5 Stellar, Interstellar Novellas
Words by Loviisa Pasternak
Science fiction novellas are taking the genre by storm. As a fervent lover of space operas, there is nothing I enjoy more than bite-sized stories with an abundance of drama and world-building. My attention span loves them, as does my annual reading challenge (short books are still books!). Here are a few sci-fi novellas, written by women, starring women and non-binary characters, and exploring themes of bodily autonomy, queerness, colonialism, capitalism, and environmentalism within high-concept, escapist storylines!
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
First up, the love of my life, All Systems Red by Martha Wells (144 pages). I re-read this series every year and fall further in love every time. It stars SecUnit, a human-bot construct tasked with security missions and owned by the Company. Generally, secunits are kept in line by their governor modules, who threaten death if their orders are not adhered to. This would be true for SecUnit as well, except it has hacked its governor module. Now, it can watch soap operas in its free time and it does its job, not because it has to, but because, well, it has grown rather fond of protecting humans. Especially these humans, who come from a non-corporate political entity and are rather naive when it comes to Company contracts.
I’ve done a lot of thinking about what exactly makes me love this series so much—with no exaggeration, my version of paradise would be an endless supply of Murderbot novellas narrated by Kevin R. Free. Is it the fast-paced action and snarky dialogue? The easy acceptance of queerness and polyamory? The happily ace and genderless main character? Is it the anti-capitalist, anti-colonial, and pro-humanity themes? Is it how those themes are explored with subtlety and nuance?
Perhaps it’s simply that I both identify with and aspire to be more like SecUnit. Its obsession with media rivals mine. It manages to be both anxious and badass without its anxiety coming across as unwarranted. It has issues identifying and feelings its own emotions, which—is anything more relatable than that? It claims to want to be alone, despite actually being most anxious when alone and appearing to prefer the company of other people—so long as those people are on its pre-approved list of tolerable individuals. It tells itself that it doesn’t care about anything while caring very deeply about many things—but it’s already annoyed with itself about this inconsistency, so you aren't allowed to be.
…Yeah, I’m starting to think it might be SecUnit itself that makes me love the series so much. Every installment has earned an enthusiastic five stars from me.
2. Full Speed to a Crash Landing by Beth Revis
The second book on this list is Full Speed to a Crash Landing by Beth Revis (192 pages). This romantic space opera is chalk-full of delicious tension. From the jump, the reader gets a creeping feeling that there’s a little more to our main character, Ada, and her motivations than initially meets the eye. She’s charismatic, she’s funny, she…just so happens to stumble across a government crew on a classified mission?
But Rian, our romantic interest, is no fool. He’s just as charming and just as clever as Ada and his intentions are just as hard to read. Who will come out on top in their twisty game of flirting, betrayal, and other space hijinks is anyone’s guess.
This book is the definition of fast-paced and high-stakes. It flies by in a blink—feeling, in some ways, more like Act I of a novel than a self-contained story, but maybe that’s just my impatience for book two talking! Other than how it cruelly left me craving more, I have no notes. Five stars.
3. The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older
Next up is The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older (169 pages). I’d categorize it as a murder mystery with a sapphic romance B-plot, but the two storylines are relatively well-balanced, so definitely go into this novella expecting both. Our main characters, Mossa and Pleiti, dated back in college, and the tension between them remains. In this future, humans have colonized Jupiter after completely destroying the Earth. Mossa is an investigator, and, at the start of the story, she tracks a missing person to an outpost of Jupiter. Pleiti, an academic researcher on the outpost, is doing the preliminary work to reconstruct Earth’s former ecosystems, with the long-term goal of making the planet inhabitable once again.
The atmosphere of this story is very unique and engaging. Though it is a futuristic science fiction, there are some almost-historical vibes. I believe this story to be intentionally Sherlockian, with an unmistakable Holmes/Watson dynamic between the two main characters. There is tea and crumpets and trains—granted they are inter-planetary trains, but still.
As far as the mystery plot itself, it is sufficiently high-stakes. I found this to be one of those mysteries that guides the reader along a pre-set track, rather than one with a lot of dramatic irony, in which the audience knows clues that the characters don’t, allowing the reader to piece together the mystery for themselves. This made the plot easy-to-digest, which I think was necessary, given the complexity of the sci-fi world-building within this novella-length piece. For me, this was a solid 4 star read.
4. To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers
To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers (153 pages) is one of the rare books that convinced me to change my initial rating a few months after reading it—primarily because months had passed and it was still on my mind! I gave it 3 stars at first, but it really deserved 4.
It was evidently very thought-provoking. Though it might not have been a perfect fit for my tastes, it is objectively an excellent novella, and I recommend it without hesitation. It made me think without making me frustrated or bored. It balanced science and emotion. The idea of future humans who, instead of creating terraforming technology, create technology that allows humans to adapt themselves for life on any planet is both original and very calming. Thinking of humans doing to space what we’re doing to Earth at present makes me very anxious, so I was glad to see a future in which we, as a species, had learned and grown.
The story is told through missives sent by Ariadne, one of the adaptable humans exploring space, back to Earth. This does lead to some telling over showing, but that makes sense given the structure. The plot is intriguing beyond words, all about the gathering of information for the sake of knowledge, rather than action. The ending is very ambiguous, with a major decision regarding the explorers being left up to the people of Earth.
If you like ambiguous endings, I think you’ll love it. I don’t usually like them, but even I was able to see that this one clearly did its job of making me think. Directly after reading it, I'll admit I was a little frustrated. The humanity of present-day is nothing like the humanity of this novella, so leaving the ending up to the reader’s discretion will likely lead to the reader imagining an outcome very different than the one this hypothetical future community of people, with its own inimitable background and experiences, would choose.
But in the end, I think it comes down to my goal as a reader not aligning with the author’s goal. I wanted to learn more about this fantasy world that the author crafted, whereas I think she wants the reader to critically analyze present-day humanity—and the ending is effective in accomplishing that goal. For a unique, oddly-peaceful, and captivating glimpse into our potential future, I recommend giving this novella a try.
5. Arch-Conspirator by Veronica Roth
Finally, Arch-Conspirator by Veronica Roth (112 pages) is a futuristic dystopia set in the last city on Earth. This is a retelling of Antigone, and, as a former theatre major, I can tell you that this adaptation is quite true to the main plot points and relationship dynamics of the original. The setting and intricacies of the political landscape, however, are very different.
The city revolves around the Archive, which stores the genetic material of all deceased humans. This DNA is used in reproduction, and it is believed that children birthed without using materials from the Archive will be born soulless. This society is full of “benevolent sexism” and many characters’ Madonna/Whore complexes run rampant. Women are valued for their uteruses and must be strictly protected (see: controlled) during their child-bearing years. Antigone and Ismene retain their character traits from the play, with both choosing different routes to survival in their oppressive society. Also similar to the play, Kreon is a military leader and sits on the throne of the city. He is an antagonist with many layers and is very much a product of and the quintessence of his problematic community.
You don’t have to read Antigone to read Arch-Conspirator, but I think a reader who is familiar with Antigone will have a different experience than a reader who isn’t. If you don’t know the story, I can imagine the sci-fi setting is an exciting one through which to watch the plot unfold. However, I also think it could be overwhelming. Arch-Conspirator packs an original, complex setting and culture that comments on present-day political issues on top of the many themes and characters already existing in Antigone. If you’re already familiar with the story, you’ll probably have more brain space to devote to appreciating the nuances of Roth’s take. Either way, I think you’ll get something from this novella. Like every book on this list, it does a lot in very few pages.
