★★★★☆ Things left unsaid

Buried Deep and Other Stories

Naomi Novik

Naomi Novik's Buried Deep and Other Stories is difficult to summarize, so let me begin by describing how it feels to read Novik. As I read I was reminded over and over of the feeling of reading Ursula K. Le Guin or Jane Austen. There was nothing specific that reminded me of those authors. (One of the stories is a Pride and Prejudice pastiche, but I never had the impression it was something Austen could have written.) Rather, it was the feeling of an intelligence both sharp and deep under the words. And more, one too canny to tell me everything, but who expected to be able to leave essential things unsaid, in the expectation that I would figure them out.

The stories are diverse. Most of them are fantasy, but at least one, a Sherlock Holmes pastiche focused on Irene Adler, is not. (Novik, by the way, argues that "[fantasy] is after all the superset of fiction, and not the other way around". Although she has logic on her side here, custom is against her.) Many of the stories are long. Several took me an hour apiece to read. I read about 400 words/minute, so an hour would be about 24,000 words.

Many of the stories are based on other works. I've already mentioned the Sherlock Holmes and Pride and Prejudice pastiches. The title story, "Buried Deep", is a retelling of the legend of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth from the point of view of Ariadne. The story "Spinning Silver" that inspired her novel of the same name is included, and there's a story about the Scholomance and two stories from the world of her Temeraire novels. In addition, there are several stories set in new worlds (or at least, worlds that were new to me).

This is a must-read for Novik fans. If you haven't previously read her, it would be a good introduction.

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