From Halloween on October 31 through New Years Day on January 1, we’ve hit peak holiday season in the United States. It’s a hectic slide to the end of the year, one full of holidays, events, finals, and, if you’re lucky, a couple vacation days off. The last thing I have the energy for this month is some massive, overly complicated doorstopper of a series. I need something short, sweet, and to the point. So let’s celebrate November with five fantasy and science fiction novellas you might have missed when they first came out.

Flyaway by Kathleen Jennings

**(Tordotcom, 2020) **Nineteen-year-old Bettina Scott’s life is cloistered and suffocating. Her father is dead, her brothers are gone, and she feels trapped by her overbearing mother. That’s how many of the great fairytales start, right? With a lonesome young woman searching for love and finding only misery. One of those missing brothers reaches out through a cryptic note, and despite her mother’s discouragement, Bettina pursues the letter and letter-writer. At the end of the quest, she may learn the secrets of her past, but sometimes the truth hurts worse than the lie. Jennings’ gothic tale is lyrically lush and beautifully evocative. Set in a fictional small town in Western Queensland, it is a prime example of rural fantasy (as opposed to urban fantasy).

Stone and Steel by Eboni Dunbar

(Neon Hemlock Press, 2020) Several years ago, orphans Aaliyah and Odessa overthrew the corrupt king of the land of Titus. Odessa took the throne for herself and installed Aaliyah as the general of their new army. While Odessa established herself as ruler, Aaliyah was off fighting and killing, backing Odessa’s words up with blood and broken bones. Now Aaliyah is back in the capital, but their reunion isn’t a happy one. Turns out, Odessa may be just as cruel as the last guy. With the help of a former lover and current gangster, Mercy, Aaliyah must once again launch a revolution… or die trying. This was nominated for an Ignyte Award in 2021, and for good reason. With a creative magic system and compellingly messy sapphic relationship dynamic, it’s an excellent novella.

Another Life by Sarena Ulibarri

(Stelliform Press, 2023) Stelliform Press publishes books on “climate change, ecological destruction, and the effect of these issues on how we relate to each other and to the other beings that live with us in the world,” and anytime I want something interesting, weird, and environmentally focused, this publisher is where I start first. Ulibarri’s solarpunk novella begins in a not-too-distant future still mired in the past. In the settlement Otra Vida on the banks of the human-created lake in what was once Death Valley, Galacia is running for reelection as Mediator, or community leader. So when she discovers she’s the reincarnation of a man loathed by Otra Vida citizens for pushing a movement to abandon Earth for another planet instead of fixing the one they were destroying. The younger generation of Otra Vidans are also making matters more complicated for Galacia. With little sense of the history before and after their community was established, their calls to action feel too radical to some. Ulibarri offers no easy answers or quick condemnations; this is a novella full of questions the reader must grapple with about your personal actions and choices.

A Necessary Chaos by Brent Lambert

(Neon Hemlock Press, 2023) This was one of my favorite novellas of 2023, and I’ve spent the last two years haranguing people to read it. It’s This Is How You Lose the Time War meets action-adventure meets supernatural horror. Althus and Vade are on opposite sides of an espionage war. They’re also boyfriends. Every so often, they meet in a neutral place, party and hook up, then part ways. Vade is a corporate assassin while Althus fights for the rebellion. When a particularly violent act forces them to take sides once and for all, will they choose each other? And if they do, what happens to the war around them? This is a sexy, intense novella that feels like a snapshot of a much larger world. If you want worldbuilding you can sink into, Lambert is your guy.

Countess by Suzan Palumbo

(ECW Press, 2024) I hate to repeat myself but: this was one of my favorite novellas of 2024, and I’ve spent the last year haranguing people to read it. Palumbo remixes The Count of Monte Cristo with a queer Caribbean main character. In the colonial space empire Æerbot, Virika has worked her ass off to become a first lieutenant on an imperial cargo vessel. But when her captain is murdered, she’s blamed for it. While imprisoned, she plots her revenge, and when she finally gets free, she extracts that revenge with as much blood and pain as possible. This is a remarkable reclamation of a book often reproduced through the lens of whiteness even though the author, Alexandre Dumas, was Black. By centering the experiences of people colonized by the British in the West Indies, Palumbo is able to call out racism, colonialism, sexism, capitalism, and climate change.