I usually publish standalone reviews of novellas that were published as standalone books, but I read two last month that had me saying a lot of the same things, so I’m breaking from my habit and writing what I believe is my first review two-pack: The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson and Desdemona and the Deep by C.S.E. Cooney. 

Both novellas are a few years old at this point, but both are written by fairly decorated authors and filled tricky Bingo squares, so I decided that this was a good time to pull them off the TBR. And the plots of both follow relatively well-worn quest structures. The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe retells a Lovecraft tale that I have not read, directly addressing the dearth of women in the original by centering a professor and former adventurer from a women’s college in a Lovecraftian dream world, attempting to retrieve a student who has fled to the waking world before an angry father blames the college and pushes to shut it down. Desdemona and the Deep follows the daughter of a mining baron who descends to the realm of goblins to retrieve the miners whose lives her father has traded away. 

Both authors excel in their prose, which in The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe comes out especially in the fantastical descriptions of a wide variety of terrifying creatures and settings. Cooney, on the other hand, puts her extensive vocabulary to use detailing the lead’s opulent lifestyle that’s shaken to the core by the revelation of her father’s crimes, an extended scene-setting that for me was the highlight of the entire book. 

After that, they’re both quest narratives, with the leads being dragged from place to place and confronting obstacle after obstacle in pursuit of their goal. As a quest story, The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe is more successful, as Johnson brings to life the titular Boe’s obstacles in a way that makes them feel a genuine threat to the success of her quest, or even to her very survival. I tend to find the beats of quest narratives to grow repetitive, and Dream-Quest is no exception, but the perils are vividly portrayed and very perilous indeed. In contrast, Desdemona certainly faces danger to life and limb, but she’s more helped than hurt by the fantastical beings she meets along the way, and the obstacles she faces on her quest have something of a “line them up and knock them down” feeling to them. 

Of course, both tales are interested in a little bit more than just the quest, but again, I find The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe a bit more successful in exploring its theme. The sidelining of women is baked into the entire premise, it’s woven consistently into the journey with some truly tremendous individual passages, and it’s on full display in the story’s ultimate conclusion. On the other hand, Desdemona and the Deep is obviously concerned about exploitation of workers and has a prominent subplot about a trans woman finding a place of acceptance, but neither is quite as deep or consistent as the themes in Dream-Quest. 

Overall, both of these are solid novellas by talented authors. Neither of them hit greatness for me—in large part because they’re just not the sort of story I’m likely to love—but it’s easy to recommend either for fans of quest narratives. If I had to pick between the two, it would be The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe, which does a better job both maintaining the tension and incorporating its theme. But Desdemona and the Deep puts Cooney’s prose facility on full display and has an excellent setup. It doesn’t come especially close to the level of “The Bone Swans of Amandale” or Saint Death’s Daughter, both of which are favorites of mine, but you can certainly see the skill. 

Recommended if you like: woman-centered quest narratives. 

Can I use it for Bingo? Both stories fit Under the Surface (Desdemona is hard mode) and Dreams, Desdemona features Orcs, Goblins, or Trolls (arguably hard mode), and Dream-Quest features Eldritch Creatures. 

Overall rating: I’ll put The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe at 15 of Tar Vol’s 20 (four stars on Goodreads) and Desdemona and the Deep at 13 of 20 (three stars).