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Nebula Review — the Novellas
The novella length is one of the strongest in science fiction (and to a lesser extent fantasy) right now. It’s perfect for commutes, when we have commutes again. The six novellas on the short list this year highlight this in many beautiful ways. Let’s take a look. (Some spoilers)
Tower of Mud and Straw by Yaroslav Barsukov
Originally published in Metaphorosis, this novella can’t quite make up its mind whether to be science fiction or fantasy. There’s no magic, only weird technology, but the world feels fantastic.
They’re building a huge tower to disrupt the weather so airships can’t fly across the border. To do so, they’re using anti-grav technology created by the alien Drakiri. Which, of course, isn’t exactly safe…and the Drakiri are convinced that if the tower is finished a gateway to Hell will open.
(It turns out that “Hell” is actually the place the Drakiri came from, which they left for a reason after some kind of apocalypse).
Beautifully written, “Tower of Mud and Straw” is about greed, hubris, and not listening to scientists. Kind of timely…