 9, 2019 by Zannah Leave a Comment

Started: 4/7/19
Finished: 4/9/19

Steampunk fantasy novella set in post-Civil War New Orleans.  I’m not always a fan of stories that use gods to fuel the magic system (capricious gods that act like children annoy me), but I liked it this time.  Details built an alternate New Orleans without a lot of exposition, and the characters were well done.

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Posted in: What I've Been Reading Tagged: ebook, fantasy, gods, novella, source: Tor.com, steampunk

The Test by Sylvain Neuvel

March 23, 2019 by Zannah Leave a Comment

Started: 3/23/19
Finished: 3/23/19

Really good novella set in the near-enough future about a super-messed up citizenship test.  Good and disturbing – the good kind of disturbing.

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Posted in: What I've Been Reading Tagged: ebook, novella, SF, source: Tor.com, tech

Galactic Mandate: The Scream by M.R. Richardson

January 30, 2019 by Zannah Leave a Comment

Started: 1/30/19
Gave up: 1/30/19

I gave up on this one almost immediately.  The writing was bad. Very bad.  I couldn’t make myself continue, even for a clone story.

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Posted in: What I've Been Reading Tagged: clones, ebook, gave up, novella, SF, source: prep for Boskone

Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire

December 2, 2018 by Zannah 3 Comments

Started: 12/1/18
Finished: 12/2/18

Third in the Wayward Children series.  The first book set up the premise (which is great).  The second and third explore some of the worlds and follow some of the first book’s characters.  I still love these books, both for the ideas and the characters.  These are some real teenagers going through some real emotional issues.

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Posted in: What I've Been Reading Tagged: ebook, fantasy, novella, source: trusted author, Wayward Children

Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor

June 27, 2018 by Zannah Leave a Comment

Started: 6/26/18
Finished: 6/27/18

Third (last) in the Binti series, it’s an immediate sequel to the second one and doesn’t stand as well on its own, but it wraps up the trilogy nicely (and is still very good).

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Posted in: What I've Been Reading Tagged: African, aliens, Binti, novella, SF, source: trusted author, YA

Six-Gun Snow White by Catherynne Valente

June 26, 2018 by Zannah Leave a Comment

Started: 6/24/18
Finished: 6/26/18

This version of Snow White is Native American and lives in the American West, around the Gold Rush period.  It’s a neat way to look at the story, but I can’t say I really liked it.  It’s more a style issue than a story issue for me.

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Posted in: What I've Been Reading Tagged: fantasy, Hugo nominee, novella, source: trusted author

Ironclads by Adrian Tchaikovsky

June 24, 2018 by Zannah Leave a Comment

Started: 6/23/18
Finished: 6/24/18

Alternate history where the World Wars ended with the corporate takeover of countries and militaries, and a soldier is sent off to recover the son of a ruling businessman who was taken prisoner.  Good idea, but the pacing and the writing didn’t do it for me.

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Posted in: What I've Been Reading Tagged: alternate history, military, novella, SF, source: Sherwood Smith
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