This collection is full of enchanting fantasy. It will satisfy long-time Novik fans with stories set in the same worlds as her novels, and new fans as each of those stories are accessible and there are plenty of stories unconnected to her novels.

Amarita, or, The Wreck of the Amphidrake ⭐⭐⭐⭐
After Hours ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Vici ⭐⭐⭐
Buried Deep ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Spinning Silver ⭐⭐⭐
Commonplaces ⭐⭐⭐
Seven ⭐⭐⭐
Blessings ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Lord Dunsany's Teapot ⭐⭐⭐
Seven Years From Home ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Dragons & Decorum ⭐⭐⭐
Castle Coeulieu (my least favorite) ⭐⭐
The Long Way Round (my favorite) ⭐⭐⭐⭐

A video review including this book will be on my Youtube channel in the coming weeks, @ChloeFrizzle

Thanks to Netgalley and Del Rey for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

I received this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. While I was so excited to start it, my body and health unfortunately had other plans. I apologize for the delay in reviewing this book, but know it wasn’t for a lack of interest or excitement on my part!

This anthology is a captivating journey for both new readers and long-time fans of the Naomi Novik. It offers a well-rounded taste of her signature storytelling through a diverse collection of short stories, ranging from reimagined myths and fairytales, to glimpses into future series and nods to well-loved works. Each tale stands on its own, providing readers with enough context without requiring prior knowledge of her longer novels. The stories blend dark fantasy, rich character development, and enchanting world-building, creating an immersive experience despite the brevity of each piece.

The collection’s variety is truly impressive, from fairytale retellings and imaginative reworkings of myth to mini-episodes from her full-length novels. The author's ability to shift seamlessly between tones and settings is remarkable, delivering stories that range from whimsical and lighthearted to those more grounded in historical themes. I particularly enjoyed how the author’s notes before each story provided valuable insight into her creative process, adding depth and context to the reading experience.

There were quite a few standout stories. Each one pulls you in with rich, vivid settings and characters you can’t help but connect with. The recurring themes of destiny and free will run through these tales like a thread, tying them together in such a compelling way. While a couple of the endings felt a bit unresolved, it’s clear that this was definitely intentional, allowing us to linger in the world of each story even after it ends.

In summary, this anthology beautifully showcases the author’s versatile storytelling, with strong characters, engaging plots, and strikingly crafted worlds. Whether you're a long-time fan or someone curious about her work, this collection is a fantastic starting point. It’s a perfect addition to any fantasy lover's shelf, offering a delightful mix of the magical, the mysterious, and the downright mesmerizing.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine. For the opportunity to receive an advanced copy, in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was my first encounter with Naomi Novik's work, and I approached *Buried Deep and Other Stories* with a mix of curiosity and high expectations, given her popularity. However, I found myself struggling to get into this collection. Many of the short stories didn’t quite capture my interest, leaving me feeling somewhat disconnected from the narrative and characters.

That said, there were two stories in the collection that stood out to me. The short story from the Scholomance series was a particular highlight. It offered a glimpse into a world that was intriguing enough to make me want to explore more of what Novik has to offer, particularly in the Scholomance series. This story alone convinced me that there’s potential in her writing that I might appreciate more fully in a different context.

Overall, while *Buried Deep and Other Stories* didn’t quite win me over, I believe it could be a good read for existing fans of Naomi Novik’s work. For someone like me, who is new to her writing, this collection might not be the best starting point. However, it has piqued my interest enough to give her novels, especially the Scholomance series, a try in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for an advanced copy of this work so that I may give my honest feedback and review.

Storybook characters, modern retellings, and glimpses into new storylines are found in these pages. Author Naomi Novik is a master of her craft, particularly appealing to fans of fantasy literature. She pulls characters both old and new and twists the story into something that feels both new and modern. Classic story characters come to life. Austen's romance with a dragon twist. Readers are reminded why they loved her Scholomance trilogy and Spinning Silver story and why she is excellent at her craft. I absolutely loved every one of these stories, but I recommend reading this one after her other works.

Thank you, NetGalley, author Naomi Novik, and publisher Del Rey, for the opportunity to read this ARC. I was captivated by it and immediately ordered my hardcover. A Scholomance reread is definitely in order! This book deserves 5 Stars!

Series Info/Source: This is a short story anthology. I got an eGalley of this from NetGalley to review.

Thoughts: I have very brief summaries/thoughts on the individual stories below. As with just about every short story anthology I have read, this was a mixed bag. There were a couple of stories I loved, some I disliked and a lot that were just okay. If you are a huge Novik fan and keep up on reading her short stories you have probably read a lot of these stories already. Many of these stories were published in other fantasy or sci-fi anthologies previously.

My favorite stories of the bunch were "After Hours", "Spinning Silver", "Seven", and "Castle Coeurlieu". These are all fantasy stories involving clever women with some fun twists to them. My least favorite of the bunch was "Seven Years from Home"; a rather complex and long sci-fi story that was incredibly boring.

Please see below for my thoughts on each story.

- Araminta, or, The Wreck of the Amphidrake (4/5)
I read this story before in the Fast Ships, Black Sails anthology. It is a fun story about a noble woman who ends up using a protective amulet that turns her into a man when her ship is attacked by pirates. She then ends up on a series of wild adventures with the very pirates that originally attacked the ship she was on.

- After Hours (5/5)
This was a wonderful story the takes place with some new students some time after the main Scholomance trilogy.

- Vici (4/5)
If dragon training started in Rome. This was funny and witty. I definitely enjoyed it more once the dragon hatched. It ended pretty abruptly but was fun.

- Buried Deep (4/5)
This was an intriguing story about the Minotaur and his sister. I thought it was a bit slow but it was beautifully written and I enjoyed the way it delved into the mythology around all of this.

- Spinning Silver (5/5)
Really loved this story. This is a shorter version of the book. It involves a young woman who takes her family's poverty in to her own hands and turns things around by making an intelligent deal with a fairy. I loved how clever this was and enjoyed the main character a lot.

- Commonplaces (3/4)
This was okay, it is about one of the female characters from the Sherlock Holmes books (who I was not familiar with) tracking down and confronting (among other things) Sherlock after his supposed death. It was a short and abrupt story that may have had more impact if I had read more than one Sherlock Holmes book, and if I knew who the main character was supposed to represent from the Sherlock Holmes series.

- Seven (5/5)
Really enjoyed this story about a strange town where the clay builders must use a special clay to repair the guarding statues...a clay that leaves them sick and dead a matter of years after working it. That is until a practical woman is forced to take on this job.

- Blessings (3/5)
This was a short and humorous look at a child who was blessed by drunk fairies. This results in some questionable attributes for a noblewoman as the child grows.

- Lord Dunsany's Teapot (4/5)
I had read this previously from "The Cabinet of Curiosities" Book by VanderMeer. This is a well done story about a strange teapot that brings peace in the trenches of war.

- Seven Years from Home (2/5)
I found this really, really boring and ended up skimming a lot of it. This was a complex sci-fi story that had a lot of info dumping.

- Dragons & Decorum (4/5)
This is set in the Temeraire world and told in a very flowery "Pride and Prejudice" style. It is a retelling of sorts of parts of Pride and Prejudice. I am not a huge fan of this style of writing, but it was cute and clever.

- Castle Coeurlieu (5/5)
I really enjoyed this story about a young girl who is married off to an old man during the plague. He is kind and goes off to war while she hangs out with his son who is around her age (13 yrs old). However, there is a tower on the grounds that no one is supposed to enter at night. When the lord's son enters the tower to escape the plague, she goes after him in an effort to save him and ends up on a strange adventure within the tower's confines.

- The Long Way Round (4/5)
This was a decent read about a couple of siblings that decide to take a different way, the long way, around their normal trade route. They travel via ship and run into new and amazing wonders as they travel. I found the magical constructs that they found on their travels a bit confusing. This was more like a glimpse into a world than a well fleshed out story. I did enjoy the characters, although I am not huge on sea types of adventures. I thought some of the aspects of the story were very intriguing as well.

My Summary (4/5): Overall this is a solid collection of short stories that includes a lot of Novik's stories that have been published in other anthologies. As with most anthologies, there both hits and misses. I would say this is more hits than misses; with a few stories that I loved, a lot I liked, some mediocre ones, and one I did not like. If you are a Novik fan, you have probably read a lot of these short stories before. If you haven't, it is worth a read.

Just so you know where I'm coming from, I'm a a big fan of Tem, I enjoyed Spinning Silver and Uprooted, and was disappointed with Scholomance. That being said, it was gratifying to see her "old" writing style make an appearance in this collection of short stories. While some dragged a bit (I feel like they get bogged down in description, but really shine in character interaction), overall it was an enjoyable read with some old faces, some new twists in familiar worlds, and it left me optimistic for her next work, Folly. I would definitely recommend if you already like her work, or even if you're just trying it on for size.

Novik is one of my favorite authors and I’m so happy I got to read this! I’m not a huge fan of short stories and I do with this one had an underlying theme or connective tissue. I especially loved the Spinning Silver story (also loved the book!) but others fell flat or felt less well edited? I did love the notes by the author!

If you’re familiar with Naomi Novik’s storytelling style, this is the equivalent of finding a treasure trove of treats in your pocket. The introduction notes provide some delightful insight into the author’s mentality in how she crafts and builds her worlds of fiction and character without giving too much of a sausage making vibe. And it feels like a warm afternoon tea with friends to catch up with characters like Orion Lake in worlds that Novik has completed storytelling arcs for (read A DEADLY EDUCATION if you have not already).

As with any short story compilation, I often feel a bit startled going between worlds, but each short story is well done in drawing you in and providing both world context and character context. And what is nice is that if you’re familiar with different worlds it’s easy enough to skip around. And each story feels like a mini novella in that it provides the story arc and completes it.

With her FOLLY short story as a teaser for her next series, I loved that Novik skipped over the standard romance trope for her main character conflict and instead focused on a dynamic between siblings, as well as a complicated dynamic between a sibling’s partner and the sibling “left behind” for an odd couple and three’s company tension. It also clearly felt like an intro or backstory behind what is clearly to be a new world for Novik to explore. Definitely recommend for Novik auteur lovers as well as a Novik never ever — they’re bite sized petit fours of her longer novel series and they’re delicious with each bite.

Honestly, who could expect anything but good from Novik. I was introduced to her writing with the Scholomance series and I'm so happy that I can now have the opportunity to read more from her. This book was fun in many ways, including the fact that you couldn't really get attached to the characters because they were all different stories (honestly that helped me a lot because I get too invested). This was a fun read and I hope Novik does this kind of book again.

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have been a fan of Naomi Novik’s ever since A Deadly Education, so was excited for the opportunity given to me by Del Ray and NetGalley for an eARC of this collection of short stories. This is a great collection and ranges from pirates, to the Minotaur and the labyrinth, World of Sherlock Holmes, Pride and Prejudice and Dragons, back into the world of Scholomance, Spinning Silver, and a beginning of a new work. I zipped through these as they were engrossing worlds to bounce through in these short stories. They took you on journeys of worlds and feelings that was a joy.

My favorites were After Hours in the Scholomance (not surprisingly as a school with monsters and magic is tons of fun), and the opposite extreme of the feeling journey for me which was Buried Deep - returning to Ancient Greece, the Isle of Crete, the Minotaur and the Labyrinth. I think readers will enjoy many of the other stories here as well. I recommend it as well, written, fun, exploratory reading for Ms Novik that makes me want to pick up another of her novels and to go deep into her worlds again. I know I will.

4.5 stars

Buried Deep and Other Stories is the kind of analogy that really work for someone like me. I have read a good portion of Naomi Novik's work and it was a delight to get different glimpses into the worlds she has created - either by diving deep into a character storyline or exploring a side element. I do believe this book has a little something for any of her readers. I do think that having read the original source work increases the enjoyment level but doesn't take away from it if you haven't. These stories are compelling on their own. Also, I am very intrigued to see how the last story ends up coming to life in her current writing project "Folly". This was an unexpected treat to get an early glance to a world we have yet to explore.

I really enjoyed reading Novik's note at the beginning of he book and before each story. I have always been fascinated by how authors come up with the stories they write and these little notes were a delight to read and added so much to the experience.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ebook arc for an honest review.

This is truly a magnificent collection of short stories. Some of them are based on Novik's previous work, and add a different flavor to those stories. The rest are around new fantasy worlds, mythologies, re-imagined fairy tales, alternate histories, and retellings. Naomi Novik is an author who is very well-known and acclaimed in the fantasy sphere, but this collection cements her as someone I would recommend to all to read, at least once.

Out of the 13 stories in this collection, my favorites were:
After Hours - A Scholomance story, obviously would have been a favorite no matter what. A beloved character reappears! Best read only after reading the entire series.
Buried Deep - Oh, I do love a good Greek mythology retelling, especially the ones told from a female perspective, with a twist in the entire affair.
Seven - A unique, eerie, fairytale/fantasy story set in a land with seven statues, discussing art, and what perseverance and love of one's work really mean.
Blessings - A wonderful rendition of fairy blessings and their complications. I know it's a 5/5 read if I want an entire-length novel to read based on a short story.
Spinning Silver - Now I haven't read the original one, but I love the eerie imagery in this version (that apparently has a different ending).
Dragons and Decorum - Every time I encounter a Pride and Prejudice rendition, I rejoice in the experience. When that rendition has a dash of fantasy in it, it is everything. P&P with dragons - need I say more?
An honorary mention to Vici and Castle Courlieu for being hilarious and spine-chilling, respectively.

Thanks Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC!

Buried Deep and Other Stories is a collection of short stories with introductions from the author. The entire collection has beautiful prose and reads like a collection of folklore. Without giving much away, here is a very brief description of each story:
Araminta - A pirate story of a girl that wants freedom from societal expectations for women.
After Hours - set in the world of the Scholomance
Vici - a tale of a dragon tamer
Buried Deep - features a Minotaur!
Spinning Silver - a girl turns silver to gold
Commonplaces - in the world of Sherlock Holmes
Seven - a woman takes over her husbands pottery business
Blessings - what happens when there are too many fairy blessings
Lord Dunsany's Teapot - the story of a remarkable teapot
Seven Years from Home - a war set in the very distant future
Dragons & Decorum - pride and prejudice and dragons
Castle Coeurlieu - a mysterious tower
The Long Way Round - charting a new course

I wouldn't call this a quick read by any means, but it is quite enjoyable!

Fabulous collection of fantasy short stories! Short stories are a good way to simply reset.

This was a great introduction to this author for me

Huge thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for allowing me to read this early! I’ve always been a huge fan of Novik’s writing, so this was a no brainer request for me. I was pleasantly surprised by the collection of short stories. From some familiar faces of characters from Novik’s own books to reimagining of classic characters like Elizabeth Bennet and Sherlock Holmes. This is a collection of stories you won’t want to miss!

3.5/5 stars
I found this collection to be similar to most collections: some stories I loved, some I just liked, and some I didn’t care for. I am glad that I have read many of Naomi Novik’s other works as I found I most enjoyed the stories that were set in worlds Novik had already established in her novels. Knowing the background of the world and having already immersed myself in it for at least one full-length novel prior allowed me to really get into the stories more quickly, which is crucial for a short story.

I also felt the collection ended on a particularly high note. I found myself wishing “The Long Way Round” didn’t end, hoping there was more to read. While I did not find myself gripped in this way about all of the stories, I thought that on the whole, Novik did a wonderful job compiling stories that each fall into the realm of fantasy, but vary immensely from one another, so going from one story to the next there are some common elements, but mostly the stories are vastly different.

Thank you to NetGalley, RandomHouse, and Ballantine Books for the ARC!

*Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for an ARC in exchange for my review*

Naomi Novik is one of my favorite authors so I was delighted to get a chance to read this short story collection!

It's probably no surprise that my favorite stories were those that revisited the worlds of The Scholomance and Temeraire, (After Hours, Vici, and Dragons & Decorum) but I was also pleasantly surprised by how many of the other stories captivated me as well.

I particularly enjoyed *Seven*, about a female pottery maker throwing a male guild on its head, and *Commonplaces* which is about Irene Adler after the death of Sherlock Holmes.

While I think readers who are familiar with her previous works would probably enjoy this more than others, most of the stories are either wholly new worlds or have enough detail included that you don't need a familiarity with her previous works to enjoy this short story collection.

Novik has the ability to draw you in so quickly with her writing and descriptions that each individual story stands on its own two feet and doesn't need additional context to be appreciated!

A good chunk of the stories in this collection are for fans of Naomi Novik's novels. Lucky for me, I'm a huge fan. If you're not, you may end up a bit lost in some places.

Novik, in my opinion, is a master of world-building. While it was quite nice to revisit the worlds of Scholomance and Temeraire, it was also really interesting to see how she works outside of those broad worlds that she's already built, confined to a short format.

I will excidedly wait for her next series.

ARC provided by the and Ballantine Books.

An excellent collection of short stories! Many are connected to Novik's previously published books, set in or close to those worlds, and others are brand new. This will be most popular with existing Novik fans, but would also be a good introduction to her various series for new readers. Overall, the collection features strong women and explores their motivations and relationships with others and the worlds around them. A few stories in particular stood out to me. After Hours gives a look at the future of the Scholomance following the events of that trilogy and it was exciting to see El's impact on that world. Buried Deep is a labyrinth story that builds on Greek mythology and explores difficult choices. Seven is a story about artisans in a unique city state; it asks, is creating your masterpiece worth dying for? And the last story, The Long Way Round, is a teaser for Novik's next book setting, a world of magic and shipbuilding explorers. There were a couple stories in this that didn't hit the mark for me, in particular the short story version of Spinning Silver felt too much like a retread of the book, but overall anyone who enjoys Novik's work or wants a solid collection of creative and clever fantasy stories will be very happy with this.

A collection of stories -- including a Scholomance story, two Temeraire stories, as well as a different (shorter) way that Spinning Silver could've gone -- that show fantasy in the commonplace and on the move. Besides the familiar songs, there are stories about a transformed runaway taken by pirates, Greek mythology, Irene Adler, deadly pottery, fairy godmother blessings gone awry, finding peace during war times, imperialists facing alien cultures and wars, a dark, medieval folktale, and an adventure of sea-faring innovators. Protagonists range from brash to cautious, and are driven by curiosity, pride, friendship, and family. In every tale, Novik draws readers in inexorably.