I can’t Find who started the Friday Five book blog meme. It seems to crop up in many different style such as “Five for Friday”, “Five on Friday” , “FridayFive Challenge”. I also can’t find a topic list like you would have for the Six on Sunday meme. Therefore I am just doing my own thing and setting my own topics just so I can chat books with you.
This weeks topic is:
Fantasy Novellas
I have previously done Sci-fi Novellas and thought it was about time for Fantasy to get a turn. Its also a holiday weekend in the UK this weekend which is the perfect time to clear a few short reads off of your TBR, or maybe add some more.
The October Man
Ben Aaronovich
Rivers of London
My Review
While this is part of the series The Rivers of London, it doesn’t follow Peter Grant instead taking us to Germany. its a great place to dip into the series to see if you might enjoy it as it operates a little like a standalone.
About the book:
Trier is famous for wine, Romans and for being Germany’s oldest city. So when a man is found dead with his body impossibly covered in a fungal rot, the local authorities know they are out of their depth.
Fortunately this is Germany, where there are procedures for everything.
Enter Investigator Tobias Winter, whose aim is to get in, deal with the problem, and get out with the minimum of fuss, personal danger and paperwork. With the help of frighteningly enthusiastic local cop, Vanessa Sommer, he’s quick to link the first victim to a group of ordinary middle aged men – and to realise they may have accidentally reawakened a bloody conflict from a previous century. But the rot is still spreading, literally and with the suspect list extending to people born before Frederick the Great solving the case may mean unearthing the city’s secret magical history.
. . . so long as that history doesn’t kill them first.
Every Heart a Doorway
Seanan McGuire
The Wayward Children #1
The whole wayward series is great. They flip between those set in our world and those set in other worlds and they have such good rep. Really entertaining reads.
About the book:
Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children
No Solicitations
No Visitors
No Quests
Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere… else.
But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children.
Nancy tumbled once, but now she’s back. The things she’s experienced… they change a person. The children under Miss West’s care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world.
But Nancy’s arrival marks a change at the Home. There’s a darkness just around each corner, and when tragedy strikes, it’s up to Nancy and her new-found schoolmates to get to the heart of the matter.
No matter the cost.
The Witches of Lychford
Paul Cornell
Lychford #1
This is a really fun take on urban fantasy, a mix of modern setting with witchcraft and the fae.
About the book:
The villagers in the sleepy hamlet of Lychford are divided. A supermarket wants to build a major branch on their border. Some welcome the employment opportunities, while some object to the modernization of the local environment.
Judith Mawson (local crank) knows the truth — that Lychford lies on the boundary between two worlds, and that the destruction of the border will open wide the gateways to malevolent beings beyond imagination.
But if she is to have her voice heard, she’s going to need the assistance of some unlikely allies…
A spindle splintered
Alix E. Harrow
Fractured Fables #1
My Review
A really interesting retake on the sleeping beauty myth, with multiverse aspects. So a little bit fantasy a little bit sci-fi
About the book:
It’s Zinnia Gray’s twenty-first birthday, which is extra-special because it’s the last birthday she’ll ever have. When she was young, an industrial accident left Zinnia with a rare condition. Not much is known about her illness, just that no one has lived past twenty-one.
Her best friend Charm is intent on making Zinnia’s last birthday special with a full sleeping beauty experience, complete with a tower and a spinning wheel. But when Zinnia pricks her finger, something strange and unexpected happens, and she finds herself falling through worlds, with another sleeping beauty, just as desperate to escape her fate.
A psalm for the wild built
Becky Chambers
Monk and Robot #1
My Review
Ok this one is Sci-fi but the slow pace and lushious descriptions gives its a real fantasy feel. This is just beautiful throughout.
About the book:
Centuries before, robots of Panga gained self-awareness, laid down their tools, wandered, en masse into the wilderness, never to be seen again. They faded into myth and urban legend.
Now the life of the tea monk who tells this story is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of “what do people need?” is answered. But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how. They will need to ask it a lot. Chambers’ series asks: in a world where people have what they want, does having more matter?
Do you have any fantasy Novellas you recommend.
I would love to chat all things bookish with you! You can comment down below or find me on Twitter or Goodreads!
Happy Reading!
Fi's Bibliofiles 
Great post, Fi. I’ll have to think about this one to see what comes to mind.
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