SciFi Novella Review: Finna by Nino Cipri

Finna by Nino Cipri

Finna is a SciFi novella written by author Nino Cipri, and is I think their long fiction debut (albeit still a novella).  It's a novella that takes a concept that you don't usually see that often in fiction - recent exes having to learn how to live/work with each other (instead of just moving on without them) and throws in some crazy SF concepts as well: a multiverse of worlds featuring very different versions of an Ikea-esque knock off!

And it's really well done in a rather short package, with some very good character and relationship development in ways you don't usually see in stories.  There's a sequel apparently on the way (although it seems to be featuring a different main character) and well, I'm definitely looking forward to it.


Quick Summary:  Ava and Jules just broke up days ago.  Which would be fine, except the two work together at LitenVarld - a not quite Ikea Swedish furniture store - so it's kind of impossible to completely avoid each other, even if Ava tries to switch around her work days to Jules' off days.  And of course, naturally when another employee calls in sick, Ava has to go in on a day Jules is also working....a day when an old grandmother gets lost in the store and can't be found.....because she's clearly walked through a universe to another world.

But not to worry!  LitenVarld is familiar with this circumstance, and has the technology to allow multiversal travel and a way to find their missing person!  And so it falls to the two least senior present employees - naturally that's Ava and Jules - to go through the multiverse together to bring the grandmother back.  Which will involve plenty of time for the two exes to have to deal with each other....since the only other things to interact with are the crazy and often dangerous things in other universes.....

Thoughts:  Finna's overall setting concept isn't unusual or unique: the corporate entity connected to a strange multiverse has been done before, and while the various worlds are fun and different, I'm sure many readers will have seen similar things.  The setting allows for the novella to poke fun at the crappy nature of capitalism, through both metaphor (in one universe it's a literal blood sucking hive) and not (the corporation is sending the protagonists because it budget cut its actual multiverse defending department), and that too is hardly original.  Still, while these aspects have been done before, they're done here really well and in a very entertaining way, so that's not really a critique.

What isn't as often done, and what makes Finna stand out even more, is the main concept of a pair of Exes (in this case, queer Exes - being a woman and an enby) trying to not just move on from each other, but to move on when they still have to forge a relationship.  Ava and Jules have very different temperaments, and you can see how each would find the others' contrasts to be attractive and also how it pushed them apart, and so much of this novella is really about them both coming to accept those contrasting traits as still who they are and something they can use to forge a friendship, not a romance.  It's really great development work, and it's something I haven't really seen before, and it just makes it all the more special.

So yeah, this one is definitely a winner, and may very well wind up on my Hugo Ballot for next year, barring some incredible stuff also coming up....