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In the Shadow of the Ship
Nightjar, sentient ship and family matriarch, looms large in Khuyên’s past. Disappearances drove teenage Khuyên from it, but death will steer her back.
Now an adult and a magistrate, Khuyên came for her maternal grandmother’s funeral but finds herself unwittingly reliving her past on the decaying Nightjar. Children are still disappearing as her childhood friends once did; and worse, her beloved Cousin Anh vanishes after pleading for her help.
Khuyên sets out to save Anh alongside Thảo, a beautiful and mysterious woman who seems to know more than she should about Khuyên and the ship. But saving Anh requires doing what Khuyên couldn’t do before: face her family, face the ship, face her own hopes and fears for the future—a future that might well include Thảo, but only if Khuyên can stop listening to the critical voice in her head.
A voice that sounds an awful lot like Nightjar’s...
Now an adult and a magistrate, Khuyên came for her maternal grandmother’s funeral but finds herself unwittingly reliving her past on the decaying Nightjar. Children are still disappearing as her childhood friends once did; and worse, her beloved Cousin Anh vanishes after pleading for her help.
Khuyên sets out to save Anh alongside Thảo, a beautiful and mysterious woman who seems to know more than she should about Khuyên and the ship. But saving Anh requires doing what Khuyên couldn’t do before: face her family, face the ship, face her own hopes and fears for the future—a future that might well include Thảo, but only if Khuyên can stop listening to the critical voice in her head.
A voice that sounds an awful lot like Nightjar’s...
96 pages, Hardcover
First published September 30, 2024
8 people are currently reading
346 people want to read
About the author
Aliette de Bodard
264 books2,227 followersAliette de Bodard lives and works in Paris. She has won three Nebula Awards, an Ignyte Award, a Locus Award, a British Fantasy Award and four British Science Fiction Association Awards, and was a double Hugo finalist for 2019 (Best Series and Best Novella).
Her most recent book is Fireheart Tiger (Tor.com), a sapphic romantic fantasy inspired by pre colonial Vietnam, where a diplomat princess must decide the fate of her country, and her own. She also wrote Seven of Infinities (Subterranean Press), a space opera where a sentient spaceship and an upright scholar join forces to investigate a murder, and find themselves falling for each other. Other books include Of Dragons, Feasts and Murders and its standalone sequel Of Charms, Ghosts and Grievances, (JABberwocky Literary Agency, Inc.), fantasy books of manners and murders set in an alternate 19th Century Vietnamese court. She lives in Paris.
Her most recent book is Fireheart Tiger (Tor.com), a sapphic romantic fantasy inspired by pre colonial Vietnam, where a diplomat princess must decide the fate of her country, and her own. She also wrote Seven of Infinities (Subterranean Press), a space opera where a sentient spaceship and an upright scholar join forces to investigate a murder, and find themselves falling for each other. Other books include Of Dragons, Feasts and Murders and its standalone sequel Of Charms, Ghosts and Grievances, (JABberwocky Literary Agency, Inc.), fantasy books of manners and murders set in an alternate 19th Century Vietnamese court. She lives in Paris.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
August 15, 2024
4.5 stars rounded up
This was creepy! A blend of sci-fi and horror, In the Shadow of the Ship is a novella set in a world where ships have organic, sentient minds. Khuyen is returning to Nightjar, the ship she grew up on, for her grandmothers funeral.
It's the first time she has been back since fleeing as a teenager and she must reckon with the truth of her past and her complicated relationship with her family. As long as she can remember, children were required by the ship as Tribute and then thy would disappear. But what is the ship doing with them? And why are strange things happening? I really enjoyed this novella and would recommend it if you like de Bodard's writing. I received a copy of this book for review via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.
This was creepy! A blend of sci-fi and horror, In the Shadow of the Ship is a novella set in a world where ships have organic, sentient minds. Khuyen is returning to Nightjar, the ship she grew up on, for her grandmothers funeral.
It's the first time she has been back since fleeing as a teenager and she must reckon with the truth of her past and her complicated relationship with her family. As long as she can remember, children were required by the ship as Tribute and then thy would disappear. But what is the ship doing with them? And why are strange things happening? I really enjoyed this novella and would recommend it if you like de Bodard's writing. I received a copy of this book for review via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.
July 30, 2024
I have read almost everything Aliette de Bodard has written in the Xuya universe, and her ability to write about difficult family relationships, trauma, and the aftermath of war is remarkable. This novella is no exception, painting a bleak picture of the choices available to the protagonist and her family. As with many of the Xuya stories, I expect the themes and writing to be even richer on re-read.
I always struggle when trying to advise others where to start with the Xuya stories, and I don't think this novella is likely to be a very accessible starting point. I felt that having a previous background on the mindships and the setting were helpful in understanding what was going on in the story. On the other hand, this story offers a new view of mindships, as the Nightjar is quite different than any ships that have previously been portrayed.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC.
I always struggle when trying to advise others where to start with the Xuya stories, and I don't think this novella is likely to be a very accessible starting point. I felt that having a previous background on the mindships and the setting were helpful in understanding what was going on in the story. On the other hand, this story offers a new view of mindships, as the Nightjar is quite different than any ships that have previously been portrayed.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC.
January 1, 2025
I always enjoy the stories set in the Xuya universe. This was excellent and creepy gothic sci-fi. Family drama, creepy old home, and dealing with past harms. All handled deftly by de Bodard, as she does.
October 23, 2024
Thanks to NetGalley and Subterranean Press for the ARC.
I read one other novella set in the Xuya universe, so I knew about what to expect setting-wise. Even if this is the first one you read, it's pretty easy to get the gist of the worldbuilding. The one I read before was a Sherlock‐esque mystery, which was fun. This one incorporates more horror elements, and I am all for it. Genuinely creepy and well-paced, and really cool to see what can all be done within this shared universe.
I read one other novella set in the Xuya universe, so I knew about what to expect setting-wise. Even if this is the first one you read, it's pretty easy to get the gist of the worldbuilding. The one I read before was a Sherlock‐esque mystery, which was fun. This one incorporates more horror elements, and I am all for it. Genuinely creepy and well-paced, and really cool to see what can all be done within this shared universe.
December 23, 2024
I probably would have enjoyed this more if I was more familiar with the universe, or also if I was more of a horror fan.
Also, this probably makes me culturally insensitive, but I hate hate hate that de Bodard chooses to use big sister/little sister as terms of endearment between two romantically (non-related) involved women. It bothered me in other books of hers, and it bothered me here. I recognize that these are translated Vietnamese honorifics, but she is using them in English, and it squicks me out when a character refers to someone as little sister and then proceeds to have a romantic encounter with them. Surely there are other ways that these could be translated that don't invoke what reads like an incest kink (which is emphatically not one of my kinks, and thus, serious squick).
Also, this probably makes me culturally insensitive, but I hate hate hate that de Bodard chooses to use big sister/little sister as terms of endearment between two romantically (non-related) involved women. It bothered me in other books of hers, and it bothered me here. I recognize that these are translated Vietnamese honorifics, but she is using them in English, and it squicks me out when a character refers to someone as little sister and then proceeds to have a romantic encounter with them. Surely there are other ways that these could be translated that don't invoke what reads like an incest kink (which is emphatically not one of my kinks, and thus, serious squick).
December 12, 2024
Returning to the Xuya universe again I was holding my breath - we've got enough entries now for patterns to emerge and lately I've felt they all blur together, treading the same ground and never expanded the world or their premises.
Shadow is sadly exactly what I feared. We find ourselves with again a talented, but somewhat disgraced young woman returning to confront some portion of her past. There's tension with family and filial piety, with a damaged mindship lurking in the background. This is in many ways, the same story we have now read multiple times, just rearranged (if even that).
Bodard seems to show little interest in expanding the scope or premise of Xuya, and that itself is the real shame here.
Shadow is sadly exactly what I feared. We find ourselves with again a talented, but somewhat disgraced young woman returning to confront some portion of her past. There's tension with family and filial piety, with a damaged mindship lurking in the background. This is in many ways, the same story we have now read multiple times, just rearranged (if even that).
Bodard seems to show little interest in expanding the scope or premise of Xuya, and that itself is the real shame here.
April 29, 2024
Thank you to NetGalley and Subterranean Press for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions within are my own.
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“You’re the generation that has to live in the ashes of the fires we set.”
This is, fundamentally, a book about war trauma and also about escaping a cult. Here, de Bodard returns to the world of Xuya, and, for my money, she returns to form as well, regaining some of the greatness her writing has seen in On a Red Station Drifting, The Citadel of Weeping Pearls, and The Tea Master and the Detective. She keeps a light hand on the brush with which she paints her setting and characters, and the result is unwordy yet evocative. Some of her imagery is lovely, some eerie or upsetting. All of it adds and adds up.
In the past, romantic writing has been de Bodard’s weakness. Here, she improves on that, though, frustratingly, she still jumps the gun on announcing an attraction that seems to come out of nowhere. Beyond that point, however, she does develop a genuine bond between the characters falling in love, and I find myself cheering for not only their success but their relationship as well.
Conversely, de Bodard’s portrayal of complex and possibly toxic familial relationships has frequently been one of her greatest strengths. Khuyen’s relationship with her mother in this story may not be as dimensional as some, but it’s still chilling, believable, and affecting. But it’s Khuyen’s relationship with her younger cousin, Ahn, which I find myself fascinated by and wishing to see more of. Whereas Khuyen managed to leave her terrifying childhood home, Anh is the one who stayed and tried desperately to find her purpose. While Khuyen thinks of Anh as someone to rescue, de Bodard doesn’t let it be as simple as that.
I may not have enjoyed much of de Bodard’s more recent writing, but I’m giddy to report that In the Shadow of the Ship breaks that mold. Here’s hoping it starts a new trend!
---
“You’re the generation that has to live in the ashes of the fires we set.”
This is, fundamentally, a book about war trauma and also about escaping a cult. Here, de Bodard returns to the world of Xuya, and, for my money, she returns to form as well, regaining some of the greatness her writing has seen in On a Red Station Drifting, The Citadel of Weeping Pearls, and The Tea Master and the Detective. She keeps a light hand on the brush with which she paints her setting and characters, and the result is unwordy yet evocative. Some of her imagery is lovely, some eerie or upsetting. All of it adds and adds up.
In the past, romantic writing has been de Bodard’s weakness. Here, she improves on that, though, frustratingly, she still jumps the gun on announcing an attraction that seems to come out of nowhere. Beyond that point, however, she does develop a genuine bond between the characters falling in love, and I find myself cheering for not only their success but their relationship as well.
Conversely, de Bodard’s portrayal of complex and possibly toxic familial relationships has frequently been one of her greatest strengths. Khuyen’s relationship with her mother in this story may not be as dimensional as some, but it’s still chilling, believable, and affecting. But it’s Khuyen’s relationship with her younger cousin, Ahn, which I find myself fascinated by and wishing to see more of. Whereas Khuyen managed to leave her terrifying childhood home, Anh is the one who stayed and tried desperately to find her purpose. While Khuyen thinks of Anh as someone to rescue, de Bodard doesn’t let it be as simple as that.
I may not have enjoyed much of de Bodard’s more recent writing, but I’m giddy to report that In the Shadow of the Ship breaks that mold. Here’s hoping it starts a new trend!
September 15, 2024
Genre: science fiction
Perhaps my favorite from the Xuya Universe to date. Khuyên has returned home to the mindship Nightjar for her grandmother's funeral. She ran away from Nightjar 4 years ago, and senses something wrong when she returns. Dreams lead her down a path of discovery behind Nightjar and a mysterious woman she meets on board.
In the world of avatars for sentient ships, things can get rather complex to explain. On the one hand, de Bodard's longer books can provide more worldbuilding and explanation of how they work. On the other hand, the shorter stories, like this novella, feel less bogged down by that detail and allow the universe to just exist. Like other books in the Xuya Universe, this is a standalone that explores the idea of love, family, and honor and duty.
There's no reason you couldn't start with this one. With Aliette de Bodard's writing, the more of her you read, the deeper appreciation and understanding you can have of each story.
Thank you to Subterranean Press for an eARC for review. In The Shadow of the Ship is out 9/30/24.
Perhaps my favorite from the Xuya Universe to date. Khuyên has returned home to the mindship Nightjar for her grandmother's funeral. She ran away from Nightjar 4 years ago, and senses something wrong when she returns. Dreams lead her down a path of discovery behind Nightjar and a mysterious woman she meets on board.
In the world of avatars for sentient ships, things can get rather complex to explain. On the one hand, de Bodard's longer books can provide more worldbuilding and explanation of how they work. On the other hand, the shorter stories, like this novella, feel less bogged down by that detail and allow the universe to just exist. Like other books in the Xuya Universe, this is a standalone that explores the idea of love, family, and honor and duty.
There's no reason you couldn't start with this one. With Aliette de Bodard's writing, the more of her you read, the deeper appreciation and understanding you can have of each story.
Thank you to Subterranean Press for an eARC for review. In The Shadow of the Ship is out 9/30/24.
November 3, 2024
This is a fun installment of the Xuya Universe, though I will admit that I am a bit confused where it falls in the overall timeline: it mentions the aftermath of a war and I don't remember that war from other Xuya books I've read recently. I know that the series is loosely connected, and so I didn't expect this to flow directly from any of the other stories I've read, but it threw me for a minute. (I got over it quickly, fortunately.)
I've always liked de Bodard's take on mindships: they are a combination of organic (human) and electronic parts, and they retain some of the emotions and needs of their human halves. I also really like how the tech works in this universe, with the bots and the networks and visual overlays. In this book, that tech makes our narrator slightly unreliable at times, when she is cut off from her usual network and isn't always sure about what is real.
There isn't much about the plot that I can go into without spoilers (see above "slightly unreliable" comment). However, the novella starts off with our MC going home to a mindship she fled from as an older teen, because she learned that her grandmother died and she's going to pay her respects. Once there, she has to deal with the reasons she left: the continual disappointment of her mother and the specter of a vague (but predictable) Tribute to the ship. I enjoyed the story and the writing style, and would recommend the book to fans of the universe.
I've always liked de Bodard's take on mindships: they are a combination of organic (human) and electronic parts, and they retain some of the emotions and needs of their human halves. I also really like how the tech works in this universe, with the bots and the networks and visual overlays. In this book, that tech makes our narrator slightly unreliable at times, when she is cut off from her usual network and isn't always sure about what is real.
There isn't much about the plot that I can go into without spoilers (see above "slightly unreliable" comment). However, the novella starts off with our MC going home to a mindship she fled from as an older teen, because she learned that her grandmother died and she's going to pay her respects. Once there, she has to deal with the reasons she left: the continual disappointment of her mother and the specter of a vague (but predictable) Tribute to the ship. I enjoyed the story and the writing style, and would recommend the book to fans of the universe.
November 20, 2024
More of a 3.5 I think.
It’s been a while since I’ve read an Aliette de Bodard story set in the Xuya universe, so I picked up the smallest one on my tbr. And this turned out to be so different from the ones I’ve read before.
A mix of sci-fi and horror, this was more on the creepier side, giving us a look into what the mindships can become if they go over the deep end. The usual themes of the universe including dealing with war trauma, complicated family relationships and deciding between being filial or doing the right thing are present in this story as well. Though I also always enjoy the author’s sapphic love stories, this one came out to be very instalovey, not surprising in a book less than 100 pages.
Overall, I went into this pretty ignorant of the premise and got a sneak peak into the more darker side of this war torn Xuya universe. It has definitely made me want to get back into it and pick up the rest of the novels I still have languishing on my tbr.
It’s been a while since I’ve read an Aliette de Bodard story set in the Xuya universe, so I picked up the smallest one on my tbr. And this turned out to be so different from the ones I’ve read before.
A mix of sci-fi and horror, this was more on the creepier side, giving us a look into what the mindships can become if they go over the deep end. The usual themes of the universe including dealing with war trauma, complicated family relationships and deciding between being filial or doing the right thing are present in this story as well. Though I also always enjoy the author’s sapphic love stories, this one came out to be very instalovey, not surprising in a book less than 100 pages.
Overall, I went into this pretty ignorant of the premise and got a sneak peak into the more darker side of this war torn Xuya universe. It has definitely made me want to get back into it and pick up the rest of the novels I still have languishing on my tbr.
October 7, 2024
An excellent addition to the Xuya Universe and a nice creepy vibe perfect for the spooky season. Aliette de Bodard is a master of shorter stories and, while this one definitely builds towards an inevitable conclusion that the reader is likely to suspect in advance, it doesn't disappoint in its delivery.
I wasn't expecting a gothic science-fiction horror when I pre-ordered this novella, but I'm definitely here for it.
I wasn't expecting a gothic science-fiction horror when I pre-ordered this novella, but I'm definitely here for it.
August 30, 2024
I am a huge sucker for Ms. DeBodard's work, but add in familial trauma and what a ship is willing to do to ensure it keeps going, and a family that throws its children on the bonfire so the elders can thrive, and a mysterious hot older lady who's trying to help you on your haunted ass grandmother ship, and you have what is absolute catnip for me. This comes out at the end of September; pick it up for an excellent treat.
April 6, 2024
Thank you to NetGalley and Subterranean Press for the ARC!
If there's one thing about de Bodard, it's that she's gonna deliver and it's gonna be gloriously painful.
Khuyên fled her home on the Nightjar four years ago, after a string of children's disappearances. Now working for the Empire, Khuyên returns upon receiving news of her grandmother's death. Her grandmother oversaw the Tribute, a deemed necessity for life aboard the Nightjar and one that only children could participate in.
Back for the funeral, Khuyên is forced to relieve her past on the ship, and the night of the funeral, she encounters someone she's never seen before, Thảo, a beautiful woman who is cryptic with Khuyên. When Khuyên asks her mother about Thảo, her mother says she's never seen or heard of her. Then Khuyên wakes up in the same clothes she slept in when she still lived aboard the Nightjar, and there's an eerie silence to the entire ship...
Aliette de Bodard never fails to impress me. I have dipped my toes into so many of her different books, different universes, and her imagination, her writing are always top notch. The creativity that goes into the Xuya stories just boggles me. In the Shadow of the Ship is excellence, plain and simple.
If there's one thing about de Bodard, it's that she's gonna deliver and it's gonna be gloriously painful.
Khuyên fled her home on the Nightjar four years ago, after a string of children's disappearances. Now working for the Empire, Khuyên returns upon receiving news of her grandmother's death. Her grandmother oversaw the Tribute, a deemed necessity for life aboard the Nightjar and one that only children could participate in.
Back for the funeral, Khuyên is forced to relieve her past on the ship, and the night of the funeral, she encounters someone she's never seen before, Thảo, a beautiful woman who is cryptic with Khuyên. When Khuyên asks her mother about Thảo, her mother says she's never seen or heard of her. Then Khuyên wakes up in the same clothes she slept in when she still lived aboard the Nightjar, and there's an eerie silence to the entire ship...
Aliette de Bodard never fails to impress me. I have dipped my toes into so many of her different books, different universes, and her imagination, her writing are always top notch. The creativity that goes into the Xuya stories just boggles me. In the Shadow of the Ship is excellence, plain and simple.
July 25, 2025
A broken mindship and lost children
Aliette de Bodard's In the Shadow of the Ship is a novella set in her Xuya Universe. Like many Xuya stories, this one takes place aboard a mindship. This particular mindship is called Nightjar and was damaged escaping from the collapsing Empire. (Exactly which Empire this was I am not sure -- there is more than one in the Xuya Universe.)
At any rate, Nightjar is not a healthy place. She escaped carrying some of her family. They still live aboard and afford her the loyalty she expects, mostly. Nightjar demands tribute in the form of children whom she lures into her dead zones, from which they never emerge. When Khuyên was a child she was invited to the dead zones by her cousin Anh, but she refused. Later she did the unthinkable: she left Nightjar for the broken Empire, where she rose to the post of Magistrate.
Now Khuyên has returned to Nightjar for her grandmother's funeral, where she is met with a complex mixture of disdain for her disloyalty and awe for her chutzpah in having left. As a Magistrate, Khuyên is an experienced investigator, so she does that.
This felt to me like a retelling, although of what I could not say. De Bodard's stories are often based on Vietnamese folklore, which is less familiar to me than the European flavors. It felt like a sort of mixture of Hansel and Gretel with Theseus and the Minotaur.
I enjoyed it. As always with de Bodard, it required the reader to exercise what Hercule Poirot called the "little grey cells", which is always satisfying, as long as it's not too frustrating, and this one was more the former than the latter.
Blog review.
Aliette de Bodard's In the Shadow of the Ship is a novella set in her Xuya Universe. Like many Xuya stories, this one takes place aboard a mindship. This particular mindship is called Nightjar and was damaged escaping from the collapsing Empire. (Exactly which Empire this was I am not sure -- there is more than one in the Xuya Universe.)
At any rate, Nightjar is not a healthy place. She escaped carrying some of her family. They still live aboard and afford her the loyalty she expects, mostly. Nightjar demands tribute in the form of children whom she lures into her dead zones, from which they never emerge. When Khuyên was a child she was invited to the dead zones by her cousin Anh, but she refused. Later she did the unthinkable: she left Nightjar for the broken Empire, where she rose to the post of Magistrate.
Now Khuyên has returned to Nightjar for her grandmother's funeral, where she is met with a complex mixture of disdain for her disloyalty and awe for her chutzpah in having left. As a Magistrate, Khuyên is an experienced investigator, so she does that.
This felt to me like a retelling, although of what I could not say. De Bodard's stories are often based on Vietnamese folklore, which is less familiar to me than the European flavors. It felt like a sort of mixture of Hansel and Gretel with Theseus and the Minotaur.
I enjoyed it. As always with de Bodard, it required the reader to exercise what Hercule Poirot called the "little grey cells", which is always satisfying, as long as it's not too frustrating, and this one was more the former than the latter.
Blog review.
October 11, 2024
The Universe of Xuya isn’t so much a series as it is a sprawl of alternate history that extends from the early 15th century – the point where the butterfly flapped its wings differently from the history we know – all the way out to an undetermined point VERY far in the future.
It’s a vast, sprawling canvas of a universe that hinges on a single year in history (1411) where two events turned left instead of right. An internal political struggle at the Imperial court of Ming-dynasty China sent the Empire looking outward instead of in (as it did in our history) and a fleet of Imperial ships that planned to head east along the coast was struck by typhoons and found itself drifting north, across the Bering Strait to Alaska, resulting in an earlier “discovery” of North America, from Asia instead of from Europe.
And with those two almighty flaps of the butterfly’s wings, history goes down the other leg of the trousers of time (to thoroughly mix my metaphors) and results in the universe of this series, where China and eventually an independent Việt empire become the dominant influences in the world instead of the West – not that, by the time of this particular entry in the sprawl, the West hasn’t established its own hegemonies in the greater galaxy.
The past is another country, they do things differently there. And if they did things differently than what we know, the future would be an even more different country that it will be on history’s current trajectory.
But the thing about the Xuya Universe is that even though the author has a broad outline of what brought it about and some stories set in the historical past that illustrate some of the points, most of it is set in the future. The galaxy is big, the history and future history is potentially very long indeed, and there’s plenty of scope for pretty much anything to happen pretty much anywhere.
Which leads back to the Universe of Xuya being more of a sprawl than the way we usually think of ‘series’. Each story set in the Xuya Universe is intended to be standalone, and while it might link thematically with other stories, that doesn’t mean it will feature any of the same characters as previous or future entries. There’s obviously a publication order for the series, but the internal chronology is ever changing, and considerably more fluid than is usually the case.
I fell into this series, somewhere in the middle, with The Tea Master and the Detective, because it’s a Sherlock Holmes pastiche and that was an entry point that worked for me – as it usually does. (Also, Tea Master is one of the longer works in the series so it has time and space to get a new reader stuck into the world that’s already been built.) I’ve read around Xuya, but not thoroughly – at least not yet – ever since. Although I’ve just had the light dawn that several of the short stories that were in various SFF magazines are also available as podcasts and that’s an avenue to be explored.
I know I haven’t talked about this particular entry in the series yet, and that’s a bit by design as I have mixed feelings about whether this story is a good place to start. I found it fascinating but I don’t think it’s a good entry point. The author has an excellent precis of the history of Xuya, with a list of stories that give both a loose chronology and some suggestions of stories that might make good places to start on her website – so if you’re looking for an entry point or have visited Xuya and are wondering how it all fits together, take a look.
The story of In the Shadow of the Ship is deceptively small and at first seems simple. It’s the story of a young woman who left a conservative and restrictive home because she didn’t fit in. The life that was mapped out for her, even before her birth, was one she had no interest in or desire to follow. That it seemed like she never had a chance to earn her mother’s love or acceptance made it that much easier to leave the world of her birth behind.
She’s been successful, if lonely, in the intervening years. But when she learns of the death of her grandmother, duty and respect call her home. But home is not a planet, or even a station. Home is a decaying mindship, a refugee from the galactic war that destroyed so much and left so many refugees, ship-bound and planet-dwellers alike. A war that her home, her ship, her family, was on the losing side of.
A home that wants her back – even if her mother still does not.
As an adult, Khuyên has knowingly kept the secret of her family’s status from the empire she serves, even though she knows they are war criminals and that she is guilty by association – and silence. She can’t make herself turn them in, and she can’t bear losing her job and her purpose in the universe she’s made her own.
At the same time, as an adult, when she returns for the funeral, she is able to see that the ship is manipulating her and everyone around her, and that the terrible things she was told to ignore when she was a child are no longer ignorable – or honorable. And that they are wrong.
And that there is no second escape. This time, the only way out is through – no matter the cost.
Escape Rating A-: I enjoyed In the Shadow of the Ship, although it is a very shadowed story indeed and probably needs to be read with the lights on. There’s an underlying creepiness that is totally justified but isn’t revealed until past the halfway point.
Although there’s also a lovely sapphic romance that redeems that darkness – it just takes a while to get there.
That two of the characters of this story were mindships felt like the one, solid link to the Xuya Universe, at least so far as I’ve read into it. A reader who has come at this series from different angles might find more linkages, but it was fine as it was.
The story that it did remind me of, however, was the author’s “The Mausoleum’s Children”, one of this year’s Hugo nominees for Best Short Story. (BTW the award was won by “Better Living Through Algorithms” by Naomi Kritzer, which I read and loved.)
In my review of “The Mausoleum’s Children”, I said that the themes were a bit too big for the package, that it would have worked better in a longer format. Those themes; survivor’s guilt, living with trauma, returning to the place that broke you in the hopes of saving others, and more, received that longer treatment here In the Shadow of the Ship, which made me like both stories just that much better.
Originally published at Reading Reality
It’s a vast, sprawling canvas of a universe that hinges on a single year in history (1411) where two events turned left instead of right. An internal political struggle at the Imperial court of Ming-dynasty China sent the Empire looking outward instead of in (as it did in our history) and a fleet of Imperial ships that planned to head east along the coast was struck by typhoons and found itself drifting north, across the Bering Strait to Alaska, resulting in an earlier “discovery” of North America, from Asia instead of from Europe.
And with those two almighty flaps of the butterfly’s wings, history goes down the other leg of the trousers of time (to thoroughly mix my metaphors) and results in the universe of this series, where China and eventually an independent Việt empire become the dominant influences in the world instead of the West – not that, by the time of this particular entry in the sprawl, the West hasn’t established its own hegemonies in the greater galaxy.
The past is another country, they do things differently there. And if they did things differently than what we know, the future would be an even more different country that it will be on history’s current trajectory.
But the thing about the Xuya Universe is that even though the author has a broad outline of what brought it about and some stories set in the historical past that illustrate some of the points, most of it is set in the future. The galaxy is big, the history and future history is potentially very long indeed, and there’s plenty of scope for pretty much anything to happen pretty much anywhere.
Which leads back to the Universe of Xuya being more of a sprawl than the way we usually think of ‘series’. Each story set in the Xuya Universe is intended to be standalone, and while it might link thematically with other stories, that doesn’t mean it will feature any of the same characters as previous or future entries. There’s obviously a publication order for the series, but the internal chronology is ever changing, and considerably more fluid than is usually the case.
I fell into this series, somewhere in the middle, with The Tea Master and the Detective, because it’s a Sherlock Holmes pastiche and that was an entry point that worked for me – as it usually does. (Also, Tea Master is one of the longer works in the series so it has time and space to get a new reader stuck into the world that’s already been built.) I’ve read around Xuya, but not thoroughly – at least not yet – ever since. Although I’ve just had the light dawn that several of the short stories that were in various SFF magazines are also available as podcasts and that’s an avenue to be explored.
I know I haven’t talked about this particular entry in the series yet, and that’s a bit by design as I have mixed feelings about whether this story is a good place to start. I found it fascinating but I don’t think it’s a good entry point. The author has an excellent precis of the history of Xuya, with a list of stories that give both a loose chronology and some suggestions of stories that might make good places to start on her website – so if you’re looking for an entry point or have visited Xuya and are wondering how it all fits together, take a look.
The story of In the Shadow of the Ship is deceptively small and at first seems simple. It’s the story of a young woman who left a conservative and restrictive home because she didn’t fit in. The life that was mapped out for her, even before her birth, was one she had no interest in or desire to follow. That it seemed like she never had a chance to earn her mother’s love or acceptance made it that much easier to leave the world of her birth behind.
She’s been successful, if lonely, in the intervening years. But when she learns of the death of her grandmother, duty and respect call her home. But home is not a planet, or even a station. Home is a decaying mindship, a refugee from the galactic war that destroyed so much and left so many refugees, ship-bound and planet-dwellers alike. A war that her home, her ship, her family, was on the losing side of.
A home that wants her back – even if her mother still does not.
As an adult, Khuyên has knowingly kept the secret of her family’s status from the empire she serves, even though she knows they are war criminals and that she is guilty by association – and silence. She can’t make herself turn them in, and she can’t bear losing her job and her purpose in the universe she’s made her own.
At the same time, as an adult, when she returns for the funeral, she is able to see that the ship is manipulating her and everyone around her, and that the terrible things she was told to ignore when she was a child are no longer ignorable – or honorable. And that they are wrong.
And that there is no second escape. This time, the only way out is through – no matter the cost.
Escape Rating A-: I enjoyed In the Shadow of the Ship, although it is a very shadowed story indeed and probably needs to be read with the lights on. There’s an underlying creepiness that is totally justified but isn’t revealed until past the halfway point.
Although there’s also a lovely sapphic romance that redeems that darkness – it just takes a while to get there.
That two of the characters of this story were mindships felt like the one, solid link to the Xuya Universe, at least so far as I’ve read into it. A reader who has come at this series from different angles might find more linkages, but it was fine as it was.
The story that it did remind me of, however, was the author’s “The Mausoleum’s Children”, one of this year’s Hugo nominees for Best Short Story. (BTW the award was won by “Better Living Through Algorithms” by Naomi Kritzer, which I read and loved.)
In my review of “The Mausoleum’s Children”, I said that the themes were a bit too big for the package, that it would have worked better in a longer format. Those themes; survivor’s guilt, living with trauma, returning to the place that broke you in the hopes of saving others, and more, received that longer treatment here In the Shadow of the Ship, which made me like both stories just that much better.
Originally published at Reading Reality
August 3, 2024
The Xuya Universe is so fascinating and inventive, but my mileage with the books in this world varies. I do enjoy that so many of them are sapphic romances or about powerful women representing very South Asian communities in an intergalactic diaspora. Often, including this one, there's very nuanced and unflinching handling of trauma as a result of war, migration and difficult family and power dynamics. But also sometimes, like in this one, the romance appears abruptly and for no good reason, jarring and jostling for space with actually fascinating plot movements in too little narrative space. And also the love interest is not, technically, human, but a projected Avatar for a liveship consciousness. Which works for me in the stories where there is earned chemistry and not one directly mimicking human kissing, etc. Since the world-building always gets hand wavey, and the narrative real estate short, more often than not, it's very difficult to characterize a sentient technology's anthropomorphic individuality. All of which is to say, the romance with Thao/Sunflower in this felt super unnecessary and ultimately I'm still not sure what exactly was up with Nightjar beyond some messier version of the one Space Whale episode of Doctor Who. Should've skipped the "running for your life injured but let's stop to smooch" bit, and actually spent more time with Ahn, who seemed to be the real family anchor for the MC anyway.
Thanks Netgalley for the ebook ARC.
Thanks Netgalley for the ebook ARC.
September 10, 2024
In the Shadow of the Ship is all about generational trauma, being the fireman when the universe is on fire, and pursuing the eternally shifting goal posts of parental approval. Our Protagonist is a young woman named Khuyên who ran away from the mindship The Nightjar, Thirsting for Water when she was sixteen. (Why she ran away is not so much hinted at, as hung over your head like a boulder held up by piano wire. I am impressed by Aliette de Bodard’s ability to balance the blatant horror while still creating a strong sense of suspense.)
The sentient starship is a former warship turned into a safe haven for a colony of refugees who are avoiding the chaos outside mostly by avoiding it…to the point they’ve become extremely insular in ways that are kind of toxic! She returns as an adult having become a magistrate of the crumbling remains of an empire torn by war, for her grandmother’s funeral.
She does not receive a warm welcome from her family, and it quickly becomes apparent that The Nightjar was never a safe haven, and Khuyên had a really good reason for running away. The highlights of Khuyên’s arrival involve parental disapproval that she left, parental disproval that she isn’t married yet, and a mysterious woman named Thảo, who asks a lot of questions, but who no one else seems to be able to see. When her teenaged cousin goes missing, Khuyên goes to look for her, assisted by Thảo. We then get a slow reveal of who Thảo really is as they attempt to reach the place where the mind ship’s brain is housed before Khuyên’s cousin meets the fate that she avoided by running away sixteen years previously.
In the Shadow of the Ship is a compelling combination of family drama and psychological horror. This is a great read if you go in for both. Shadow is a fast-paced read, and again, ramps up the tension, though most of the revelations toward the end are more like confirmations of the rot beneath the safety and security promised by the ship.
This review is based off of a copy received from NetGalley
The sentient starship is a former warship turned into a safe haven for a colony of refugees who are avoiding the chaos outside mostly by avoiding it…to the point they’ve become extremely insular in ways that are kind of toxic! She returns as an adult having become a magistrate of the crumbling remains of an empire torn by war, for her grandmother’s funeral.
She does not receive a warm welcome from her family, and it quickly becomes apparent that The Nightjar was never a safe haven, and Khuyên had a really good reason for running away. The highlights of Khuyên’s arrival involve parental disapproval that she left, parental disproval that she isn’t married yet, and a mysterious woman named Thảo, who asks a lot of questions, but who no one else seems to be able to see. When her teenaged cousin goes missing, Khuyên goes to look for her, assisted by Thảo. We then get a slow reveal of who Thảo really is as they attempt to reach the place where the mind ship’s brain is housed before Khuyên’s cousin meets the fate that she avoided by running away sixteen years previously.
In the Shadow of the Ship is a compelling combination of family drama and psychological horror. This is a great read if you go in for both. Shadow is a fast-paced read, and again, ramps up the tension, though most of the revelations toward the end are more like confirmations of the rot beneath the safety and security promised by the ship.
This review is based off of a copy received from NetGalley
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 30, 2024
Ahoy there me mateys! I love the Xuya universe and was excited to read this short (96 pg) novella. Khuyên grew up on the Nightjar, a sentient ship. She left at 16 because she was scared of becoming a Tribute to the ship. Those children are never seen again. The people on board believe this is a fair trade because outside of the ship is war, destruction, and chaos. Khuyên never wanted to return but when she hears about her Grandmother's funeral, she returns to pay her respects. Her cousin, Anh, asks for help and Khuyên must make a choice between her wishes and those of her family on the ship.
This may be short but it was the perfect length for this story. Khuyên is a sympathetic character. It is very clear why she makes the choices she does. Reading about her friends and family members going missing was so sad. The mindship Nightjar is creepy. The basics of mindships are covered in this novella. Nightjar is slowly falling apart and those onboard are happy to follow the ship's rules for the appearance of safety and not having to deal with the war torn world outside. Khuyên meets a new person, Thảo, on the ship. Thảo is the only person who seems to care about what Nightjar is doing and wants to help Khuyên. I really enjoyed Thảo's character even though I guessed her "mystery" answer immediately.
Having read other Xuya books before, I was clear early on what the ship was doing with the Tributes. However, I still ended up being uncomfortable reading about Nightjar's viewpoints. That ship is crazy. I thought the outcome of the novella was excellent and really enjoyed the read. I highly recommend this installment in the series though if you are new to the world, I would not start here. Arrr!
I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
This may be short but it was the perfect length for this story. Khuyên is a sympathetic character. It is very clear why she makes the choices she does. Reading about her friends and family members going missing was so sad. The mindship Nightjar is creepy. The basics of mindships are covered in this novella. Nightjar is slowly falling apart and those onboard are happy to follow the ship's rules for the appearance of safety and not having to deal with the war torn world outside. Khuyên meets a new person, Thảo, on the ship. Thảo is the only person who seems to care about what Nightjar is doing and wants to help Khuyên. I really enjoyed Thảo's character even though I guessed her "mystery" answer immediately.
Having read other Xuya books before, I was clear early on what the ship was doing with the Tributes. However, I still ended up being uncomfortable reading about Nightjar's viewpoints. That ship is crazy. I thought the outcome of the novella was excellent and really enjoyed the read. I highly recommend this installment in the series though if you are new to the world, I would not start here. Arrr!
I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
October 5, 2024
The rundown: Child disappearances drove Khuyên away from her home on mindship The Nightjar, Thirsting for Water when she was sixteen. Now, 4 years later, familial duty has steered her back following her grandmother’s death. Haunted by her past, and the sudden disappearance of her cousin, Khuyên must finally face her family, her fears…and Nightjar.
Am I glad I read it? I am a fan of de Bodard’s Xuya Universe (though I admittedly have only read a fraction of all she’s written in it), and I was delightfully surprised that this novella deviated from the others I’ve read in this world with its blurring of the sci-fi and horror genres. Khuyên’s fear at what she will face aboard Nightjar is gripping and chilling and dread-inducing, and I ate it up. Familiar themes in de Bodard’s work (honor; duty, particularly familial piety; complicated family dynamics as a result of all that; complicity & what we’re willing to do to survive) thus feel fresh with this new lens. (Perfect for scary season!)
While this story is a standalone, I also think de Bodard assumes some knowledge of the Xuya Universe. She doesn’t allow the story to get bogged down in world building explanations - a strength of its short novella length - but that means new-to-the-world readers may have difficulty orienting themselves.
In under 100 pages, de Bodard accomplishes a lot and does it well. Minus a few metaphorical points because the romance elements are consistently my least favorite part of de Bodard’s books, including the Xuya Romances.
Thank you to Netgalley and Subterranean Press for the advance copy! IN THE SHADOW OF THE SHIP is out now!
Rating: 👍🏼👍🏼 (really liked)
Am I glad I read it? I am a fan of de Bodard’s Xuya Universe (though I admittedly have only read a fraction of all she’s written in it), and I was delightfully surprised that this novella deviated from the others I’ve read in this world with its blurring of the sci-fi and horror genres. Khuyên’s fear at what she will face aboard Nightjar is gripping and chilling and dread-inducing, and I ate it up. Familiar themes in de Bodard’s work (honor; duty, particularly familial piety; complicated family dynamics as a result of all that; complicity & what we’re willing to do to survive) thus feel fresh with this new lens. (Perfect for scary season!)
While this story is a standalone, I also think de Bodard assumes some knowledge of the Xuya Universe. She doesn’t allow the story to get bogged down in world building explanations - a strength of its short novella length - but that means new-to-the-world readers may have difficulty orienting themselves.
In under 100 pages, de Bodard accomplishes a lot and does it well. Minus a few metaphorical points because the romance elements are consistently my least favorite part of de Bodard’s books, including the Xuya Romances.
Thank you to Netgalley and Subterranean Press for the advance copy! IN THE SHADOW OF THE SHIP is out now!
Rating: 👍🏼👍🏼 (really liked)
October 10, 2024
TL;DR: Another fantastic entry into this series and a creepy on to boot!
Source: Netgalley, thank you to the publisher!
Plot: Khuyên returns home and everything is very much the same but also NOT the same. So good.
Characters: These definitely added to the creep factor. I loved how they played into the story.
Setting: This ship was low key terrifying. The setting was unsettling and I loved that.
Science Fiction/Horror: This is a great low SF, no in depth explanation but there were some horror notes and scenes that were very insidious and well done.
Thoughts:
This one is such a winner. The Xuya universe is one I’ve returned to over the years and it’s been a while since I’ve picked one up. In The Shadow of the Ship is a new one for me and I am so happy to have gotten to it, especially at this time of the year. Khuyên returns home to her family’s ship to find it much like she left it but also far worse and something sinister seems to be going on.
This hits the perfect vibe for it’s length. It’s insidious and creepy. You feel uncomfortable from the beginning and that only gets worse. We’re talking missing children, a very tense family situation, and a ship whose mind may be going or worse. Khuyên comes for a funeral but it becomes so much more as she grapples with the expectations of her family and how she’s chosen her own life, perhaps at the cost of others.
I could gush at length about these books and I think this is a great, very short, example of them. I’m excited to keep picking these up and really recommend it for fans of shorter Sci-fi or sentient ships. These really hit those spots perfectly.
5 out 5 Static Blind Spots
Source: Netgalley, thank you to the publisher!
Plot: Khuyên returns home and everything is very much the same but also NOT the same. So good.
Characters: These definitely added to the creep factor. I loved how they played into the story.
Setting: This ship was low key terrifying. The setting was unsettling and I loved that.
Science Fiction/Horror: This is a great low SF, no in depth explanation but there were some horror notes and scenes that were very insidious and well done.
Thoughts:
This one is such a winner. The Xuya universe is one I’ve returned to over the years and it’s been a while since I’ve picked one up. In The Shadow of the Ship is a new one for me and I am so happy to have gotten to it, especially at this time of the year. Khuyên returns home to her family’s ship to find it much like she left it but also far worse and something sinister seems to be going on.
This hits the perfect vibe for it’s length. It’s insidious and creepy. You feel uncomfortable from the beginning and that only gets worse. We’re talking missing children, a very tense family situation, and a ship whose mind may be going or worse. Khuyên comes for a funeral but it becomes so much more as she grapples with the expectations of her family and how she’s chosen her own life, perhaps at the cost of others.
I could gush at length about these books and I think this is a great, very short, example of them. I’m excited to keep picking these up and really recommend it for fans of shorter Sci-fi or sentient ships. These really hit those spots perfectly.
5 out 5 Static Blind Spots
August 2, 2024
I tray to savor Aliette de Bodard's books, but I had no choice but to race through this one. It starts with an uncomfortable return home for a funeral, but steps quickly into dangerous and uncertain territory. It is the same length as her other Xuya universe novellas, but is so gripping that it feels shorter.
Maybe I'll just read it a second time.
This might not be the ideal place to start if you haven't read any of her work, but then, if you haven't read any, I envy you. Start now. The Tea Master and the DetectiveThe Tea Master and the Detective would be a good first one, but just start.
Subterranean Press was kind enough to provide me with an advanced reading copy via Netgalley for an honest review.
Maybe I'll just read it a second time.
This might not be the ideal place to start if you haven't read any of her work, but then, if you haven't read any, I envy you. Start now. The Tea Master and the DetectiveThe Tea Master and the Detective would be a good first one, but just start.
Subterranean Press was kind enough to provide me with an advanced reading copy via Netgalley for an honest review.
September 17, 2024
Khuyen is a magistrate in an interstellar empire recovering from a devastating war. Her grandmother recently passed, so she returns to her childhood home on a "mind ship" for the funeral. She left several years ago to escape the terrible reality underpinning life on the Nightjar. Now that she's returned, even for a short while, she's forced to confront her own complicity in her upbringing.
This feels like true SF to me in the way it juxtaposes a "big ideas" concept with a smaller "real people" plot. I loved Khuyen's difficulty reconciling the stories she was told as a child and her sense of duty toward her family and her home with the truth that she fled, but still refuses to face head on. For SF fans: this novella feels like it's in conversation with Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" in a really human way. (It's what I wanted out of Jemisin's "The Ones Who Stay and Fight" but didn't get.) Plus there's a great narrative plot pushing In the Shadow of the Ship along that's absent from both of those short stories.
This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novella.
This feels like true SF to me in the way it juxtaposes a "big ideas" concept with a smaller "real people" plot. I loved Khuyen's difficulty reconciling the stories she was told as a child and her sense of duty toward her family and her home with the truth that she fled, but still refuses to face head on. For SF fans: this novella feels like it's in conversation with Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" in a really human way. (It's what I wanted out of Jemisin's "The Ones Who Stay and Fight" but didn't get.) Plus there's a great narrative plot pushing In the Shadow of the Ship along that's absent from both of those short stories.
This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novella.
February 26, 2025
I have really enjoyed the Xuya Universe.
I like that the world is a Vietnam-inspired culture. The Xuya Universe is a matriarchy. Manners are part & parcel of this world, very much built into the language, how people talk with one another.
I also like that the spaceships are partly human partly machine. Most importantly, the ships remain members of their families.
Plus, ships can manifest avatars. These are 3d holograms which resemble persons (but you can see stars / galaxies in their eyes, etc.). These sentient spaceships also fight the wars (because deep space would drive an unenhanced human insane). The wars were very intense – think planet-busting scale of destruction.
The protagonist in these stories is always a woman. These are also same-sex love romance stories.
This particular novella is about a young woman who left the ship to enter government service & become a magistrate. She returns for her grandmother's funeral.
Something is wrong with the ship (which is why she left so many years ago). Now our protagonist has to get to the bottom of the trouble and see if she can resolve the ship's issues.
I like that the world is a Vietnam-inspired culture. The Xuya Universe is a matriarchy. Manners are part & parcel of this world, very much built into the language, how people talk with one another.
I also like that the spaceships are partly human partly machine. Most importantly, the ships remain members of their families.
Plus, ships can manifest avatars. These are 3d holograms which resemble persons (but you can see stars / galaxies in their eyes, etc.). These sentient spaceships also fight the wars (because deep space would drive an unenhanced human insane). The wars were very intense – think planet-busting scale of destruction.
The protagonist in these stories is always a woman. These are also same-sex love romance stories.
This particular novella is about a young woman who left the ship to enter government service & become a magistrate. She returns for her grandmother's funeral.
Something is wrong with the ship (which is why she left so many years ago). Now our protagonist has to get to the bottom of the trouble and see if she can resolve the ship's issues.
August 6, 2024
Thank you to NetGalley and Subterranean Press for an eARC of this book!
I find it hard not to love Aliette de Bodard's work, especially anything from her Xuya Universe. IN THE SHADOW OF THE SHIP is such a perfect addition to this universe, and de Bodard, as usual, manages to pack in so much characterization into such a small space. Khuyên is a compelling character, and even brief interactions with her family members and colleagues in the lead-up to her grandmother's funeral leave me begging for more. I want to see more of Khuyên's life!
This novella is probably not the best introduction to the Xuya Universe if you're a reader who likes to have a good handle on what's going on: it's probably a little jarring to come across the concept of a mindship without a little more of an introduction. But if you've already dipped a toe into this universe and want more, IN THE SHADOW OF THE SHIP will make you head right to your favorite bookshop to order the rest of the books in the universe (or right to the library to flesh out your hold list!)
I find it hard not to love Aliette de Bodard's work, especially anything from her Xuya Universe. IN THE SHADOW OF THE SHIP is such a perfect addition to this universe, and de Bodard, as usual, manages to pack in so much characterization into such a small space. Khuyên is a compelling character, and even brief interactions with her family members and colleagues in the lead-up to her grandmother's funeral leave me begging for more. I want to see more of Khuyên's life!
This novella is probably not the best introduction to the Xuya Universe if you're a reader who likes to have a good handle on what's going on: it's probably a little jarring to come across the concept of a mindship without a little more of an introduction. But if you've already dipped a toe into this universe and want more, IN THE SHADOW OF THE SHIP will make you head right to your favorite bookshop to order the rest of the books in the universe (or right to the library to flesh out your hold list!)
April 4, 2024
I'm starting to think this author isn't for me, which is a shame because there are so many elements that I should love: an interesting sci-fi world, a sapphic romance, and mysteries to be solved, yet I always come out feeling unsatisfied. It must be a me thing, because I am sure many people will love and enjoy this, so keep that in mind. I feel bad giving it such a low rating, but I couldn't find myself caring about the story, and for an under 100-page novella I felt the setup took up way too much of the story time, leaving the second half feeling rushed. I didn't like the main character, she felt underdeveloped and uninteresting to follow, and the love interest/assistant to her journey was confusing. Maybe I would need to read more in this world to understand more, and if that's the case then that's my bad. I do hope this story finds its audience.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.
October 13, 2024
I thought I would be taking a break from my annual spooky season horror binge when I started this, but I was wrong!! There’s some top notch horror spooky season content in this one!! Wandering into dark places never to be seen again, *spoilers* reduced to *spoilers* in just enough nightmarish detail to leave a haunting impression behind when you’re done— so glad I read this in October!!
None of that to say I didn’t also love this for the usual reasons. Even when we only get little bite sized bits of them, the romances in the Xuya-verse are some my personal favs of all time. And the richness and deftness in handling the darker, more complicated themes always makes for such a layered, compelling read in such a tiny package.
(And this particular package, subterranean press edition? Gorgeous!!)
10/10, best read of the month so far for sure.
None of that to say I didn’t also love this for the usual reasons. Even when we only get little bite sized bits of them, the romances in the Xuya-verse are some my personal favs of all time. And the richness and deftness in handling the darker, more complicated themes always makes for such a layered, compelling read in such a tiny package.
(And this particular package, subterranean press edition? Gorgeous!!)
10/10, best read of the month so far for sure.
August 8, 2024
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who sent me a free arc in exchange for my review. This was my first introduction to this author’s work, and from other reviewers it seems this is set in a novella series that follow various characters in the same universe. While this may not have been the best place for me to start in this world, I enjoyed the story and was able to follow the concepts and plot. The writing was beautiful, yet straightforward. I think this would be a great entry for someone looking to get into sci-fi. I’m looking forward to checking out this author’s full novels in the future!
August 22, 2025
it was fine! it's a little muddled and rushed and i think it would've worked better as a short story or a full-length novel, given the number of threads it was juggling... some neat spooky ideas that i like, and all the context is very efficiently communicated, but the pacing is just a bit too speedy for it to actually be creepy/scary since just as much attention/time is dedicated to the scary stuff as is dedicated to "awkward dinner with family". the main character tries to have a sort of arc about loving yourself that's not very convincing, the upbeat hopeful ending isn't especially earned.
i do like it when a spaceship is a person, though, so... i dunno. shrugs?????
i do like it when a spaceship is a person, though, so... i dunno. shrugs?????
July 1, 2024
This novella had me very intrigued for this world and I hope that there are longer books coming in this world. I enjoyed the characters and plot of this story even though it was on the shorter side coming in at just under 100 pages. The author's writing was very descriptive and beautiful which kept me interested to know more about this world. I am getting more into sci-fi so this book was a nice lead in to the genre.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-arc copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-arc copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.
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