It took me about ten years of reading Science Fiction and Fantasy novels as an adult before I started to venture into the novella space. Since the short-form stories often don’t flow through traditional big publishers in the same way, most readers tend to move through the SFF genres without engaging with them much, which is a shame. Novellas are wonderful, and, when done well, represent powerful succinct stories that explore rich ideas and themes in tiny packages.
It can be intimidating trying to figure out where to start. The people I learned about novellas from had been in the space for such a long time that they didn’t have a strong grasp of what it looked like from the outside. As such, I thought I would put together a list of novella recommendations for anyone who is looking to step into the medium and isn’t sure where to start. A good novella, in my mind, is more than just a short book. It is a short story that understands its smaller page count and uses the boundaries to greater effect. I like novellas that have clear themes. I don’t want something that is a novel that been cut down, or the kernel of a greater story. When it comes to the best novellas to jump into, here are my top choices
Standalone Novellas
1) Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky – To me, this is the perfect novella and the ultimate showcase of what short-form storytelling can accomplish. Elder Race hits the sweet spot in recognizing the space it has to execute on its premise and does so with blinding flair. It tells a heartfelt tale that focuses on isolation, the meaning of life, communication barriers, and split perspectives all in a small package.
The core premise is a two-POV short story told by a scientist (Nyr) from a technologically advanced Earth and an evolved human (Lynesse) who no longer recognizes the science of their ancestors. When the story is seen from the scientist’s POV, the narrative is heavily based on science and technology. When the story is told from the descendant’s POV, everything is told from the lens of magic and mysticism. It is an extremely creative idea and it makes use of Tchaikovsky’s dual talent for both science fiction and fantasy, as well as his knack for telling two stories that explicitly foil one another. The insight into the old adage that ‘sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic’ is delightful.
2) The Seventh Perfection by Daniel Polansky – This story’s main gimmick is it is told from a second-person point of view, and it makes for a strange and fascinating tale. The Seventh Perfection tells the story of Manet, but you won’t know that for a while. Manet is a historian of sorts who has mastered the seven perfections. Each perfection represents a difficult skill, including things like perfect pitch and perfect memory. She is on a quest for a lost history of the world, and who knows what she will find?
While the story feels a little tried-and-true, Polansky’s narrative style breathes fresh life into the tale. Because the book is in the second person, we never actually get to hear our protagonist think or speak. The entire book is written in dialogue from people in conversation with Manet – and you never hear Manet’s side. Since the entire book is dialogue, the pace is lightning-fast. I was constantly in awe of how effortlessly Polansky managed to paint a vivid picture of the world, people, and story with only half of the dialogue in a conversation. It is a vivid experiment on how narrative structure can deeply influence your story, and the novella makes a perfect playground to see the opportunities of the 2nd person style.
3) This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar/Max Gladstone – Red and Blue are time-traveling super-agents from two separate futures. In one, a hyper-technological race of humans who have augmented themselves to be nearly wholly made up of machines have won and dictated the future. In the other, a hyper-advanced race of humans that has used biotech to augment themselves and their universe with what would be called “nature” if it weren’t used so unnaturally has won and dictated their future. The bulk of the story takes place as correspondence between these two agents at various points in the past and future as their paths overlap. What starts as a taunting letter to a respected foe eventually leads to a surprisingly touching and meaningful romance between the two. It is a powerful tale told through letters that coalesce around the idea that love and the future are inevitable.
The QTL team loves this novella. I could not imagine this story being made better by being longer or shorter than it was. Each individual vignette was poignant and beautiful. Each letter Red and Blue exchange buoyed my heart and broke it once more. I was blown away by each world visited, each timeline changed, and each trivial fact about their respective childhoods. What’s more, everything I just mentioned that I loved meant something. It was all important to the conclusion of the story and it was wrapped up in a way that literally had me audibly “wow”-ing on an airplane, earning me several suspicious looks from the man in the seat next to me. This story has become one of my few “yearly rereads” as each time I visit it I get more out of it. It is a powerful piece of art that could only exist in the form it occupies now.
4) The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw – Maybe all these bright and cheery stories aren’t quite doing it for you and you are looking for something a little darker. Maybe you want a touch of horror in your novellas. The Salt Grows Heavy is a novella about a mermaid and a plague doctor on a quest. The reasons for the quest are myriad – escape, vengeance, whimsey, exploration, fate, and more. In this way, Salt explores the nature of journeys and how the paths we take can take on many different forms and functions.
This novella lives and breathes the fairy tales it draws from, walking the line between whimsy and horror. Khaw doesn’t just focus on one or two stories to adapt and pulls on vibes from the many tales lionized by the Brothers Grimm. It succeeds by smashing the stories together, opening a portal to the fae realm, and letting you walk amongst its characters. The story also draws on the themes of everything it pulls from, distorting them slightly and turning the lens on the reader slightly. Khaw isn’t content with reproducing these stories and instead uses the space she has to explore who tells these kinds of stories and why they are reproduced to be consumed like candy. The Salt Grows Heavy is both “trick” and “treat,” and it sure is tasty.
5) The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson – Before The Emperor’s Soul got absorbed into Sanderson’s larger Cosmere, it existed as a wonderful little novella that is charming, witty, and proves that Sanderson doesn’t need 1000 pages to build a compelling world. It tells the story of Shai, a Forger, capable of rewriting the history of an object by stamping it with a Forger’s mark to copy it or give it a new identity. It’s a mini-heist story that hits on all of the rich elements of a good heist in interesting ways.
It results in a novella bursting with themes around ideas like the nature of fate vs. choice, authenticity, and deceit. What I like about The Emperor’s Soul is it is both easy and satisfying. This short is probably the closest to a traditional novel experience on this list, but it still showcases how a novella can trim the fat to explore an idea better in a shorter amount of space. For better or worse, it also now serves as a bigger jumping-off point in Sanderson’s Cosmere universe. Interestingly, I haven’t enjoyed any of the longer-form content I have read about the characters or the world, indicating that this novella really did the job right the first time.
Novella Series
Novella series can be especially hard to do, as some of them feel like subscription-based books more than short stories–even when that story is fabulous. The best novella series has a general through line like a main character, a setting, or a narrative structure–but each novella is perfectly self-contained with a strong independent idea. If you are looking for a novella series I recommend:
1) The Seven Swords by Anthony Ryan – An epic sword and sorcery fantasy that exists as seven short stories instead of ten one-thousand-page books, The Seven Swords is fabulous. This novella series tells the story of a party of adventurers seeking seven demon-bound swords that must be destroyed. Each book follows the core cast but tells a completely self-contained story about hunting down one of the infernal weapons. The throughline is the slow progression to ridding the world of all the evil weapons, but each novella tells a very unique tale with different lessons, worldbuilding, and themes that feel rich with story and lore. The result is a narrative that hits hard and loud in a very small package and is an incredibly easy place to break into novellas for more traditional readers.
2) The Singing Hills Cycle by Nghi Vo – The Singing Hills Cycle follows a wandering cleric protagonist, Chih of the Singing Hills, as they travel the world collecting myths, legends, stories, and rumors. Their companion is a powerful sentient bird who has a flawless memory and works as a living repository for stories. The series examines all the different ways myths and legends shape who people and cultures become, and the importance of myth at both a micro and macro level. Vo has paved the way and led by example on what a novella series should look like. These stories are self-contained vessels of polished themes with a powerful connecting thread that links them all together but doesn’t make them reliant on one another. The fifth installment of the series, The Brides of High Hill, comes out in May and once again continues the series’ storied tradition of absolutely killing it.
3) Forever Desert by Moses Ose Utomi – Mixing African fables and an exploration of the idea of truth, Moses Ose Utomi has crafted a new novella series that I love. So far there are only two entries in this novella series: The Lies of the Ajungo and The Truth of the Aleke (which comes out in March). Yet, I already think they represent one of the best novellas series I have encountered. Each of the two stories tells a fable-like tale about a protagonist in a city of propaganda setting out on a hopeless quest to save the world and learn the truth. Yet, their stories are very different and deeply intertwined. Each of these tales is a magical fable that tells a unique story, but they fit together like well-crafted puzzle pieces, and I can’t wait to see what the full puzzle reveals. There is a sort of vagueness, which is inherent to the nature of fables and myths, that works really well in novella form here. Utomi nails just the right amount of details to make all the events feel real and fleshed out, but keeps it mysterious enough that the ideas and characters feel flexible and resilient.
4) Under My Skin by K.J. Parker – This last entry is cheating a little bit, as Under My Skin, by K.J. Parker, is actually a collection of novellas all taking place in the same collective universe. Parker is a master of novellas, and even wrote one of the site’s favorites, Prosper’s Demon, which is included in this collection if you haven’t read it. This ever-delivering collection is 700 pages of hard-hitting novellas that center around the same theme explored in numerous different ways: conmen. Under My Skin sells a very special brand of magical snake oil that I have come to think of as Parker’s specialty. These stories are populated by con men who believe their own cons, good kings of dubious intent, magicians who don’t do magic, and messiahs who don’t offer redemption. In each of these stories, nothing is what it seems, and everything will surprise you. Parker’s unruly and unreliable narrators, who sometimes fool themselves even more than they fool us, stride along muddy paths through lonely hills or across marble floors in grand palaces, always finding trapdoors opening beneath them.
