Novella

Book #3 in T. Kingfisher’s Sworn Soldier series, What Stalks the Deep features a great premise of mysterious occurrences and a disappearance at a long abandoned mine in the rural West Virginia countryside. Those that have been keeping up with the series should know what to expect, namely its frank and sarcastic narration courtesy of sworn soldier Alex Easton, a good sense of ambiance, and a grounded approach to paranormal horror beings. Compared to the previous two entries, this one feels like it has snappier pacing and a style that leans more towards a mystery thriller vs foreboding horror. While generally interesting and an overall quick read, I personally found this one to be less stylistic and atmospheric than the previous two books and the series in general, giving me diminishing returns with each new entry. Picking up a year or so after the events of the second book What Feasts at Night, What Stalks the Deep sees Alex Easton and Angus reunited with the American surgeon Dr. Denton, investigating the disappearance of his cousin Oscar in a poorly charted mine inherited by their family. While the eccentric mycologist enthusiast Miss Potter was the popular scene-stealer of What Moves the…

Ethereal poetry paired with a simple yet elegant fantasy story, Amal El-Mohtar’s novella The River Has Roots is an enchantingly read akin to a modern fairytale. Beautifully written with an air of sophistication, what this novella lacks in world-building detail given the book’s length it makes up with in poetic metaphors that are both dreamy as well as intelligent; notably a long-running comparison of the rules of grammar compared to the powers of magic being both creative and effective. (On Goodreads, a 4.5 star rating rounded down) Presented in a hybrid second- and third-person perspective, the tone of the narration paired with the reflective and introspective nature of El-Mohtar’s tale makes this a noteworthy book unlike anything I’ve read in quite some time. The strategic shifts to second person tense and the whimsical sense of wonder really pulls you into the story as if it’s being told by a bard or philosopher. Besides the well-balanced and beautiful prose, the book is filled with poetic stanzas and clever wordplay riddles that would make an English literature or grammar student thrilled; this novella has brains behind its beauty. As far as the story is concerned, it’s one that is appropriately detailed in…

Entry #4 in Martha Well’s Murderbot Diaries series, by this point you’re likely a devoted fan of the series and should have a pretty good idea of what to expect; Murderbot’s sarcastically dry and witty humor, a healthy balance of thriller and political scheming plot, and good ol’ high sci-fi goodness. While the abbreviated novella format continues to limit the amount of worldbuilding and concurrent storylines Wells can run with simultaneously, Exit Strategy is by far the most serialized story yet and one of the most cohesive. Referencing and tying together all of the first three novella’s narratives, Exit Strategy is easily the most balanced entry that finds a happy medium between Artificial Condition’s undercover stealth movements and Rogue Protocol’s more action thriller flavor. Additionally, this novella also utilizes every narrative plot thread featured in the past three stories, filling in the previous gaps and question marks Murderbot and the reader experiences as the scope of the series and bigger picture takes to shape. Exit Strategy’s story feels like a direct sequel to the first novella All Systems Red while the other two novella’s stories add context and larger ramifications for Dr. Mensah and Murderbot’s ongoing survival. However, with only…

Entry #3 in Martha Wells’ Murderbot series, Rogue Protocol continues the series’ perfect formula of a great action adventure with snappy and sarcastic humor. While I found the previous entry Artificial Condition to be a bit slow and a tad heavy with its setup, Rogue Protocol felt like a welcome return to All Systems Red’s more ideal balance with a more extensively developed plot that connected back to the series’ loose overall narrative. At this point it goes without saying that the tone and humor of the series is pitched perfect for me and something I don’t really need to spend much time on (I would assume if you’re reading this review you must be familiar with the series or my past reviews unless you’re one of those chaotic and unhinged mid-series readers). Murderbot’s character voice and narration is always a joy, yet somehow Wells manages to one-up herself yet again: There needs to be an error code that means “I received your request but decided to ignore you.” Then there was Asshole Research Transport. ART’s official designation was deep space research vessel. At various points in our relationship, ART had threatened to kill me, watched my favorite shows with…

After the largely self-contained All Systems Red, the second novella in Martha Well’s Murderbot Diaries series Artificial Condition had a lot to cover within <160 pages. As the sequel in a now extended series, this novella needed to function both as a standalone story as well as a transitional piece for the rest of the series. While it ultimately accomplished both tasks, I personally found Artificial Condition to be slower and less exciting to read compared to All Systems Red (still a great overall read however). While All Systems Red featured functional, albeit limited world-building that was just enough to be functional for its story, Artificial Condition greatly expands on the Murderbot universe and spends most of its first half setting the scene for what’s to come later in the series. This story introduces several new types of bots, expands the scope of the series to other stations and moons, and introduces new characters for the hilariously dry and sarcastic Murderbot to interact with. One of my favorite elements of All Systems Red was Martha Well’s great sense of humor and witty dialogue. Artificial Condition continues the humor and cranks it up a notch with the introduction of ART. Murderbot…