Category: Novella

Here are two short reads, good for the summer, especially if you are on route to somewhere or just lazing about. These two picks may be short, but they have twists and turns and are a bit mind-bending and mystifying.

The Invader by Marjory Kaptanoglu is a sci-fi mystery. published in 2020, that focuses on two women, Rose and Kailey. These two women are thousands of miles apart, living completely different lives but they seem to be connected in some way. The author switches back and forth between the two women, bringing their stories and realities closer and closer.

Rose, a research scientist, working on Whitaker Island in the Pacific Ocean, washes up on shore after a boat wreck with her crew and has lost her memory. Thomas, the one researcher left on the island, helps her to a cabin and informs her that her crew was trying to leave the island because of news reports of a large space ship identified near Earth and all communication and electricity suddenly going offline.

While in the cabin, they hear and see a missile-shaped object flying through the sky and crashing on the island. Upon investigating, they see that it was a small ship, which ejected an organic pod that has opened and is empty. Something may be on the island with them. They rush back to the cabin, not knowing if this creature or alien is hostile.

Kailey, a young woman, describes her life being mistreated by her mother, who undermines her efforts and ambitions growing up. She eventually leaves home to live on the streets with her boyfriend, who convinces her to take her mother’s gun to commit a robbery. During the robbery, the boyfriend kills the homeowner – Kailey eventually ends up in prison for the murder.

While reading, I noticed that both women are similar in appearance, have the same tattoo on their neck and have the same habit of twirling their hair when nervous. So, I wondered if the were the same person in alter realities: one of the stories is sci-fi after all.

In prison, Kailey is being harassed by a new guard that is attracted to her. He has the advantage; reporting him will only make things worse for her.

While Rose hides in the cabin, she has nightmares of a man and woman in ski masks, robbing a home, and shooting the homeowner (Kailey?). She searches the cabin and finds that Thomas’ real name is Alex Wright. The creature tries to get into the cabin – lightning and heavy rain begins, as Thomas returns soaking wet. They agree to try to get to the dock and a boat the following morning.

Kailey’s sexually, abusive encounters with the guard continues until she is too ill, and she refuses him. He threatens to get back at her for refusing him.

Rose and Thomas head to the the beach to find the boat wreckage has disappeared – Rose worries something is amiss. When they get to the dock the boat is gone. As they start back to the cabin they are separated – the creature carries Thomas off into the jungle. Rose decides to follow the creature.

Kailey is constantly on edge, continually guarding her movements, searching her cell expecting the guard to frame her and have her sent to solitary, or have her beaten by guards or prisoners – she is also being stalked by a monster.

When Rose catches up to the creature, she sees how large, fierce and powerful it is . She has no way to overpower it, but she just can’t leave Thomas. She moves closer, kneels and tells the creature she means it no harm – the creature leaves.

Kailey reaches a turning point, rather than commit suicide, she informs another guard of what’s happening to her and is sent to the warden. The guard abusing her is terminated and arrested. Things get back to normal for her. Several years later, a man from Vytal Technologies comes to the prison and offers Kailey an opportunity, a chance to end her prison sentence – his name is Alex Wright. This opportunity introduces her and connects her to Rose.

The details regarding the link between the two characters is surprising and creative, making this an unconventional sci-fi with twists and turns and an ending you won’t see coming.

The Deep by River Solomon is well, a fantasy, sci-fi that depicts an underwater society created by the descendants of pregnant slaves thrown overboard from slave ships. The novella was developed from a song by the same name by a group called clipping.

The wajinru (means chorus of the deep) live in the deep ocean. The protagonist, a 35 year old female called Yetu, is the wajinru’s historian, and it is her duty to hold all memories, collect present wajinru memories, select the next historian and share memories with the wajinru once per year.

The sharing of memories is called the Remembering and takes place in a protected wall of mud, called the womb, the wijinru construct for this ceremony every year. They remember how they began – when pregnant women were thrown overboard from slave ships crossing the ocean, their children witnessing their floating bodies, the pain, the experience of living memories of generations.

The first historian, Zoti Aleyu (strange fish), knew it was different from other things in the ocean. It swam in search of others like itself and as their numbers grew, they went to the deep ocean for safety. Zoti also discovered that they came from pregnant women thrown off ships – when a pregnant woman died soon after being thrown overboard and then gave birth to a ‘strange fish’. Zoti then followed ships, remembering their routes and taking new-born wajinru to the deep. Through the years Zoti kept all these painful memories of her travels and efforts to herself and passed them on to the first wajinru she rescued. The tradition of transferring memories continued.

These memories consumed Yetu; she only lived to store and release memories of her people. She was not happy and believed if she took back these memories after this Remembrance, she would loose herself completely and possibly wouldn’t survive. She decided to leave and swam away, leaving her people.

Yetu frantically swims, climbing miles to the surface and becomes beached on an island. She is very weak and is helped by humans, one in particular, a fisherwoman name Oori. Yetu sees similarities in these people – skin color, markings on the skin. Yetu learns that Oori is the last of her people and she doesn’t understand why Yetu would leave her people. Oori would give anything, no matter how painful, to know the history of her people, their language, their stories. Oori believes that your whole history and ancestry IS who you are. Yetu, who is relishing her experience of independent thought and movement for the first time, does not agree.

Weeks pass and Yetu begins to feel loneliness; she misses the depth, pressure and darkness of the open ocean and the company of the wajinru. She worries that her people may be lost, still in the Remembering or, if they come out of it, they’d be ill prepared to keep these memories and perish. Her people may be suffering because she abandoned her duty.

Yetu decides to go back to her people and find a way to end the relationship between historian and the wajinru by searching through the history, but first she had to take the memories back, or did she. She decides to share these memories with her people, act as a guide and counselor, without taking them back.

I just thought this novella was so original, a bit dark and haunting dealing with the subject of the many Africans who were killed during the middle passage. It made me think, what if. Now that would be something if as a species, as a human collective, we had this ability to store our history and share it at specific intervals as a collective. Maybe then we would be a more compassionate, peaceful lot, and not repeat atrocities.

So, these two novellas, Invader by Marjory Kaptanoglu and The Deep by Rivers Solomon, are both worthy of a read. They are short, but mind-teasing, original and interesting. I hope you give them both a read!