Three Novellas!

Posted on August 27, 2024 at 6:34 am by Gene Ambaum

The Fireborne Blade by Charlotte Bond. Tordotcom, 2024. 9781250290311. 167pp.

I love the cover of this book, and there seem to be shelf talkers praising it at every bookstore I visit (and it holds up to the hype). It’s the story of a female knight, Maddileh, out to regain her honor by claiming a legendary sword, the Fireborne Blade, from the lair of a dragon. Accompanying her is a page who seems a little…off. This is a quick, original take on the dungeon crawl (though it’s a cave here); alternating chapters recount historic encounters between knights and dragons.

We Speak Through The Mountain by Premee Mohamed. ECW, 2024. 9781770417335. 145pp.

This sequel to Mohamed’s post-apocalyptic novella The Annual Migration of Clouds follows Reid as she enrolls in a university filled with technology and resources (and hidden from the rest of the world). Her relationship with the parasite that infects her changes because of the university’s medical tech. I loved seeing her and other students from the outside deal with the realities of life with technology and enough to eat, though it lacks many things, too.

I really hope there’s another book or three coming in this series. This is my favorite novella of the year, but if it sounds good to you, start with the first book in the series.

The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht. Tor.com, 2019. 9781250225689. 160pp.

This book has so much I enjoyed: a murderous immortal, an outlaw wizard, a polluted coastline straight out of Miéville’s New Crobuzon, dark legends, mutant sea creatures, bloody violence, and a fallen city that’s either about to rise again or is where the end of the world will begin. There’s an unlikely “romance” of sorts, too, if that’s your thing, as well as a horrific plague. I enjoyed every page of this novella, and I can’t believe I missed it when it was published.