With their focus on time and history, the short stories in this collection reexamine issues Crowley presented in Little, Big (1981), and Aegypt (1987). In both of these earlier works, Crowley intertwines fairy tale, myth, and legend with the events of everyday life and the mysteries of time. Like Aegypt, each of the stories in Novelty probes the nature of history and the pain which results in its creation, manipulation, and study. Novelty, then, represents a reinvestigation rather than a departure for Crowley.