Until I read the Stormlight Archive books, I didn’t realize how much I needed stories centered on historians and their apprentices, and engineers and their laboratories. I cherished every scene in the books in which Shallan and Jasnah discussed the nature of scholarship and Navani guided the scientists working for her kingdom. I read and reread every note they made, the details of every book they read, every idea they researched, longing to join them.
Soon, I was hunting for similar books and short stories by other authors. Here are seven of my favorite short fiction pieces featuring students and scholarship, research and exams—and one visit to the principal’s office.
“Field Biology of the Wee Fairies” by Naomi Kritzer, Apex Magazine
Amelia’s world is almost like ours, with one difference: when girls start to grow up, they find a fairy, which grants them a gift—long eyelashes or perfect hair, for example. When you see a fairy, you know you’re finally becoming a woman. Fourteen-year-old Amelia isn’t interested in catching a fairy or turning pretty, although everyone keeps telling her she’ll change her mind. She’s busy working on a science project for a competition she hopes she’ll win—and subsequently convince her Biology teacher to let her into the all-boys science club. When Amelia’s fairy does show up, she realizes she has another interesting subject to study. After all, who cares about longer eyelashes when you can instead study the field biology of the wee fairies?
I’ve loved almost every story Naomi Kritzer has written, especially her pandemic-story-before-the-pandemic, “So Much Cooking.” This one, however, is the kind I wish I’d read when I was in school. It might have convinced me to choose a different path. If you want to encourage little girls to go into STEM, you could do worse than sharing this story with them.
“On the Impurity of Dragon-kind” by Marie Brennan, Uncanny Magazine
I found Brennan’s fantastic Memoirs of Lady Trent books through fans of The Stormlight Archive when I asked for recommendations of books featuring scholars (if you have any favorites, please let me know in the comments!). I thoroughly enjoyed the books, then read every story of hers I could find. To my delight, Brennan has written quite a few stories featuring scholars, which isn’t surprising, given her own background in anthropology and folklore. This story is set in the same world as her Lady Trent books—a short sequel, if you will. Lady Trent’s son is finally having a delayed ceremony celebrating his passage to adulthood. To mark the event, he deviates from the topic he’d chosen for his discourse and talks instead about the impurity of dragon-kind. He refers to quotations from religious and scientific texts to challenge the society’s attitude towards dragons. I loved all the cross-referencing, but it was the ending that I loved the most—for Lady Trent’s son makes his exit in a way that proves he is his mother’s son. A delightful read.
“To Hear Them Sing” by Rebecca Burton, Fireside Magazine
When she was young, Raven saw an arbitect growing a tree. Ever since, she’s wanted to become an arbitect too, to hear the song of the trees. She’s studied hard all her life, made it through five years of study and come out ahead of the thousand people who’d begun this journey with her. Now she has to face her final test—but she has no idea what it will be. Will she be able to succeed? Or will she have to spend the rest of her life as a mere assistant, only observing plants, never being able to connect to them, to hear them sing?
“Every Tiny Tooth and Claw (or: Letters from the First Month of the New Directorate)” by Marissa Lingen, Beneath Ceaseless Skies
I love a good epistolary story. I also love stories of the rise and fall of regimes. This piece by Marissa Lingen combines both elements with a heavy dose of research on rodents. Aranth and Pippa write to each other regularly, letters that are at once filled with fascinating research questions (and some answers) and the kind of cheesy goodbyes that only scholars in love can manage. But the land in which they live is changing—and, unfortunately, getting in the way of their research. Lingen mentions several interesting fields and concepts (thaumanimatology! hydromancy!) that I’d be happy to read a full-length novel about. Until she writes one, I’ll gladly reread this story again and again.
“Vīs Dēlendī” by Marie Brennan, Uncanny Magazine
Another one from Brennan—you should seriously check out her work if you haven’t already. I usually wish I could step into each of her worlds to stay and study till the end of time, but I think I’d stay away from this one…
Harrik Neconnu has presented himself before the thirteen Masters, who do not think much of this average student. Yet he has come to seek vīs faciendī, the toughest degree, which very few ever manage to earn. The Masters are curious to see what impossibility Harrik might carry out—and if he’ll prove them wrong about his skills.
“Due by the End of the Week” by Brandon O’Brien, Fireside Magazine
Derek isn’t pleased about being paired with Kelly for a Sociology assignment—she hardly shows up in class, for starters. Kelly needs to get a good grade too, but she can’t really ignore the monsters that she must fight on quite a regular basis. You know, normal superhero stuff. Except it’s all a secret so it won’t get her any extra credits. Can Kelly manage to save all the people that need saving and submit her portion of the assignment by the end of the week?
“A Magical Misfire” by Emily Dorffer, Daily Science Fiction
I love this sweet little story of a magical mistake by Emily Dorffer. It’s short enough that describing the plot risks spoiling it, so I’ll just say that it begins with little Grover in the principal’s office and ends with a happy twist.
Ratika Deshpande, Order of Truthwatchers, aspiring Keeper, is a freelance writer based in New Delhi, India. You can find her writing on books, writing, and other nerdy miscellany on her website.
This sounds like a delightful list. I will have to check out the stories.
I have long been fascinated by the fact that fantasy writers are often interested in scholarship and study. It’s been an element in many series I have read, and not just in stories set in magical schools. I guess this fascination with study might be partly due to the fact that writers have to do research for stories, may have grown up with a love of reading, etc.
Maybe it just has to do with general human curiosity (and the idea of seeking after forbidden knowledge – see the Tower of Babel, Ulysses in Dante’s Divine Comedy, etc.).
I would love if anyone else has insights.
As for specific examples, many of Patricia McKilip’s stories have to do with learning and magic (The Bards of Bone Plain, kind of Alphabet of Thorn, the Riddlemaster trilogy). I would also cite Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle and Ursula Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea.
Though they are novels rather than short stories, Ellen Kushner’s The Fall of the Kings was the thing that immediately sprung to mind, closely followed by Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind. The University setting is fundamental to both
Thank you for this list. I will have to check these out. Not a short story, but Sarah Tolmie’s ‘The Stone Boatmen’ contains scholars and scholarship of a number of different hues, and I thoroughly enjoyed being immersed in her world.
” The Man Who Bridged the Mist” by Kij Johnson is a great fantasy/science fiction (it’s not quite clear which) story about an engineer. It’s not set in a school, but it has a scholarly air.
See also “The Events Leading Down to the Tragedy” (1958) by C.M. Kornbluth. Written in the form of draft of a paper to be read at a local historical society, the narrator, a historian, is going to attempt to use a newly discovered time-travel method to find out the truth behind a long-festering factional rivalry in the town. The “paper” contains a lot of marginal notes to himself about how it will be received, as well as snarking about rival historians.
Not one but two shout-outs — I’m flattered! And very interested in the other stories, as this is clearly a mode I enjoy . . .
Thank you everyone for the recommendations!
Not a story, but a novel, Babel: an Arcane History, by R.F. Kuang, deserves a mention on this list; beautiful description of 19th century magical Oxford University setting.
Thank you for this list: I have been looking for stories like these for a while!
“The Word of Flesh and Soul”, by Ruthanna Emrys, is haunting and it is beautiful. It’s about a female student who has to deal with both the misoginy of academia and the brutal physical / psychological side-effects of language-based magic. (And I read it here on Tor.com).
“A Small Price to Pay for Birdsong”, by K.J. Parker, was good enough that I spent years hunting down their Academic Exercices which feature several short stories set in the same world, including some set in academia. This one is about a music professor and his genius / criminal student. In the other ones, we learn a bit more, or sometimes a lot, about the fairly simple but intriguing magic system. (“A Small Price…” is free to read on the preview of the collection on Amazon.)
As for novels, I am not sure that anything beats Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell, to which the only reasonable reaction is to want to become a scholar of English Magic.
@8: Babel was sort of a disappointment: for me, it fails as a fantasy novel as well as an alt history novel… but I haven’t stopped thinking about it or talking about it since I read it!
Daily Science Fiction, where the final story on the list, “A Magical Misfire,” was hosted is, alas, no more. But the story can be found here, thanks to the Wayback Machine.