Though not due until September (but available for pre-order from your favorite bookseller or direct from Tachyon), R. B. Lemberg’s THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES garners a lot of praise.

TO OTHER WORLDS highly recommends the book.

But to me, by far the biggest surprise was that the length felt exactly right. I found I don’t like novellas very much – they often feel as if they’re missing something, as if either there’s too many ideas or plot crammed into too small of a space or as if there’s not enough. Not so here; Lemberg hit the precarious balance perfectly. THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES feels complete. It needs nothing more and nothing less than what is already there. It’s probably safe to say this will be one of the highlights of 2020 for me and I most highly recommend it.

Enjoyment: 5/5
Execution: 5/5

Marissa Lingen on NOVEL GAZING REDUX feels much the same.

I picked up THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES after reading a long book about horrible people, and it was incredibly restorative. It was fun and gripping and a very fast read, and the book design was beautiful. But along with all those things it was refreshing at a time when my heart needed to be refreshed. Highly recommended.

At IT’S A JUMBLE, Vanessa Fogg adds their thoughts.

THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES is both beautiful and profound. It speaks of love in various ways, and of how love can hurt and bind as well as nourish and bring joy. It speaks of various forms of oppression, and the different boundaries (in some cases, literal walls) that people concoct for themselves, the limits that some seek to transcend and the prisons that others willingly accept. There’s a literal prison in this slim book, a dungeon filled with speaking bones and ghosts, a torturer, and a tyrant. There’s darkness and truly creepy, striking imagery. There’s an intimate realism to the characters and their struggles, but there’s also a fable-like quality to the plot. The mix works; this novella is lovely, luminous, and moving.