The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water, by Zen Cho

[Single]

★★★☆☆ Honorable Mention

(Silkpunk) Tet Sang and his brothers aren’t really bandits, but the ex-nun they pick up in a tea-house brawl is definitely going to interfere with them delivering a “package” to an important client. (33,048 words; Time: 1h:50m)

See related articles on Tor.com.

The Ghosts of Sherwood, by Carrie Vaughn

[Single]

★★★★☆ Well worth the read, especially for Robin Hood fans.

(Robin Hood Pastiche) After 20 years, Robin is still a troublesome Baron, and his teenage kids take after him. But his kids are also a target for his numerous enemies. (18,489 words; Time: 1h:01m)

If you’re not familiar with the Robin Hood story, you’ll miss a lot of this. But if you wondered what became of Robin and his Merry Men, especially after Richard I died and John became king, this is for you. See related articles on Tor.com.

Out of Body, by Jeffrey Ford

[Single]

★★★☆☆ Honorable Mention

(Horror) After a head injury, Owen starts having out-of-body experiences when he dreams. He learns a lot he didn’t know about his local community, including things that threaten even a walker. (32,759 words; Time: 1h:49m)

Recommended By: 👍GTognetti+1 (Q&A)

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The Empress of Salt and Fortune, by Nghi Vo

[Single]

★★★★☆ Intricate and Moving

(Silkpunk) An elderly lady who was once handmaiden to the former empress tells a young monk the story of what really happened during the six years the empress was in exile. (21,205 words; Time: 1h:10m)

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Hearts of Oak, by Eddie Robson

[Single]

Not Rated Too Long to Qualify as Short Fiction

(SFF) A building has collapsed, and the King and his closest advisor (a talking cat), investigate. The chief architect realizes something is profoundly wrong, and not just with the building. (50,491 words; Time: 2h:48m)

At 50,491 words, this book is a novel, not a novella, even under the new rules for the Hugo Awards.

Finna, by Nino Cipri

[Single]

★★★★★ A love story, and adventure story, and a tale of finding yourself

(Multiverse Adventure) When a wormhole opens up in the furniture store where they work, teenage Ava and her non-binary ex are ordered to go in it to hunt for a missing customer. (25,710 words; Time: 1h:25m)

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Upright Women Wanted, by Sarah Gailey

[Single]

★★★★★ A Powerful Coming-of-Age Story

(Post-Apocalypse Dystopia) Esther needs to escape from a theo-fascist America before people find out she’s a lesbian, so she runs away with the women who run a travelling library, but they’re not what she thinks they are. (36,523 words; Time: 2h:01m)

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Prosper's Demon, by K.J. Parker

[Single]

★★★★☆ Devilishly Clever

(Fantasy Adventure) The narrator can cast out demons, but it can damage the host, and when he finds a demon possessing the greatest mind of his age, he hesitates. Particularly when it’s creating a great work of art. (20,702 words; Time: 1h:09m)

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Riot Baby, by Tochi Onyebuchi

[Single]

★★☆☆☆

(Dystopia) Born during the Rodney King riots, Kev struggles his whole life against structural racism that prevents him from living up to his potential. His sister Ella, gifted with enormous psionic powers, wants to help, but fears doing more harm than good. (35,471 words; Time: 1h:58m)

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Come Tumbling Down, by Seanan McGuire

[Single]

★★★☆☆ Honorable mention

(Portal Fantasy; Wayward Children) Jack returns from the Moors and begs her classmates to help her steal her body back from her sister before the Master can turn it into a vampire. (40,029 words; Time: 2h:13m)

To properly appreciate this story, you need to at least read Every Heart a Doorway, if not the rest of the Wayward Children series. See related articles on Tor.com.

The Lights Go Out in Lychford, by Paul Cornell

[Single]

★★★☆☆

(Modern Fantasy; Lychford) Autumn desperately tries to repair the barriers she accidentally dropped, but with Judith in the throes of dementia, she’s got no one to help her. And as Liz has discovered, something has already come through. (33,219 words; Time: 1h:50m)

This is the fourth novella in the Lychford Series, and you must read the earlier ones to make much sense out of this one. See related articles on Tor.com.

The Menace from Farside, by Ian McDonald

[Single]

★★★★★ Lots of Fun and Excitement Once It Gets Going

(Hard SF Adventure; Luna) A teenage girl from a very non-traditional lunar family leads her siblings on a dangerous adventure to see the first footprint on the moon. (32,317 words; Time: 1h:47m)

This story has a bit of a slow start, but there’s plenty of fun and excitement once the kids get out onto the lunar surface. This is a good way to get into the author’s Luna series, which includes a number of novels and short stories, because this story is a prequel and pretty much stands alone. See related articles on Tor.com.

Made Things, by Adrian Tchaikovsky

[Single]

★★★★☆ Good things come in small packages.

(High Fantasy; Made Things) Young Coppelia quietly helps a colony of tiny people made from wood and metal, but her regular job as a thief brings her into contact with a much larger problem that puts her and her friends at risk. (38,544 words; Time: 2h:08m)

Sisters of the Vast Black, by Lina Rather

[Single]

★★☆☆☆

(Space Opera) The Reverend Mother is fighting dementia and hiding a terrible secret; one of the nuns has lost her faith, another has fallen in love, and their living spaceship wants to reproduce. (34,938 words; Time: 1h:56m)

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Ormeshadow, by Priya Sharma

[Single]

★★☆☆☆

(Modern Fantasy) In 19th Century England, a boy and his family move from Bath to a sheep farm where his father grew up—a place said to lie atop a sleeping dragon. (32,576 words; Time: 1h:48m)

The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday, by Saad Z. Hossain

[Single]

★★★★★ Fun plot, great characters, cool setting

(Post-Apocalpyse Future Fantasy) Melek Ahmar, Djinn King and Lord of Tuesday awakes after thousands of years of imprisonment and sets out to take over the world. Or at least show the humans how to have a good party. (30,235 words; Time: 1h:40m)

The Ascent to Godhood, by JY Yang

[Single]

★★☆☆☆

(Silkpunk Epic) In which we learn Lady Han’s background and how she left the Protectorate’s service and joined the Machinist rebellion. (22,371 words; Time: 1h:14m)

This story depends heavily on the three before it and on the ones that (presumably) will come after. See related articles on Tor.com.

Desdemona and the Deep, by C.S.E. Cooney

[Single]

★★★★☆ A Fun Little Adventure across Three Worlds

(Portal Fantasy) When Desdemona’s wealthy father sacrifices some coal miners for a new source of oil, she decides to confront the Koboldkin King in the World Beneath the World Beneath. If she can even get there. Or get back. (41,028 words; Time: 2h:16m)

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The Border Keeper, by Kerstin Hall

[Single]

★★★★☆ Rich Characters, Plenty of Intrigue

(Portal Fantasy) Vansethe comes to the Border Keeper needing her help on a quest to the other world, but she’s a hard one to convince, and even with her help, he’s likely to get killed in the process. (40,120 words; Time: 2h:13m)

The Survival of Molly Southbourne, by Tade Thompson

[Single]

★★★☆☆

(Horror; Molly Southbourne) In this sequel, a clone of the original Molly tries to live a quiet life, but that’s not easy when people are looking for her and most of them want to kill her. (19,569 words; Time: 1h:05m)

You don’t need to read the original novella to appreciate this one, but if you read this one first, it will definitely spoil the earlier one. See related articles on Tor.com.