Reading roundup: the novella edition
Feb. 19th, 2021 07:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolorosa_12Last weekend I bought a batch of novellas in an attempt to lift my flagging spirits. It was definitely the right thing to do: I devoured all four books, and they certainly contributed a lot to improve my mood.
It sounds odd to describe Aliette de Bodard's 'Fireheart Tiger' as something that cheered me up: with a fantasy setting directly referencing pre-colonial Vietnam, and telling the story of a princess trying to navigate political tensions, stave off a colonising power, prove her worth to her emotionally abusive mother, and figure out how to handle the arrival of the woman with whom she previously had an affair at the head of the colonising country's delegation to her mother's court, this is not exactly a light and fluffy story. Like much of de Bodard's writing, the story imagines a world in which homophobia and sexism do not exist (jobs and the ability to hold positions of authority are not tied to gender, relationships and marriages between same-sex partners are as ubiquitous and unremarkable as those between heterosexual couples), but in which racism and colonialism play a major role. This is a well-crafted story of a woman clawing her way out of various abusive relationships, finding her voice, and getting her happy ending.
I think my favourite of the four novellas would have to be 'The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water' by Zen Cho. This was a rollicking, wuxia-inspired tale, set in a world resembling Malaysia immediately after World War II, about a band of hapless (and somewhat incompetent) outlaws, joined by a no-nonsense nun, and their various misadventures. As with all of Cho's work, it was laugh-out-loud hilarious — she is such a good writer of humour, and this novella sparkled with her characteristic wit.
'When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain' by Nghi Vo might give Cho's novella a run for its money in my affections. This story sees two human characters held hostage by a pack of shapeshifting tigers, and having to save their lives by telling an engaging story, much in the manner of Scheherazade. It's a sharp, pointed tale, with a meandering story-with-in-a-story that explores issues of memory, history, and the slippery nature of narrative. I really, really enjoyed it.
Last of this recent batch of novellas was 'The Drowned Country' by Emily Tesh, the second half of her Greenhallow fantasy m/m romance duology. Like the first book, I found this good, rather than great — I feel like the characters are underdeveloped (meaning it's hard to invest in their will-they-won't-they romance), and I feel like the central premise (that the supernatural sits uneasily next to the quotidian world, always threatening to break through in ways that evoke folk horror imagery) is also a bit underdeveloped. This was one of those novellas that I felt really would have been better as a full-length novel, although I'm not sure the author would have been able to sustain things for that long. I liked the setting, though — an obvious analogue for Whitby in England, complete with throwaway references to vampires — while at the same time feeling that the whole thing was a little unformed.
I'm currently reading the fourth Bridgerton book, but I'm finding it hard to stay motivated, possibly due to the characters in the central romance. I like Penelope, so it's not that I dislike her as a character (I've enjoyed her as a side character in the earlier books, and I like her friendship with Eloise), it's more that the central premise (a woman who for her time is viewed as an ancient, past-her-prime spinster at the age of 28, but finds love with the man she's had a crush on since she was a teenager) cuts close to the bone in ways that I don't find fun. (I don't mean that my relationship resembles hers in the slightest, but more that most of my early twenties were spent feeling deeply upset that all my friends were pairing up while I was eternally single. Obviously I now look back on those years with a lot of exasperation at myself, but the character's experiences and reactions remind me of the time of my life when I was most unhappy, which doesn't really endear the book to me.) I get that this kind of story is meant to be a sort of power fantasy for some women — but it doesn't read that way to me.
I suspect there will be more books to come this weekend.
It sounds odd to describe Aliette de Bodard's 'Fireheart Tiger' as something that cheered me up: with a fantasy setting directly referencing pre-colonial Vietnam, and telling the story of a princess trying to navigate political tensions, stave off a colonising power, prove her worth to her emotionally abusive mother, and figure out how to handle the arrival of the woman with whom she previously had an affair at the head of the colonising country's delegation to her mother's court, this is not exactly a light and fluffy story. Like much of de Bodard's writing, the story imagines a world in which homophobia and sexism do not exist (jobs and the ability to hold positions of authority are not tied to gender, relationships and marriages between same-sex partners are as ubiquitous and unremarkable as those between heterosexual couples), but in which racism and colonialism play a major role. This is a well-crafted story of a woman clawing her way out of various abusive relationships, finding her voice, and getting her happy ending.
I think my favourite of the four novellas would have to be 'The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water' by Zen Cho. This was a rollicking, wuxia-inspired tale, set in a world resembling Malaysia immediately after World War II, about a band of hapless (and somewhat incompetent) outlaws, joined by a no-nonsense nun, and their various misadventures. As with all of Cho's work, it was laugh-out-loud hilarious — she is such a good writer of humour, and this novella sparkled with her characteristic wit.
'When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain' by Nghi Vo might give Cho's novella a run for its money in my affections. This story sees two human characters held hostage by a pack of shapeshifting tigers, and having to save their lives by telling an engaging story, much in the manner of Scheherazade. It's a sharp, pointed tale, with a meandering story-with-in-a-story that explores issues of memory, history, and the slippery nature of narrative. I really, really enjoyed it.
Last of this recent batch of novellas was 'The Drowned Country' by Emily Tesh, the second half of her Greenhallow fantasy m/m romance duology. Like the first book, I found this good, rather than great — I feel like the characters are underdeveloped (meaning it's hard to invest in their will-they-won't-they romance), and I feel like the central premise (that the supernatural sits uneasily next to the quotidian world, always threatening to break through in ways that evoke folk horror imagery) is also a bit underdeveloped. This was one of those novellas that I felt really would have been better as a full-length novel, although I'm not sure the author would have been able to sustain things for that long. I liked the setting, though — an obvious analogue for Whitby in England, complete with throwaway references to vampires — while at the same time feeling that the whole thing was a little unformed.
I'm currently reading the fourth Bridgerton book, but I'm finding it hard to stay motivated, possibly due to the characters in the central romance. I like Penelope, so it's not that I dislike her as a character (I've enjoyed her as a side character in the earlier books, and I like her friendship with Eloise), it's more that the central premise (a woman who for her time is viewed as an ancient, past-her-prime spinster at the age of 28, but finds love with the man she's had a crush on since she was a teenager) cuts close to the bone in ways that I don't find fun. (I don't mean that my relationship resembles hers in the slightest, but more that most of my early twenties were spent feeling deeply upset that all my friends were pairing up while I was eternally single. Obviously I now look back on those years with a lot of exasperation at myself, but the character's experiences and reactions remind me of the time of my life when I was most unhappy, which doesn't really endear the book to me.) I get that this kind of story is meant to be a sort of power fantasy for some women — but it doesn't read that way to me.
I suspect there will be more books to come this weekend.
no subject
Date: 2021-02-19 08:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-02-21 05:47 pm (UTC)That being said, I can see how well-made audio book would work really, really well for Vo's book, since it's written in the manner of oral storytelling already.
I hope Vo keeps writing in this universe.
I totally agree! I've loved both the books so far. The humour and the practical, quick-thinking characters remind me of Cho's fiction, actually, even though the actual stories they're telling are very different.
no subject
Date: 2021-02-20 05:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-02-21 05:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-02-21 10:31 am (UTC)And I felt the same way about the Tesh novellas too -- I think the first one started out as an original work on AO3? I think sometimes writing that is sort of fic-based, even if it isn't fic, can have that underdeveloped quality, because the writer is relying so much on established tropes and settings. But this was an original setting, so it felt a bit thin. That said, I enjoyed both novellas very much, but I think they would have been better as novels.
(I feel like the Tor novella publishing machine is encouraging a lot of writers to do novellas that could have been either novels or long short stories....Jane Smiley, who wrote one of the most amazing novellas I've ever read, "The Age of Grief," said in an interview "a short story works sort of like a lightning strike, and I felt that I needed more time to develop the situations. But at the same time, I wanted to explore the feelings of the characters with greater focus than I thought I could in a novel." That kind of balancing of compression and exploration is tricky.)
no subject
Date: 2021-02-21 05:55 pm (UTC)I totally agree with you about the Tesh books — and about pull-to-publish m/m romance novels in general. I'm actually reading Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell, which started out as serialised original fiction published on AO3, and it has exactly that same quality: lots of emphasis on the relationship and two paired characters, and everything else just like scaffolding to support that slow-burn relationship.
I feel like the Tor novella publishing machine is encouraging a lot of writers to do novellas that could have been either novels or long short stories.
You've absolutely hit the nail on the head here! I have very mixed feelings about Tor's dominance of the novella market (and, indeed, the way they basically manufactured a demand and a market for novellas overnight). Obviously it's quicker to edit and publish a novella (not necessarily quicker to write, but once it's out of the author's hands, things can move quicker), and I suspect they don't have to worry quite so much about releasing a novella at a set time of year that doesn't conflict with other works coming out (whereas with novels publishing companies have this whole complicated schedule). So they can churn more novellas out, pay authors less (or I guess spread the costs of one novel across multiple novellas) — but still charge readers an arm and a leg. Tor novellas are generally really expensive, often more than I'd be prepared to pay for a novel. So obviously it's very lucrative for Tor, but I have mixed feelings about the whole thing.