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A review by timinbc
Of Wars, and Memories, and Starlight by Aliette de Bodard
5.0
4.5 but if a book ever deserved upward rounding this is it.
De Bodard is determined to insert Vietnamese and other culture into the body of modern F/SF, and she continues to do a terrific job of it.
I don't actually even LIKE her Fallen Paris series, but here she's using it to focus on individual players doing the best they can in hard times, and facing hard decisions. That's edging into Guy Gavriel Kay territory, and from me there is no higher praise.
I do like the Xuya setting, and I particularly like most authors' takes on mindships. Now try to imagine de Bodard's agent with a new publisher: A: you know mindships? P: Sure, worked for Leckie and Reynolds and Asher. A: Good, because we're gonna use Vietnamese minds. P: Say what now? A: Yeah, and live births of cyborg minds that will go into ships, and when they die they will be surrounded with warped reality and .... . P: (pushes hidden button under desk)
But somehow it works, and we take it as a given, then de Bodard builds a situation, and tells a gripping story, and it's space opera, often with a techno-magic thing you just have to go along with, and at the end it breaks your heart and you realize what a perfectly crafted jewel that story was. (I didn't say "gem" because that's part of one of the heartbreaks ...)
If you're all Star Wars and MARVEL Avengers, this may not be for you. But if you can imagine having tea with a dragon Sherlock Holmes on a spaceship ... but wait, that's a different de Bodard book.
Someday maybe we can have tea with this author, and watch the sparks of ideas crackling out of her brain, and it's no ordinary brain.
Footnote: the cover art captures the author as well as ANY I have ever seen. It's gorgeous and elegant and totally RIGHT.
De Bodard is determined to insert Vietnamese and other culture into the body of modern F/SF, and she continues to do a terrific job of it.
I don't actually even LIKE her Fallen Paris series, but here she's using it to focus on individual players doing the best they can in hard times, and facing hard decisions. That's edging into Guy Gavriel Kay territory, and from me there is no higher praise.
I do like the Xuya setting, and I particularly like most authors' takes on mindships. Now try to imagine de Bodard's agent with a new publisher: A: you know mindships? P: Sure, worked for Leckie and Reynolds and Asher. A: Good, because we're gonna use Vietnamese minds. P: Say what now? A: Yeah, and live births of cyborg minds that will go into ships, and when they die they will be surrounded with warped reality and .... . P: (pushes hidden button under desk)
But somehow it works, and we take it as a given, then de Bodard builds a situation, and tells a gripping story, and it's space opera, often with a techno-magic thing you just have to go along with, and at the end it breaks your heart and you realize what a perfectly crafted jewel that story was. (I didn't say "gem" because that's part of one of the heartbreaks ...)
If you're all Star Wars and MARVEL Avengers, this may not be for you. But if you can imagine having tea with a dragon Sherlock Holmes on a spaceship ... but wait, that's a different de Bodard book.
Someday maybe we can have tea with this author, and watch the sparks of ideas crackling out of her brain, and it's no ordinary brain.
Footnote: the cover art captures the author as well as ANY I have ever seen. It's gorgeous and elegant and totally RIGHT.