Pulling the Wings Off Angels – KJ Parker

"'First,' said Florio the gangster, 'I'm going to cut off your nose and make you eat it.'" Upon racking up quite the impressive gambling debt, our protagonist - a clerical student who doesn't believe in God - is offered a deal: the debt will be wiped, but in return he's to hand over the angel …

Of Charms, Ghosts and Grievances – Aliette de Bodard

"Up until Asmodeus spoke up, it had been an uneventful day - or, at any rate, not more eventful than usual." I'm annoyed at myself at still not having got round to reading the Dominion of the Fallen series, but instead started with this series of novellas. I'm told that you can read them as stand alone, and …

Escape from Yokai Land – Charles Stross

"'I'm sorry, Bob,' says Dr Armstrong, 'but they asked for you specifically because Hello Kitty is a Londoner.'" Laundry Files main narrator, Bob Howard, is suspiciously absent during the events of The Nightmare Stacks (book 7 in the series) and in this novella we get to follow the side mission he was undertaking in Japan. Yokai …

Fugitive Telemetry – Martha Wells

"The dead human was lying on the deck, on their side, half curled around." The book comes with its own summary, far better than I could write, so here it is: When Murderbot discovers a dead body on Preservation Station, it knows it is going to have to assist station security to determine who the …

Exit Strategy – Martha Wells

"When I got back to HaveRatton Station, a bunch of humans tried to kill me." The Murderbot Diaries are by this point quite clearly one continuing story, so I'd have to suggest there's not much point reading this - novella, or review - unless you're up to date with the previous three installments. Go, I'll …

Rogue Protocol – Martha Wells

"I have the worst luck with bot-driven transports." By this point, we're quite clearly in an ongoing story, so not only will reading this review possibly have sort-of spoilers for the first two novellas (All Systems Red and Artificial Condition), but quite frankly those are so bloomin' good - as is the whole story so far …

Artificial Condition – Martha Wells

"SecUnits don't care about the news." If All Systems Red left you wanting more - and oh, did it! - then rejoice, because there's a whole lot more MurderBot! Usual warning - mentioning anything/one in the second book could be an inadvertent spoiler for the first book. Although I'm guessing it's no surprise that Murderbot survives …

All Systems Red – Martha Wells

"I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites." Ah, Murderbot - what took me so long?! This novella is just wonderful - I mean, a sarcastic, soap-opera obsessed killing machine, what's not …

One Day All This Will Be Yours – Adrian Tchaikovsky

"Another perfect day at the end of the world." The problem with inventing time travel, and more to the point with using it as a 'final deterrent' kind of warfare, is that the only sure way to make sure your enemy doesn't change your history to make you more like them, is to alter their …

Of Dragons, Feasts, and Murders – Aliette de Bodard

"'Tet is a feast that's a bit like Christmas.'" For some reason I haven't yet read the Dominion of the Fallen series, starting with The House of Shattered Wings, despite it having been on my TBR for some time. I mean, Fallen angels and a post-apocalyptic war in Paris between great Houses led by said angels? Sign me …