{"id":44831,"date":"2025-02-03T22:52:31","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T03:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=44831"},"modified":"2025-02-03T22:52:31","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T03:52:31","slug":"review-of-buried-deep-by-naomi-novik","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=44831","title":{"rendered":"Review of Buried Deep, by Naomi Novik"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Buried Deep<\/p>\n

And Other Stories<\/em><\/p>\n

by Naomi Novik<\/p>\n

Del Rey, 2024. 428 pages.
\nReview written February 3, 2025, from a library book.
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

I don’t read a lot of short story collections, because I have a hard time getting through them. It’s so easy to stop after finishing a story. But once I started this one, I knew I wanted to read every single story.<\/p>\n

There are thirteen stories, of various lengths, with at least one from the worlds of Temeraire<\/a>, the Scholomance<\/a>, and Spinning Silver<\/a><\/em> – that story was actually the original version of the book – but a different negotiation on the part of the miller’s daughter keeps it to story length.<\/p>\n

My favorite was definitely the one in the world of Temeraire that retells Pride and Prejudice<\/em> with Elizabeth Bennet the captain of a Longwing dragon. But this is not a proper occupation for a gentleman’s daughter. I love the way Naomi Novik works key scenes from Pride and Prejudice<\/em> into that situation. And I love how Captain Bennet has learned to wield authority!<\/p>\n

The title story is about the Minotaur and his sister Ariadne. The final story is in the world of an upcoming novel, currently titled Folly<\/em>. I can’t wait!<\/p>\n

Another favorite took place in the Scholomance after the events of the trilogy, so supposedly students are safer there – as long as their roommate doesn’t try to kill them.<\/p>\n

Many of the stories are simply from some other fantasy world out of the mind of Naomi Novik – and she’s good at intriguing world-building. I loved the one about the woman who was a talented sculptor and who gets the commission to work with the magical clay – that tends to kill the sculptors who are permitted to work with it. (And there’s way more to it than that, which she skillfully communicates while telling you a fascinating story.)<\/p>\n

This might be a good introduction to Naomi Novik’s magical writing, but it’s also a great way to keep her devoted fans patient while waiting for the next novel. Whichever you fall under, if you like fantasy at all, read this book!<\/p>\n

naominovik.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Fiction\/buried_deep.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Buried Deep And Other Stories by Naomi Novik Del Rey, 2024. 428 pages. Review written February 3, 2025, from a library book. Starred Review I don’t read a lot of short story collections, because I have a hard time getting through them. It’s so easy to stop after finishing a story. But once I started […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,5,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-fiction-review","category-starred-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44831"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44836,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44831\/revisions\/44836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}