A review by ninaprime
Buried Deep and Other Stories by Naomi Novik

4.0

As a huge fan of Novik's writing and world-building, this short story collection fared better overall for me than most, which I tend to find uneven, though I ended up unexcited about her new world of Abandon. My least favorite story was "Vici" (Temeraire origin story in Ancient Rome, which I would've enjoyed except for the entitled bro-ness of Marc Antony made me angry the least deserving person in the world gets a dragon friend). "Commonplaces" (featuring Irene Adler's POV on Sherlock Holmes), "Spinning Silver" (the not-as-strong novella version), "Lord Dunsany's Teapot" (WWII trench hope/despair), "Seven Years from Home" (alien wars with an anti-imperialist bent), and "The Long Way Around" (Abandon-world sails and sorcery adventure) were all middling. "Blessings" and "Castle Coeurlieu" both were fantastical fairy tales that left me craving more story from those universes, while "Seven" was so unique and eerie that it left me unsettled after. My absolute favorites were the titular "Buried Deep", a creative, feminist spin on the Minotaur myth as well as "Dragons & Decorum", an amazing 'Pride & Prejudice' retelling.