Following The Black Tides of Heaven, this novella follows the sister Mokoya instead of her twin. Where the previous story aimed outwards, the twin brother casting himself expansively towards various causes and cities, this one is very inward-focused, on Mokoya’s PTSD and her battle to understand her powers and come to terms with her own continued existence. I really liked how delicately the plot points were revealed, both to Mokoya and to the reader, and how other characters’ motivations were also given time to exist.
Tag: length-novella
The Black Tides of Heaven, by Neon Yang
First in a series: magic, prophecy, family guilt trips. I really liked the concept of a race whose gender is literally undecided until around when puberty hits, at which point they can choose to be male or female (or perhaps neither?), and their body will adapt to their decision. A pair of powerful twins need to figure out a path forward through political unrest, their manipulative and cruel mother, and their bond with one another. I like show-don’t-tell worldbuilding but this one was a little too vague sometimes.
Fireheart Tiger, by Aliette de Bodard
Novella, fantasy with court politics. Thanh was raised in the royal court as a political hostage; she is now back home, but her old flame, Princess Eldris of the neighboring predatory kingdom, is visiting with an eye towards alliance by marriage, or conquest, the same threat under a different name. Thanh eventually also makes friends with a fire spirit, whose history turns out to be tied closely with her own. Beautiful writing and a satisfying ending, but very flat characters.
The Citadel of Weeping Pearls, by Aliette de Bodard
A novella about a city that disappeared, and the rippling effects on the society and nobility of the warlike Vietnamese space empire from which it escaped. The tight focus on the characters is the strength of the story; the very human conflicts – betrayal, filial duty, thwarted ambition – keep the story moving, while political and military space action adds plenty of tension.
The Dawn Chorus, by Samantha Shannon
A little novella that deals patiently and unsparingly with the main character’s PTSD from being held and tortured; it makes a realistic bridge between the books where she engineers her release and when she plunges into action again. Does not stand alone well, relying as it does so heavily on preceding events, but I can see why it would have been cut from the main series – it’s much more slow and contemplative than the tense pacing of the main books.
When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, by Nghi Vo
It’s One Thousand and One Nights, except Scheherazade is Chih the nonbinary story-gathering cleric, King Shahryar is a trio of hungry tigers, and as long as Chih keeps telling a sufficiently interesting story, the tigers will not eat them or their mammoth-riding companion. The story that Chih tells is a historical one where a scholar and a tiger fall in love, except that the story as Chih knows it is not the one that the tigers tell to one another; the tension between the narratives that the different cultures tell each other, alongside the very different tension of whether or not Chih’s version will annoy the tiger enough that the tigers will finally just eat them, moved the story along really well.
Minor Mage, by T. Kingfisher
A really tight little novella, about a very minor mage and his very major quest. Great characters (especially the armadillo familiar), and a realistic nod to the kind of mob mentality that can turn a kid into a target.