In this collection of short stories, Naomi Novik revisits the settings of some of her novels and sets the scene for new adventures. We are treated, among others, to a short story set after the events of the Scholomance series, an initial version of the events in Spinning Silver, a Minotaur/Ariadne retelling, and a glimpse into the universe of her upcoming book. My favourite story was her retelling of Pride and Prejudice with dragons!

A recommended read for fans of Naomi Novik and retellings with a fantasy twist.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House UK for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

𝗕𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝗗𝗲𝗲𝗽 • 𝗡𝗮𝗼𝗺𝗶 𝗡𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗸
★★★★

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗧𝗼 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁
- Fantasy anthology
- Established worlds and new worlds
- Fairytale-esque stories
- Pirates, dragons, reimagined characters, wars, the scholomance, alien civilization, & more

𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀
Buried Deep is a fantastical and ambitious anthology that brings into focus the reason Naomi Novik’s writing is beloved by readers so much.

Not only are readers treated to glorious glimpses of world building already established by Novik—such as the Scholomance, a magical boarding school with plucky students and hungry beasts, Temeraire (which I have not read but am now tempted to pick up), and a brief version of Spinning Silver which I am head over heels in love with. But readers are also treated to a glimpse of a new world in the short story ‘Long Way Around’ that Novik is currently building and seems to be a seafaring adventure with a trademark fierce female protagonist at its helm.

Similarly, readers are introduced to old characters of Novik’s creation (Miryem, a glimpse of Orion Lake), reimagined characters (Mark Antony, Irene Adler with Sherlock Holmes, Elizabeth Bennett and Mr Darcy), and new characters (Lady Amarinta and Tessa being a new favourite of mine).

Its safe to say I adored many of these stories with my favourites being Spinning Silver, After Hours, Vici, Dragons & Decorum, and The Long Way Around. Whilst the alien civilization story (Seven Years From Home) wasn’t entirely my cup of tea, I could still appreciate the imagination put into it and the beauty of the writing.

I am such a huge fan of Naomi Novik, and this anthology reminds me why.

𝗤𝘂𝗼𝘁𝗲𝘀
“𝘎𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘴 𝘪𝘵.”

I was really disappointed by this offering of rehashed themes from both the writing of Naomi Novak and other works that appeal to her. I felt like I was either reading something I had read before or something that held no real appeal to me because they did not compare to the writings if this author. The whole thing was hard work and only made me think that the author might simply be putting something out there for the sake of it - her name will of course sell books regardless of their intrinsic value. Personally I would rather have waited for a new original work.

I both like collections of short stories and hate them. I like that I can pick it up and read an entire story in one sitting but for the really good ones, I want them to go on much longer and be a novel. I did enjoy most of these stories by Naomi Novik, my favorite being the one called Folly and I really can't wait till she finishes fleshing out that world into a full novel! I also enjoyed the shorter version of Spinning Silver though I am now going to be reading the full novel of that (such a good story!). My other two favorite stories were Seven Years (which was so intriguing and a bit sad about the war between the two races on that planet) and Araminta (who is a totally awesome character and I would love to get the full story on her adventures after she gets the freedom she desired and that ship).

The other stories which touched on her other series (Scholomance, and the dragons) were nice little forays into those worlds and also fun to read. I do admire Naomi Novik as a most excellent author and will happily read anything she writes.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book to read and review! It was much enjoyed!

A collection of short stories by fantasy author Naomi Novik. If you’re a Novik super fan I think you’ll really like this. If you’re not super familiar with the author’s work you may struggle.

To me short stories are an art form. They require giving a lot of context and information in a limited form. When this is done well it’s amazing and when it’s not it’s not. In my opinion this book is a mixed bag of exactly that.

The stories I really enjoyed were: ‘Spinning Silver’, ‘Seven Years from Home’ and ‘Dragons and Decorum’. I can particularly see why ‘Spinning Silver’ emerged as a novel following this short story (and one I am very likely to read). ‘Dragons and Decorum’ was a fun take on Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ where Lizzy B is a Dragon rider. Wonderfully absurd? Yes. Did it cover all the main points of the original novel in MUCH LESS TIME? Also yes.

Other stories I struggled with. There were some where I genuinely struggled to establish what was going on. And in other cases, including ‘Dragons and Decorum’, it requires pre-knowledge of the source material on the part of the reader. If you’re fairly engaged in literature, you’ll of course know of Lizzy Bennett and Irene Adler but I don’t know how fair that is in short story form. There are some stories based on Novik’s other work too, which you need to have read the books to make sense of.

I like this author but I’m not a super fan, therefore I don’t think this was aimed at me. If you are a big fan, I think you’ll love it.

Thank you #netgalley for my #arc

This is a truly enjoyable collection of short fantasy stories. Novak sets many of her stories in worlds her fans will be familiar with, but the stories themselves are self-contained. In tone they vary from cosy to unsettling, and most centre around female protagonists of various ages. Some are mood pieces but there are also plenty of active stories.

The quality of these stories is very high - even ones that I was initially uninterested in mostly ended up grabbing me by the time I finished them. Novak evokes a great sense of place in her different worlds, and her character sketches are compelling. My favourite story is a poignant retelling of Ariadne and the Minotaur (the titular 'Buried Deep'), but it is closely followed by a brilliant standalone pirate story that confidently opens the collection. It's also nice that Novak includes a note before each story explaining its genesis or the reason for inclusion.

I have very little negative to say about this book. The only real downer is that the last story is unfinished - it is meant to be a glimpse of a work in progress, but it is polished enough that I was disappointed when the book ended without the story being resolved. I think it would make more sense to put that one earlier in the collection and finish with a strong complete story. Nonetheless, I highly recommend this collection to fantasy fans, particularly people who already enjoy Novak's work.

Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Lots of interesting stories here - an interesting mixed bag of tales that any fan of Naomi Novik will love to read. There are some familiar worlds and characters - my favourite being the Temeraire meets Pride and Prejudice short story. Elizabeth Bennett as you have never seen her! Every story was interesting and compelling although one or two seemed to just fade away at the end without a proper resolution and I felt if they had had space to be longer we would have got a better, more satisfying ending (such as the Tower of Couerlieu and the claymaker stories - both were spellbinding but had weak endings). A minor point as this book of short stories is well worth reading!

Buried Deep is a lovely, engaging collection of short stories set in the various worlds of Naomi Novik’s full novels, and I am such a fan of those novels that I didn’t hesitate for one second before I requested this from Netgalley.

I think it definitely helped to have read Novik's other writing, I am not sure how well the stories would sit without at least a basic awareness of the background to them, but they worked perfectly for me. I particularly enjoyed the two tales set in the Temeraire world - the homage to Pride and Prejudice with a romantic-minded novel-reading dragon was my favourite overall I think, although I also really liked the Regency pirate queen... I may have a thing for books set on boats, as well as with dragons.

I loved the last story: a tantalising glimpse into the world of her next novel, with ships, a genius, a sorcerer and an abandoned world. I'm really looking forward to reading it.

Love love love Naomi and her books. This was a masterclass in her story writing and I loved it. Not all stories were for me but the really good ones were amazing! Loved it!

As with all books of short stories you will have your favourites and ones your not so keen on. Having read most of Naomi Noviks books my favourites were the ones that linked to her previous work. I loved the scholomance story and could happily read a whole book of schlomamce shorts.

I enjoyed this book , not as much as some of her others but it was still a good read.

I came into this as a fan of Naomi Novik but not a huge lover of short story collections, as I usually only end up enjoying one or two in a collection. Thankfully, I enjoyed the majority of the stories in this collection, with only a few of the shorter stories feeling a bit filler-y (but maybe that's my preference for longer stories coming through).

The collection includes everything you would expect from Novik: great writing, dragons, mythology, interesting heroines and tales of adventure and seeking your destiny.

There are two Temeraire-related stories: one set in Roman times and another that is a retelling of Pride & Prejudice with Lizzie Bennet as a Captain in the Aerial Corps (one of my favourites from the collection). There's also a new post-Golden Enclaves Scholomance story that left me wanting more and the original short story version of Spinning Silver.

I think the rest aren't connected to her other works. Of these, my favourites were: Seven about a city with master sculptors and deadly clay, Seven Years From Home - a scifi with an avatar-y (the blue alien kind) environmental edge, and Buried Deep - a retelling of Ariadne and the Minotaur.

A really great short story collection that works for fans of Naomi Novik and also as an introduction to her writing

So this is only the second time I've ever read a short story anthology, I don't tend to gravitate towards them (no idea why), but it's Naomi Novik, so there was no chance I was passing on this, especially when we get an insight into the world of her next series. It's the perfect blend of stories for fans of her previous series, as well as readers just looking for some fantastical short stories, and I enjoyed seeing Novik's take on some well known stories, as much as reading the ones that simply popped out of her imagination.

Lovers of her previous work will enjoy the dip we get into the Scholomance with, After Hours, set after the ending of the series which did spoil it for me, but it's my own fault for not getting around to reading it sooner. She also gives us a shorter, more clipped version of Spinning Silver, which I think I may have preferred to the original. And she dives into the world of Temeraire with, Vici, showing Antonius of Rome as the first Dragon Rider. But I think my favourite's of all the stories was Dragons & Decorum, a re-telling of Pride and Prejudice where Elizabeth Bennet is a dragon rider and Mr Darcy is still an absolute simp for her. P&P is an all time favourite of mine and I loved the fantasy spin Novik put on it, while still keeping true to the time and the characters. Also, Seven which is incredibly hard to describe but it was filled to the brim with world building and and gave me an almost unsettled feeling whilst reading (in the best way obviously)

The stories range in length, some reading more like novellas than short stories, but it features stories for those who love a character driven plot, as well as ones that feature a little more action, stories filled with humour and others with a slightly more horrific spin, and Novik manages to set the tone of each masterfully with her writing style which changes effortlessly to fit the tone of the story.

Did I love all of the stories, no. I imagine most anthologies come with a tale or two some readers don't gel with. There were some I desperately wanted to be longer like, Blessings, which is about a family of middling standing who invite fairies to their daughters party and chaos ensues, and others like the anthologies namesake Buried Deep that I struggled my way through. But right at the end she graces us with a look into her next series with, The Long Way Round, which instantly caught my attention & was filled with some truly epic worldbuilding, characters I instantly bonded with and a story shrouded in an eerie kind of mystery that I am desperate to read more about.

All in all I did enjoy this one, especially the little nods to the authors previous series. I'm still not convinced anthologies are for me, but I'm really glad I gave this one a read and can't wait for Novik to grace us with her next fantasy novel.

This is without a doubt a collection of short stories that has something for everyone. Yes most have been previously available in other anthologies but here the author also gifts us with a new glimpse into her Scholomance world were things that go bump in the night are anything but imaginary and also quite a good introduction into a new fantasy world that her muse has conjured up. I do think fans of her fairytale type stories will be pleased by content here and if it’s Dragons you crave then prepare to smile not at one story but two ! I particularly enjoyed the quick to the point introductions the author gives as it opens the readers eyes to some of the thoughts and process behind her writing. With brief salutes to literary heroes this was magical and definitely something I will recommend particularly if you enjoy your heroes with a feminine twist !
This voluntary take is of a copy I requested from Netgalley and my thoughts and comments are honest and I believe fair

This was quite an eclectic collection of short stories (a mixture of science fiction and fantasy). I really enjoyed the fantasy based ones and found many with strong female characters - which is wonderful to see!

Having loved Spinning Silver and Uprooted, I was keen to read more of Novik's works and found this anthology delightful! It's a fantastic timeline of the author's journey in writing - showing the highs and lows through her short stories, As with every anthology, the stories are hit and missy but in this case, the majority of them are well-rounded and well-written.

Highly recommended to fans of Novik.

You cannot ignore the range of Novik and she still remains an author I will always read from!

The main negative of this short sorry collection is that I think you would have to be familiar with all of Novik’s other works to have a full understanding and enjoy most of the stories. This seems to be a splattering of short fiction Novik wrote in tandem with her main works but couldn’t fit in.

As a short story collection, I believe it should be accessible to anyone who wants to dip their toes into an author’s work whereas this is not the case for this.

There’s some standalone stories, but there’s also some from the Schoolmance universe set after the Calling.
One from Temeraire where Antonius of Rome becomes the first dragon rider.
My personal favourite which is a Pride and Prejudice retelling set in the world of Temeraire with a gothic literature-loving dragon.

One which is verbatim a shorter story version of her novel Spinning Silver which Novik admits to in the introduction. However, I do think I enjoyed this shorter version! Despite foregoing the atmospheric descriptions, the writing was crisper and more engaging.

Here it was the dark of being a thing in the wrong place, soft and vulnerable and fallen between the turning wheels of a machine, like one of the poor little hedgehogs that tried to cross the road and were flattened by cars into useless pulp.

Novik ventures into science fiction which I thought was fascinating and would love to see her attempt a full length novel!

Children of virtually any society are an excellent resource for the diplomatic servant or the anthropologist, if contact with them can be made without giving offense. They enjoy the unfamiliar experience of answering real questions, particularly the stupidly obvious ones that allow them to feel a sense of superiority over the inquiring adult, and they are easily impressed with the unusual.

It is undeniable Novik is a master of words and delving into different niches. I thought this would make her short story collection outstanding. Sadly, for the aforementioned reasons, it did not.

Thank you to Cornerstone for providing an arc in exchange for a review!

I enjoyed reading Naomi Novik's 'Deadly Education' trilogy so I was intrigued to start reading this collection of short stories and I am a little sad to say I was a bit disappointed.

Each story is preceded by a little about where the idea came from and this was useful as for some of the stories I was just flat out confused.

High points of the collection of 13 stories were:

After Hours - I loved the scholomance so this was like going back for a little visit,

Spinning Silver - I loved the fairy tale like quality of this, it felt like I was reading something by the Brothers Grimm.

Buried Deep - This was a mythology inspired telling of Ariadne and the minotaur and, as a fan of Greek myths I enjoyed this one.

The flip side of this was the ones I could have really lived without:

Lord Dunsany's Teapot - I restarted reading this multiple times because I was so confused, in the end I just read it and hoped it would make sense as I kept going.....it didn't.

Seven Years From Home - this made such a little impression on me that I don't even remember what it was about.

Dragons and Decorum - a retelling of Pride and Prejudice where Elizabeth Bennett is a Dragon Corp commander...just no.

The rest of the stories were ok but just didn't blow my hair back so I couldn't score this any higher than a three.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

An excellent selection of short stories showcasing the breadth and scope of the genres Naomi Novik does best. A taste of her previous adventures and where she could be heading in the future.

I've enjoyed everything I've read by Naomi Novik so far, but not tried Temeraire or Scholomance yet. Here are my thoughts and scores out of 5.

Araminta, or, the Wreck of the Amphidrake - 4
Jaunty pirates with a cheeky sex change. What's not to love! I feel like NN rewards the well-read reader here.

After Hours - 5
Oh wow, is all of Scholomance like this? So exciting and suspenseful and cool. I bet the actual series is going to disappoint me now. But this was super good.

Vici - 3
Dragons are pretty cool and it was quite funny but I don't think it's quite the thing for me.

Buried Deep - 3
I love me some Greek mythology but this felt a little drawn out and pointless to be honest.

Spinning Silver - 4
I can't really remember the full length book that well, other than that I feel like I mostly enjoyed it and it was cold a lot. This felt the same, in the good way.

Commonplaces - 2
Weird characterisation of Sherlock I think. I don't know enough about Irene Adler to really judge though.

Seven - 3
Odd title. Has NN been watching Pottery Throwdown? It was fine, readable but nothing special.

Blessings - 3
Quite entertaining and clever.

Lord Dunsany's Teapot - 2
I just didn't really care. Sorry.

Seven Years From Home - 3
Felt somehow very Ann Leckie-esque. I had to start this twice til I got the feel of the language. But it was a very interesting world and I would have enjoyed a full length book set here.

Dragons & Decorum - 1
Bleh bleh I don't like Pride and Prejudice and I didn't like this. Even with the dragon addition. Zzzzz.

Castle Coeurlieu - 4
Mysterious and dangerous and mystical. Confusing, but in the good way.

The Long Way Around - 4
This is apparently what NN is working on for her next book and I have high hopes since the heroine is very likeable and there's a cute gay romance and beasts from the deeeeep. It felt a bit like Piranesi (which I adore) with the exploring a seemingly neverending world full of weird stuff elements. So hopefully this will get even better.

A good collection, would be even better without shitty regency era romantic crap and wistful war waffling.

A thrilling anthology of short stories spanning each of the authors existing realms and including a sneak peak into the world of her next series. This stunning collection will walk you through fairy tales to fantasy, myth to history and mystery to science fiction.

These stories may be vastly different but at their heart there is a unifying theme: wrestling with destiny, and the lengths some will go to find their own and fulfill its promise. Each story is unique, magical and written in the author’s signature prose.

Each of these stories are compiled of strong world-building, fascinating magic systems and intricate characters as their foundation.

𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐨 𝐑𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐦 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐝𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐲 𝐯𝐢𝐚 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐆𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐁𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐃𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐎𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐛𝐲 𝐍𝐚𝐨𝐦𝐢 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐤