Novella Mini-Reviews: The Stranger, The Department of Alterations, The Memory Coder

Well, it’s that time of year again where I start reading novellas to help my catch up to my Goodreads goal (and I’m two books behind again). Then again, I really shouldn’t blame myself because it has been a BUSY year! Regardless, I read a few novellas for free on Tor.com (LOVE IT) and I wanted to share some thoughts!

Title: The Stranger (The Syrena Legacy #0.4)
Author: Anna Banks
Completed: November 13, 2013
Source: I read it for free on Tor.com and you can too! [The Stranger]
Genre: Fantasy, Dystopian, Sci-Fi
Related Posts: Of Poseidon (#1) // Of Triton (#2)

The Stranger was a short story featuring the meeting of Galen and his “land friend” Rachel. During the series, we’ve gotten bits and pieces so far of how they met, but this involved more of Rachel’s back story and how she ended up having the working relationship with Galen that she did.

WHAT I LIKED

• I loved Rachel so I really enjoyed seeing more of her and how she came to work with Galen
• Baby Galen! Awwww. Okay, not baby, but a much younger Galen, Toraf, and Rayna
• I ALWAYS like seeing more backstories of the characters so I really just gobbled it up!
• We get to see just a bit more character development and while it’s not a lot, it’s still fun to see more of my favorite characters!

WHAT I WAS MISSING

I really enjoyed the extra time we got to have with Rachel, but of course it left me wanting just a little bit more (especially after already having read OF TRITON). I just really would have loved to spend a little bit more time with her and just reading more of the story made me want to dive into more plot. THE STRANGER is more of just an extra and doesn’t have a full plot on its own, but fans of The Syrena Legacy will love it!

Title: The Department of Alterations (Crewel World #0.5)
Author: Gennifer Albin
Completed: November 13, 2013
Source: I read it for free on Tor.com and you can too! [The Department of Alterations]
Genre: Dystopian, Sci-Fi
Related Posts: Crewel (#1) // Altered (#2)

The Department of Alterations was a short story that took place actually at the very beginning of CREWEL. We get an glimpse at a story from a different character, one that I actually totally forgot about, but I really liked seeing that different side!

WHAT I LIKED

• I always love reading a short story/novella/extra that takes place DURING the main novel and from another character’s POV. It was really interesting to see this one! I always like thinking that the authors have to write these snippets just to get a story going from another character to have everything fit together and it fascinates me!
• I liked seeing pieces fit together. There were some questions intentionally left open in CREWEL about this character and here we get some answers about what happened to her.
• More backstory! Always always more world building and information

WHAT I WAS MISSING

This is solely from the POV of a completely minor character so while I wasn’t really missing it, you don’t get any interaction with the MAIN characters. It also seemed really short (whereas others feel like complete stories) so just be prepared that you’re not getting a full, separate plot on this one. It’s definitely additional information, but new and exciting all the same!

Title: The Memory Coder (Unremembered Companion Short Story)
Author: Jessica Brody
Completed: November 13, 2013
Source: I read it for free on Tor.com and you can too! [The Memory Coder]
Genre: Sci-Fi (YA)
Related Posts: Unremembered (#1)

The Memory Coder was an outside POV as well, taking place in… well, a location that could be a spoiler if you haven’t read UNREMEMBERED yet, so I guess I won’t get too into that! It’s part of Sera’s backstory, although we don’t really deal with her a lot directly. These are the ways that other people have been involved with her before UNREMEMBERED even starts and how she has affected them. If you haven’t read UNREMEMBERED yet, I HIGHLY suggest you read that one first!

WHAT I LIKED

• I was super interested in the effect Sera had on other people, although I wasn’t quite sure I remembered that from UNREMEMBERED…? (Also a very ironic statement there haha)
• I always love backstory!! I love prequels and seeing things that happened before the book started.
• It was really interesting to see the information that we didn’t get since UNREMEMBERED is from Sera’s POV, especially when it’s technically…. “the enemy”!

WHAT I WAS MISSING

It’s been a while since I finished UNREMEMBERED so I feel like I was missing some details. Like, why was everyone so affected by Sera? Did I totally forget that? Was that something that was changed? Is this something that will be played up later? But I really did like that concept and it was a really interesting thing to read about!