Next up is a pair of novellas, one that ends a series and another that starts a series.
The series-ending one is from James S.A. Corey’s Memory’s Legion. I’d “realized” earlier that in the ebook world, novellas wouldn’t necessarily be collected, so I should just read them as standalone things. Well, oops: Turns out in this case, they did ultimately collect all the Expanse novellas into a single volume. And obviously I’d already read most of them, but there was one new story here, which is set after the end of the series and wraps up a loose thread. This volume was published after the TV series ended, and—intentionally or not—this loose end was introduced right near the end of the show, so this ends up feeling like a coda for both the books and the show. It’s not an essential story all by itself, but if you haven’t read any of the novellas, they’re definitely worth it.
The series-starting one is Courtney Milan’s The Governess Affair, which I guess is a prequel to some series about left-handed half-brothers. (If you didn’t realize this, as I didn’t at first, there’s a coda at the end that is confusing, as it’s setting up the rest of the series; sort of a Nick Fury post-credits scene.) As a prequel, the novella mostly focuses on the brothers’ parents. It’s a fairly straightforward story, as the length doesn’t give time for much in the way of complication, but if you want a quick-reading romance that is extremely focused on consent, here you are. But I don’t know how much it’s pulling me into reading the rest of the series—I don’t really care about these stupid kids, it’s their parents who were interesting, and their story is apparently done.
Comments