If you read my 2024 Goals post, you’ll know that I’m hoping to read more mosaic novels this year. Last year I read and enjoyed several, and I wanted to explore this narrative genre some more. In this post I want to examine what a mosaic novel actually is, consider some of the different forms it can take, and think about why I’ve been enjoying the genre so much. As usual, this will be from the lens of speculative fiction.
So what is a mosaic novel? Let’s turn to the cliche of the dictionary definition:
a book of short stories that share a common setting or characters and which taken together form a larger narrative
Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction
The Wikipedia entry is similar but expands this somewhat, ending with – ‘with the individual chapters, however, refracting a plurality of viewpoints and styles.’ I should warn readers now that this is the extent of the research I have done for this post – what follows is based on my personal understanding and reading experiences.
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Writings of a Doomscribe 