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Universe of Xuya
A Fire Born of Exile
The Scattered Pearls Belt is a string of habitats under tight military rule . . . where the powerful have become all too comfortable in their positions, and their corruption. But change is coming, with the arrival of Quynh: the mysterious and enigmatic Alchemist of Streams and Hills.
To Minh, daughter of the ruling prefect of the Belt , Quynh represents a chance for escape. To An, a destitute engineer, Quynh has a mysterious link to her own past . . . and holds a deeper, more sensual appeal. But Quynh has her own secret history, and a plan for the ruling class of the Belt. A plan that will tear open old wounds, shake the heavens, and may well consume her.
A beautiful exploration of the power of love, of revenge, and of the wounds of the past, this fast-paced, heart-warming space opera is set against a backdrop of corruption, power and political scheming in the far reaches of the award-winning Xuya universe.
To Minh, daughter of the ruling prefect of the Belt , Quynh represents a chance for escape. To An, a destitute engineer, Quynh has a mysterious link to her own past . . . and holds a deeper, more sensual appeal. But Quynh has her own secret history, and a plan for the ruling class of the Belt. A plan that will tear open old wounds, shake the heavens, and may well consume her.
A beautiful exploration of the power of love, of revenge, and of the wounds of the past, this fast-paced, heart-warming space opera is set against a backdrop of corruption, power and political scheming in the far reaches of the award-winning Xuya universe.
288 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 12, 2023
15 people are currently reading
1530 people want to read
About the author
Aliette de Bodard
264 books2,224 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 104 reviews
September 29, 2023
Female-focused Nirvana in Fire in space!
I went into this fully expecting to love it, and indeed, I loved it - I adore revenge stories with complex plots and a mastermind protagonist, and this absolutely delivered.
Fifteen years ago, a young scholar was accused of sedition and condemned to death. Now, at the far reaches of the galactic empire, the lives of three women connected to the case become entangled: Minh, the teenage daughter of the prefect responsible for the sentence, Hoà, the younger sister of the scholar's teacher, and the mysterious Quỳnh, the Alchemist of Streams and Hills, a scholar who quickly gains access to the halls of power.
Honestly, if I have a complaint about this book is that I wanted more of it! More of the scheming and the politics, and more of the characters and their relationships, which were all fantastic and complex.
The world-building was also fantastic - this is the first book I read set in the Xuya universe, a galactic empire inspired by Chinese and Vietnamese culture and populated by sentient spaceships as well as by humans, but it definitely will not be the last.
I received a free advance copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I went into this fully expecting to love it, and indeed, I loved it - I adore revenge stories with complex plots and a mastermind protagonist, and this absolutely delivered.
Fifteen years ago, a young scholar was accused of sedition and condemned to death. Now, at the far reaches of the galactic empire, the lives of three women connected to the case become entangled: Minh, the teenage daughter of the prefect responsible for the sentence, Hoà, the younger sister of the scholar's teacher, and the mysterious Quỳnh, the Alchemist of Streams and Hills, a scholar who quickly gains access to the halls of power.
Honestly, if I have a complaint about this book is that I wanted more of it! More of the scheming and the politics, and more of the characters and their relationships, which were all fantastic and complex.
The world-building was also fantastic - this is the first book I read set in the Xuya universe, a galactic empire inspired by Chinese and Vietnamese culture and populated by sentient spaceships as well as by humans, but it definitely will not be the last.
I received a free advance copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
July 25, 2025
When a plan utterly fails to come together
Like most of Aliette de Bodard's Xuya novels, A Fire Born of Exile has more moving parts than a jet engine. In fact, by the time I reached the end of chapter 3, I asked myself, "Am I ever going to manage to remember who all these people are?" So, I'm going to help you out with a brief and very incomplete list of Dramatis Personae:
This whole novel reminded me, oddly, of a scene in Despicable Me 4. Stay with me, here! This scene is a heist -- Gru tries to steal a Honey Badger from his old school (don't ask). You know what heist movies are like. There's always an absurdly elaborate plot with a million moving pieces, all of which have to come together for the heist to work. That is not what happens. Everything goes off the rails from minute 1. And it's a gas.
Qu?nh's revenge plan is like that. Things go badly wrong. Other things go unexpectedly right.
The consequences, of course, are more serious than in Despicable Me 4. This is a story of revenge and love. But I love the trick of exploding a bomb under the plot, collecting the falling debris in a big bag, and shaking it to see what comes out.
Blog review.
Like most of Aliette de Bodard's Xuya novels, A Fire Born of Exile has more moving parts than a jet engine. In fact, by the time I reached the end of chapter 3, I asked myself, "Am I ever going to manage to remember who all these people are?" So, I'm going to help you out with a brief and very incomplete list of Dramatis Personae:
Prefect ??c: the civil administrator of the Scattered Pearls Belt.In fact, chapter 3 was pretty much the peak of character disorientation -- from that point on they mostly fell into place. The Belt is under military administration because fifteen years ago there was a rebellion against the empire (of which the Belt is a province) called "The Serpent Rebellion". It was brutally put down by ??c and Tuy?t, who have held onto military administration and power ever since. Qu?nh has her own history with the Serpent Rebellion and with ??c and Tuy?t. She has come to the Belt with an elaborate plan.
General Tuy?t: the military administrator of the Belt
Minh: Prefect ??c's dauighter
Qu?nh: a visiting scholar seeking to influence ??c
Hoà: a technologist hired to fix Flowers at the Gates
Mindships:
Flowers at the Gates: ??c’s own aunt, nominal head of ??c’s lineage but badly damaged
Heart’s Sorrow: Tuy?t's son and Minh's best friend
Guts of Sea: Qu?nh's collaborator and friend
This whole novel reminded me, oddly, of a scene in Despicable Me 4. Stay with me, here! This scene is a heist -- Gru tries to steal a Honey Badger from his old school (don't ask). You know what heist movies are like. There's always an absurdly elaborate plot with a million moving pieces, all of which have to come together for the heist to work. That is not what happens. Everything goes off the rails from minute 1. And it's a gas.
Qu?nh's revenge plan is like that. Things go badly wrong. Other things go unexpectedly right.
The consequences, of course, are more serious than in Despicable Me 4. This is a story of revenge and love. But I love the trick of exploding a bomb under the plot, collecting the falling debris in a big bag, and shaking it to see what comes out.
Blog review.
July 19, 2023
I was lucky enough to read an early draft of this, and it's brilliant. Think: sapphic Monte Cristo in SPACE!
December 31, 2023
Aliette's Xuya romances always dig deep into the core vulnerabilities in a couple in a way that works so well. The worldbuilding backdrop is always so fun to read about and the plot and romance were extremely well balanced.
November 15, 2023
Really impressive character focused space opera that also explores the darker side of the Xuya Universe. A powerful revenge storyline questions is it the only course of action - highly recommended
Full review - https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/bl...
Full review - https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/bl...
September 29, 2023
3.5 stars
Thanks to NetGalley and to the Editor. I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review
I enjoyed this book, but I didn’t love it as much as I was hoping to, it is not a bad book by any means, and there are a lot of interesting things in there, so let’s start with those!
The world-building is so fascinating! It is rich, intriguing, and full of new tech and strange things. I think it was the best part of the book. And I wanted to explore it more. We have mindships in here, and I was fascinated by them, my only complaint in this respect is that I wanted to know more! Maybe in the other Wuxya books by this author, they are explained and explored better, I can’t really say (from what I understood, this is not the only book in this universe, even if they all are standalone, so maybe some points of this universe are made clearer in other books, I cannot say because I have yet to read them.) but in this one we get to see them, and we get to know some of them. It’s not that the author did a poor job here, not at all, it’s only that I wished for more! Anyway, the world is fascinating and diverse, and it is worth a visit for sure! Imagine ancient China society in space! It’s intriguing, right?
Another point that should be noted is that in this book we have a predominance of women. The only important character in the story who is also a male is Heart’s Sorrow, a mindship and one of the younger characters. He is Minh’s friend ( he is her best friend) and he is the son of two of the characters around whom the revenge part of the story is keyed.
And the plot is compelling, for sure. Revenge and hurt are driving the show, but we have also personal growth, hope, love, and more in there. The revenge arc is really well-developed, and I enjoyed it more than I was expecting, to be honest.
All in all, is a fascinating reading, but I didn’t love it as much as I was hoping. I am a character-driven kind of reader, and in this case, I wasn’t as invested in the characters as I needed.
Quynh is an amazing character, I love that she is really capable and resourceful, she is strong, she knows how to fight, she knows how to lie and how to appear like so many different persons, butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth, that’s for sure, but she is so subtle with it, and she does it with such confidence that it’s amazing to watch. But I feel like we didn’t get to see her develop to her finest possibilities. I mean, in the beginning, she is presented in one way, like this mysterious and powerful and resourceful woman, and she is all of these things, but… it’s like once she becomes more real before our eyes she loses some of these, and sure, it makes sense because she is human and she is not almighty, obviously, but… I was expecting more from her.
And I didn’t really care for Hoa, and for their love story. Mainly for the love story. Hoa is not a bad character, and I liked her, even if not in a consistent way. But this has more to do with personal taste than anything else, because she is an amazing human being, and I liked her for this. She is the light that keeps shining along the story, even when it reaches some really dark places. And for the love story part… I know that it was important for the plot because it helps move things along but… But I wasn’t really interested in it at all.
And I should at least mention in passing the younger characters, Minh, her best friend Heart’s Sorrow, and Hoa’s sister, for example. They have an important role in the story, because they represent the future, and they give the author an excuse to talk about important topics like personal growth, loyalty, family, and others, but I wasn’t really invested in them. I didn’t actively dislike them, that’s true, but I wasn’t really so interested in them.
So I enjoyed it, and I was fascinated by it, it is a book that I recommend if you want to read something new and interesting, because there are a lot of good things in there. But I didn’t love it, and I hope to have a better experience with other books by this author (especially because a couple of them are on my TBR and they are also quite old guests in there, argh!!).
Thanks to NetGalley and to the Editor. I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review
I enjoyed this book, but I didn’t love it as much as I was hoping to, it is not a bad book by any means, and there are a lot of interesting things in there, so let’s start with those!
The world-building is so fascinating! It is rich, intriguing, and full of new tech and strange things. I think it was the best part of the book. And I wanted to explore it more. We have mindships in here, and I was fascinated by them, my only complaint in this respect is that I wanted to know more! Maybe in the other Wuxya books by this author, they are explained and explored better, I can’t really say (from what I understood, this is not the only book in this universe, even if they all are standalone, so maybe some points of this universe are made clearer in other books, I cannot say because I have yet to read them.) but in this one we get to see them, and we get to know some of them. It’s not that the author did a poor job here, not at all, it’s only that I wished for more! Anyway, the world is fascinating and diverse, and it is worth a visit for sure! Imagine ancient China society in space! It’s intriguing, right?
Another point that should be noted is that in this book we have a predominance of women. The only important character in the story who is also a male is Heart’s Sorrow, a mindship and one of the younger characters. He is Minh’s friend ( he is her best friend) and he is the son of two of the characters around whom the revenge part of the story is keyed.
And the plot is compelling, for sure. Revenge and hurt are driving the show, but we have also personal growth, hope, love, and more in there. The revenge arc is really well-developed, and I enjoyed it more than I was expecting, to be honest.
All in all, is a fascinating reading, but I didn’t love it as much as I was hoping. I am a character-driven kind of reader, and in this case, I wasn’t as invested in the characters as I needed.
Quynh is an amazing character, I love that she is really capable and resourceful, she is strong, she knows how to fight, she knows how to lie and how to appear like so many different persons, butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth, that’s for sure, but she is so subtle with it, and she does it with such confidence that it’s amazing to watch. But I feel like we didn’t get to see her develop to her finest possibilities. I mean, in the beginning, she is presented in one way, like this mysterious and powerful and resourceful woman, and she is all of these things, but… it’s like once she becomes more real before our eyes she loses some of these, and sure, it makes sense because she is human and she is not almighty, obviously, but… I was expecting more from her.
And I didn’t really care for Hoa, and for their love story. Mainly for the love story. Hoa is not a bad character, and I liked her, even if not in a consistent way. But this has more to do with personal taste than anything else, because she is an amazing human being, and I liked her for this. She is the light that keeps shining along the story, even when it reaches some really dark places. And for the love story part… I know that it was important for the plot because it helps move things along but… But I wasn’t really interested in it at all.
And I should at least mention in passing the younger characters, Minh, her best friend Heart’s Sorrow, and Hoa’s sister, for example. They have an important role in the story, because they represent the future, and they give the author an excuse to talk about important topics like personal growth, loyalty, family, and others, but I wasn’t really invested in them. I didn’t actively dislike them, that’s true, but I wasn’t really so interested in them.
So I enjoyed it, and I was fascinated by it, it is a book that I recommend if you want to read something new and interesting, because there are a lot of good things in there. But I didn’t love it, and I hope to have a better experience with other books by this author (especially because a couple of them are on my TBR and they are also quite old guests in there, argh!!).
October 12, 2023
Review originally on
JamReads
A Fire Born of Exile is the second full-length novel set in the Xuya universe created by Aliette de Bodard, a standalone story which features a complex plot of revenge and love, a sapphic retelling of the Count of Montecristo. In the Scattered Pearls Belt, the powerful have become too complacent and comfortable in their positions; but change arrives at the hands of the mysterious Quynh, the Alchemist of Streams and Hills.
Disguised in her new identity, Quynh has returned to the Scattered Pearls Belt with one objective in mind: getting revenge over the Prefect that destroyed her family fifteen years ago. However, once her path crosses with Mihn, the rebellious daughter of the Prefect, and with Hoa, a technologist whose past is related to Quynh's, her determination to sacrifice everything in order to achieve revenge will become a more complicated question, including her new love.
Bodard has proven another time her ability to craft compelling and complex characters, with relationships full of nuances and subtleties; Quynh is heavily marked by her past, but no more than we will end learning about Hoa. In comparison, Mihn is suffering under the weight of her lineage and the expectations puts over her; Mihn sees Quynh as her possibility of achieving freedom.
As we could expect from a Bodard's work, those relationships and characters will be continually developed alongside the novel, even in the smallest of details.
While we could say the plot might be a bit predictable in the big picture (at the end, this book is pitched as a retelling), is the way of reaching certain points and the questions asked during the novel what makes this a special story. Outside of the value of revenge, we can see other themes discussed as the limits of justice and the censorship exercised over scholarship.
The sapphic romance subplot is well blended into the mix, being subtle and exploring the deepest parts of our character, being an entry point to their vulnerabilities.
The worldbuilding continues expanding the Xuya universe created by Aliette de Bodard, this science fantasy empire inspired by Chinese and Vietnamese traditions, which influence many aspects of it, from the food and tea to the power structures. It's certainly not the focus on this novel, but still Bodard manages to weave a rich background which enhances the story told.
A Fire Born of Exile is an excellent novel, another of those must read books written by Aliette de Bodard; if you like science fantasy and complex thrilling plots, it's a perfect novel for you. Won't be the last book I read from her!
A Fire Born of Exile is the second full-length novel set in the Xuya universe created by Aliette de Bodard, a standalone story which features a complex plot of revenge and love, a sapphic retelling of the Count of Montecristo. In the Scattered Pearls Belt, the powerful have become too complacent and comfortable in their positions; but change arrives at the hands of the mysterious Quynh, the Alchemist of Streams and Hills.
Disguised in her new identity, Quynh has returned to the Scattered Pearls Belt with one objective in mind: getting revenge over the Prefect that destroyed her family fifteen years ago. However, once her path crosses with Mihn, the rebellious daughter of the Prefect, and with Hoa, a technologist whose past is related to Quynh's, her determination to sacrifice everything in order to achieve revenge will become a more complicated question, including her new love.
Bodard has proven another time her ability to craft compelling and complex characters, with relationships full of nuances and subtleties; Quynh is heavily marked by her past, but no more than we will end learning about Hoa. In comparison, Mihn is suffering under the weight of her lineage and the expectations puts over her; Mihn sees Quynh as her possibility of achieving freedom.
As we could expect from a Bodard's work, those relationships and characters will be continually developed alongside the novel, even in the smallest of details.
While we could say the plot might be a bit predictable in the big picture (at the end, this book is pitched as a retelling), is the way of reaching certain points and the questions asked during the novel what makes this a special story. Outside of the value of revenge, we can see other themes discussed as the limits of justice and the censorship exercised over scholarship.
The sapphic romance subplot is well blended into the mix, being subtle and exploring the deepest parts of our character, being an entry point to their vulnerabilities.
The worldbuilding continues expanding the Xuya universe created by Aliette de Bodard, this science fantasy empire inspired by Chinese and Vietnamese traditions, which influence many aspects of it, from the food and tea to the power structures. It's certainly not the focus on this novel, but still Bodard manages to weave a rich background which enhances the story told.
A Fire Born of Exile is an excellent novel, another of those must read books written by Aliette de Bodard; if you like science fantasy and complex thrilling plots, it's a perfect novel for you. Won't be the last book I read from her!
September 30, 2023
As a major Nirvana in Fire fan, my eyes bugged out when I saw this book billed as a "sapphic Nirvana in Fire", but I'm sorry to say that this was not as good as its marketing comparison.
Romance: Both characters are thoughtfully portrayed (note that there are 3 POV characters, and 2 of them become romantically involved), but the development of the romance didn't work for me. Full confession though, I don't usually read sapphic romances so I'll defer to sapphic readers here.
World-building: Drops you into the deep end of the pool from the get-go, but it was all very interesting! New readers to the Xuya Universe may want to consider reading a few short stories first before getting into this full-length.
Revenge plot: De Bodard's subdued writing style made everything feel emotionally distant, which isn't ideal for a revenge story. The appeal of a revenge story is understanding the protagonist's motivation for revenge and following their plan with vicarious glee, but I wasn't able to do that when key developments happen off-page or when the protagonist spent a lot of time feeling sorry for herself.
In summary, Fire Born of Exile doesn't quite hit the mark as a revenge story or a romance, but it's not a bad full-length place to start for prospective readers new to the Xuya Universe.
ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.
Romance: Both characters are thoughtfully portrayed (note that there are 3 POV characters, and 2 of them become romantically involved), but the development of the romance didn't work for me. Full confession though, I don't usually read sapphic romances so I'll defer to sapphic readers here.
World-building: Drops you into the deep end of the pool from the get-go, but it was all very interesting! New readers to the Xuya Universe may want to consider reading a few short stories first before getting into this full-length.
Revenge plot: De Bodard's subdued writing style made everything feel emotionally distant, which isn't ideal for a revenge story. The appeal of a revenge story is understanding the protagonist's motivation for revenge and following their plan with vicarious glee, but I wasn't able to do that when key developments happen off-page or when the protagonist spent a lot of time feeling sorry for herself.
In summary, Fire Born of Exile doesn't quite hit the mark as a revenge story or a romance, but it's not a bad full-length place to start for prospective readers new to the Xuya Universe.
ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.
January 12, 2024
The Xuya Universe is Aliette de Bodard's long-running set of stories about an space-based Empire based on Vietnamese and Chinese cultures. In it, she posits that Asia became dominant in this part of space, and set up colonies and habitats on planets and space stations.
The Dai Viet Empire is a place of incredible beauty, great injustice, complex societies built on intricate rules, conventions and laws, sudden and sometimes seemingly arbitrary violence, corruption, and a variety of technologies, including sentient ships, known as mindships.
We are in the the Scattered Pearls belt, and the lives of three women intersect because of a several years ago charges of treason, and revenge.
Quỳnh, as scholar, was betrayed years earlier during the Ten Thousand Flags Uprising, and sentenced to death by an interrogator known for her cruelty, and thrown out an airlock. A mindship, Guts of Sea, also on the sentenced to death, rescues Quỳnh, and the two spend years plotting an intricate revenge against the the woman who sentenced them to death, who also happens to now be the Prefect of a station, and the mother of Minh.
Minh is a teenager who desperately wants to make her own choices in her life, but her mother is set on Minh becoming a scholar for her own political reasons.
Minh is helping her best friend Fruit of Heart’s Sorrow, a mindship, effect repairs on another mindship, who is also Minh's great aunt, Flowers at the Gates of the Lords, and head of the family. Minh's great aunt was injured during the uprising, and Minh's mother has been acting head of family in her place for years.
Hoà lives on the same station as Minh, and along with her younger sister, whose health is failing, runs a technology repair business. The sisters' elder sister was sympathetic to Quỳnh years earlier, and was torn apart by a mob for her support. Hoà has been trying to keep as low a profile as possible since her elder sister's death. Hoà gets roped into helping Heart's Sorrow with the repairs of Flowers at the Gate. This brings her to the notice of Minh, the Prefect, and Quỳnh, who has arrived on the station with an assumed identity, intent on revenge against the Prefect.
All three women's lives become entwined while Quỳnh and Guts' plot kicks off, and the possibility of swift and sudden violence hangs over every interaction. And there are poisonings, deep corruption, political ambitions, injustices, censorship, and murders exposed, as the story progresses. There is also tentative, romantic feelings between Hoà and Quỳnh, with several stops and starts as the situation on the station gets increasingly tense and culminates in a terrifying display of power and anger near the end.
de Bodard does such a wonderful job with the delicate emotions of the three women, and the struggles they go through to learn to trust themselves and each other. There is some truly lovely prose in these moments. The worldbuilding is fantastic, as the author's Xuya universe continues to grow in depth and complexity. I thoroughly enjoyed this romantic space opera.
Thank you to Netgalley and to Independent Publishers Group for this ARC in exchange for my review.
The Dai Viet Empire is a place of incredible beauty, great injustice, complex societies built on intricate rules, conventions and laws, sudden and sometimes seemingly arbitrary violence, corruption, and a variety of technologies, including sentient ships, known as mindships.
We are in the the Scattered Pearls belt, and the lives of three women intersect because of a several years ago charges of treason, and revenge.
Quỳnh, as scholar, was betrayed years earlier during the Ten Thousand Flags Uprising, and sentenced to death by an interrogator known for her cruelty, and thrown out an airlock. A mindship, Guts of Sea, also on the sentenced to death, rescues Quỳnh, and the two spend years plotting an intricate revenge against the the woman who sentenced them to death, who also happens to now be the Prefect of a station, and the mother of Minh.
Minh is a teenager who desperately wants to make her own choices in her life, but her mother is set on Minh becoming a scholar for her own political reasons.
Minh is helping her best friend Fruit of Heart’s Sorrow, a mindship, effect repairs on another mindship, who is also Minh's great aunt, Flowers at the Gates of the Lords, and head of the family. Minh's great aunt was injured during the uprising, and Minh's mother has been acting head of family in her place for years.
Hoà lives on the same station as Minh, and along with her younger sister, whose health is failing, runs a technology repair business. The sisters' elder sister was sympathetic to Quỳnh years earlier, and was torn apart by a mob for her support. Hoà has been trying to keep as low a profile as possible since her elder sister's death. Hoà gets roped into helping Heart's Sorrow with the repairs of Flowers at the Gate. This brings her to the notice of Minh, the Prefect, and Quỳnh, who has arrived on the station with an assumed identity, intent on revenge against the Prefect.
All three women's lives become entwined while Quỳnh and Guts' plot kicks off, and the possibility of swift and sudden violence hangs over every interaction. And there are poisonings, deep corruption, political ambitions, injustices, censorship, and murders exposed, as the story progresses. There is also tentative, romantic feelings between Hoà and Quỳnh, with several stops and starts as the situation on the station gets increasingly tense and culminates in a terrifying display of power and anger near the end.
de Bodard does such a wonderful job with the delicate emotions of the three women, and the struggles they go through to learn to trust themselves and each other. There is some truly lovely prose in these moments. The worldbuilding is fantastic, as the author's Xuya universe continues to grow in depth and complexity. I thoroughly enjoyed this romantic space opera.
Thank you to Netgalley and to Independent Publishers Group for this ARC in exchange for my review.
October 13, 2023
Another wonderful read by Aliette de Bodard! This story is delightfully full of fighting back against those in power, strong and beautiful romance, and coming to terms with difficult truths. I loved the balance between politics and power and love, I felt like every time I was getting really into the politics, we got switched to a softer focus. It gave me such a strong craving to keep reading more and more.
October 25, 2023
Thank you to JAB Books for the review copy in exchange for an honest review. This does not change my opinion in anyway.
A Fire Born of Exile is another long novel set in Aliette de Bodard's Universe of Xuya, a collection of various stories set in the same universe. This book reminded me a lot of The Red Scholar's Wake from last year but in the end I think this book is much more approachable to a wider audience.
This book is said to be sapphic the count monte christo in space. I'm not that familiar with the count monte christo so I can't quite judge that but it is a great sapphic story in space. While I'm not usually drawn to revenge stories this one I really felt.
We meet Minh, daughter of the ruling prefect, sneaking out to the festival with her best friend. An unfortunate attempt at kidnapping puts her in the path of Quynh who has some ulterior motives for 'befriending' the young girl.
Like I said, this is a story of revenge, Quynh's story of revenge. So much was taken from her in her previous life, just to make an example. She has decided to take revenge on those that wronged her. And she will do it by any means nessecary.
But this story questions if one must keep going with that revenge. If it is really worth it when other paths open up to you? When perhaps you could have a life again. And is by any means nessecary something one truly wishes to lose their soul over?
I wasn't immediately a fan of Quynh. She's guarded but as she slowly opens up to the possibility of others, of happiness we see her for who she is.
I also loved that we got multiple sides to the story, like Minh who feels incredibly trapped and sees Quynh as her ticket out of under her mothers thumbs. It was interesting to see how others saw her. Because while she doesn't have a great life she also has a lot of priviledge compared to those in the lower parts of the belt. It kept balancing everything out.
A Fire Born of Exile is another long novel set in Aliette de Bodard's Universe of Xuya, a collection of various stories set in the same universe. This book reminded me a lot of The Red Scholar's Wake from last year but in the end I think this book is much more approachable to a wider audience.
This book is said to be sapphic the count monte christo in space. I'm not that familiar with the count monte christo so I can't quite judge that but it is a great sapphic story in space. While I'm not usually drawn to revenge stories this one I really felt.
We meet Minh, daughter of the ruling prefect, sneaking out to the festival with her best friend. An unfortunate attempt at kidnapping puts her in the path of Quynh who has some ulterior motives for 'befriending' the young girl.
Like I said, this is a story of revenge, Quynh's story of revenge. So much was taken from her in her previous life, just to make an example. She has decided to take revenge on those that wronged her. And she will do it by any means nessecary.
But this story questions if one must keep going with that revenge. If it is really worth it when other paths open up to you? When perhaps you could have a life again. And is by any means nessecary something one truly wishes to lose their soul over?
I wasn't immediately a fan of Quynh. She's guarded but as she slowly opens up to the possibility of others, of happiness we see her for who she is.
I also loved that we got multiple sides to the story, like Minh who feels incredibly trapped and sees Quynh as her ticket out of under her mothers thumbs. It was interesting to see how others saw her. Because while she doesn't have a great life she also has a lot of priviledge compared to those in the lower parts of the belt. It kept balancing everything out.
September 1, 2023
Okay, that's another awesome book from Aliette de Bodard. Thanks to the publishers for providing an Advanced Reader Copy - I'll be back soon with a full review.
November 5, 2023
I loved this, blurbed as "sapphic Count of Monte Cristo in space", in Aliette de Bodard's Vietnamese-flavoured Xuya universe. Mystery; twisty politics; tricksy human(/ish) relationships. Great.
December 22, 2023
I have only read a few of de Bodard's Xuya Universe stories (they span novels, novellas and short stories plus a few hundred years), but have always been impressed by their accessible otherness. The Vietnamese extrapolated future societies have an easy to grasp elegance, even when they are being their most brutal +, and I also admired the easy Chutzpah of describing The Tea Master And The Detective as Holmes and Watson where Holmes is a spaceship - and being right.
A Fire Born Of Exile is another stand-alone book in this universe, and throws the reader into a whirlwind of courtly intrigue almost instantly, with a rebellious daughter involved in a disaster at a fayre, and a mysterious traveller slowly embroiling themselves into the ruling family. There is high passion here, a large part of its narrative engine is unexpected romance, particularly for one of our core embittered characters seeking revenge, and the largest part of the suspense here is if that revenge is compatible with romantic happiness. Along the way though de Boddard presents here usual cast of polite but despicable courtiers, sentient ships in various states of mental collapse and contrasts this with the loss of innocence and a weird kind of regaining.
A Fire Born Of Exile is an excellent bit of courtly romance as well as a big stonking space opera. The worldbuilding done previously by de Boddard means it all sits with a light touch here, everything makes sense in the universe she has created so she doesn't need to explain it away. She manages the trick of making the final chapters breathlessly exciting, and romantically moving, which is a pretty high bar of success.
A Fire Born Of Exile is another stand-alone book in this universe, and throws the reader into a whirlwind of courtly intrigue almost instantly, with a rebellious daughter involved in a disaster at a fayre, and a mysterious traveller slowly embroiling themselves into the ruling family. There is high passion here, a large part of its narrative engine is unexpected romance, particularly for one of our core embittered characters seeking revenge, and the largest part of the suspense here is if that revenge is compatible with romantic happiness. Along the way though de Boddard presents here usual cast of polite but despicable courtiers, sentient ships in various states of mental collapse and contrasts this with the loss of innocence and a weird kind of regaining.
A Fire Born Of Exile is an excellent bit of courtly romance as well as a big stonking space opera. The worldbuilding done previously by de Boddard means it all sits with a light touch here, everything makes sense in the universe she has created so she doesn't need to explain it away. She manages the trick of making the final chapters breathlessly exciting, and romantically moving, which is a pretty high bar of success.
November 23, 2024
I'm revisiting some of my DNF's and this one I wasn't in the mood for at the time because it's heavy on political machinations and light on romance, the romance felt rushed through courtship to declaring that they were in love, and I'm not a fan of loud sex scenes - to me it's really unsexy when people scream during orgasm.
But I am in a different mood now and have read more books in this vein so I have more appreciation for it. After I got past the instalove I do love Quýnh and Hoà as a couple. I loved how the battle-weary accused traitor Quynh found a reason to live other than revenge with the mild-mannered, mousey technologist with mediocre skills whom she agreed to help repair a mindship. Their love was soft, uncomplicated and pure as Quynh navigated her plan for revenge with unexpected desires for a future with Hoà.
I'd never read any Xuya Universe books before so the worldbuilding was confusing to follow as a standalone but I loved the imperial Vietnamese-inspired space opera setting.
I also loved Minh, the impudent teenager who's tired of being used as a pawn in her prefect mother's games, and her bots. I thought the mindships were intriguing in this.
I found it somewhat unbelievable that no one would have recognized Quynh from her former life, but everyone was so self-absorbed in this that I guess it's no surprise. I liked how the ultimate revenge was how unhappy everyone's lives turned out to be instead of a bloodbath.
I'd read more by this author and in this very fun universe. I need more lesbians in space.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.
But I am in a different mood now and have read more books in this vein so I have more appreciation for it. After I got past the instalove I do love Quýnh and Hoà as a couple. I loved how the battle-weary accused traitor Quynh found a reason to live other than revenge with the mild-mannered, mousey technologist with mediocre skills whom she agreed to help repair a mindship. Their love was soft, uncomplicated and pure as Quynh navigated her plan for revenge with unexpected desires for a future with Hoà.
I'd never read any Xuya Universe books before so the worldbuilding was confusing to follow as a standalone but I loved the imperial Vietnamese-inspired space opera setting.
I also loved Minh, the impudent teenager who's tired of being used as a pawn in her prefect mother's games, and her bots. I thought the mindships were intriguing in this.
I found it somewhat unbelievable that no one would have recognized Quynh from her former life, but everyone was so self-absorbed in this that I guess it's no surprise. I liked how the ultimate revenge was how unhappy everyone's lives turned out to be instead of a bloodbath.
I'd read more by this author and in this very fun universe. I need more lesbians in space.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.
September 16, 2023
A Fire Born in Exile is the latest installment in Aliette de Bodard’s Xuya Universe series, a collection of works of varying lengths set in a Vietnamese-inspired space opera future where sentient mindships and humans live as family. Having previously enjoyed quite a few works from this universe and having seen this novel described as “a sapphic Count of Monte Cristo set in space,” I was very excited to pick this up.
The worldbuilding in this series is consistently excellent, and while the works share a setting they do function as standalones so there is no need to have read prior Xuya installments to enjoy this novel, which may be my favourite in the series thusfar. A Fire Born in Exile combines mastermind scheming, revenge plots, shifting motivations, complicated familial relationships, and a fantastic cast of characters.
Thank you to the author, Independent Publishers Group, JAB Books, and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC for review.
Content warnings: violence, torture (not graphic / off page), war (background context / off page), emotional abuse
The worldbuilding in this series is consistently excellent, and while the works share a setting they do function as standalones so there is no need to have read prior Xuya installments to enjoy this novel, which may be my favourite in the series thusfar. A Fire Born in Exile combines mastermind scheming, revenge plots, shifting motivations, complicated familial relationships, and a fantastic cast of characters.
Thank you to the author, Independent Publishers Group, JAB Books, and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC for review.
Content warnings: violence, torture (not graphic / off page), war (background context / off page), emotional abuse
June 4, 2024
Okay, you had me at Aliette de Bodard, but once we get to "sapphic Nirvana in Fire in space?"
Yes, please.
Even more impressively, this book lived up to my expectations. The Xuya Universe just keeps getting better and better, and the way this book ended made me think and hope there's more to come.
Yes, please.
Even more impressively, this book lived up to my expectations. The Xuya Universe just keeps getting better and better, and the way this book ended made me think and hope there's more to come.
October 14, 2023
I'm never disappointed by Aliette De Bodard: it can be the Xuya world or the world of the Fallen I'm always happy to read these stories
This is another great story that mixes a romantic side with topics like revenge, the sense of being, and forgivness.
It's a compelling and well plotted story, the characters are fleshed out and intriguing.
She's a great storyteller and the story never drages and always keeps your attention.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine
This is another great story that mixes a romantic side with topics like revenge, the sense of being, and forgivness.
It's a compelling and well plotted story, the characters are fleshed out and intriguing.
She's a great storyteller and the story never drages and always keeps your attention.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine
March 30, 2024
I think I liked the concept of this better than The Red Scholar's Wake, but the execution not as much. The romance was honestly the weak link of the book for me. It was oddly paced, so I really didn't buy the relationship between the two characters.
October 9, 2023
Everything about this book is great, but the world building is top notch.
I love these characters! And, the revenge is oh so sweet.
I've been trying to get more into sci-fi, but it's really hit or miss for me. This type of sci-fi is perfect for me.
Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an e-arc.
I love these characters! And, the revenge is oh so sweet.
I've been trying to get more into sci-fi, but it's really hit or miss for me. This type of sci-fi is perfect for me.
Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an e-arc.
July 23, 2023
Action and attraction in equal measure.
The Red Scholar’s Wake was one of my favourite books of the last year, so I was looking forward to reading this, the second full-length story in Aliette de Bodard’s Vietnamese-inspired Xuya universe setting. While it doesn’t feature a marriage of convenience to a grieving sentient spaceship - admittedly, a concept that’s pretty hard to top - it does have an equally interesting setup. What’s more important, revenge or love?
Quynh is an enigmatic alchemist who strides confidently into the lives of the other characters, turning heads wherever she goes. That includes Minh, the rebellious teen daughter of the system prefect, and Hoà, a low-ranking repair technician who is worried about making ends meet while looking after her ill sister.
Naturally, not everything is how it first appears, and just as the central mystery is gradually being untangled, hearts are equally being intertwined. The romance is captivating, with power dynamics shifting backwards and forwards across the story. Quynh starts out lying to everybody, including herself, but is still a generally sympathetic character, so you’ll be rooting for her to succeed despite her continuing deceptions.
As this is a standalone story with new characters, you don’t have to read the previous book to enjoy it, but you really should, because it’s also excellent. Both come thoroughly recommended.
Thank you to Orion Books for the advance copy.
The Red Scholar’s Wake was one of my favourite books of the last year, so I was looking forward to reading this, the second full-length story in Aliette de Bodard’s Vietnamese-inspired Xuya universe setting. While it doesn’t feature a marriage of convenience to a grieving sentient spaceship - admittedly, a concept that’s pretty hard to top - it does have an equally interesting setup. What’s more important, revenge or love?
Quynh is an enigmatic alchemist who strides confidently into the lives of the other characters, turning heads wherever she goes. That includes Minh, the rebellious teen daughter of the system prefect, and Hoà, a low-ranking repair technician who is worried about making ends meet while looking after her ill sister.
Naturally, not everything is how it first appears, and just as the central mystery is gradually being untangled, hearts are equally being intertwined. The romance is captivating, with power dynamics shifting backwards and forwards across the story. Quynh starts out lying to everybody, including herself, but is still a generally sympathetic character, so you’ll be rooting for her to succeed despite her continuing deceptions.
As this is a standalone story with new characters, you don’t have to read the previous book to enjoy it, but you really should, because it’s also excellent. Both come thoroughly recommended.
Thank you to Orion Books for the advance copy.
July 26, 2025
4.25/5
This is a Sapphic romance + revenge politics book set in de Bodard’s Xuya universe. It is billed as a stand-alone, but there is a LOT of world-building here, and I couldn’t help wondering at multiple points whether I was missing something by having this be my first entry point! Nevertheless, I enjoyed this quite a lot, even when slightly confused.
(Also, I just have to share this.
Me (holding up book): “I mean, look at this cover! Isn’t it pretty!”
My partner (teasing): “You mean the girls are pretty?”
Me: “I…Well, yes. But also the colors and stuff.”
Though having read the book, I don’t know what’s up with Quýnh’s soldier outfit on my edition. She’s a scholar! This image is just raising false hopes for readers who like sword lesbians, LOL!)
According to de Bodard’s website (https://www.aliettedebodard.com/bibli...
) “Xuya is a series of novellas and short stories set in a timeline where Asia became dominant, and where the space age has Confucian galactic empires of Vietnamese and Chinese inspiration: scholars administrate planets, and sentient spaceships are part of familial lineages”…with the inspiration shifting more Vietnamese from older to newer stories. And there’s a lot of explanation there about China having colonies in the Americas and so on in this timeline, but unfortunately nothing that answered the questions that most itched at my brain.
First, the Mindships are very cool, but were a little hard to wrap my head around because: I feel like a brief explanation would have been nice, if this is indeed meant to be a stand-alone.
Second, as mentioned the society is very Confucian; there’s a LOT of stuff about the way the Chinese imperial court functioned that is still relevant (eg scholar exams to get into the bureaucracy) but also family stuff like a strong emphasis on filial piety. One thing that felt odd, though, is that the society depicted is at the same time very queer-normative (We see multiple F/F couples and one NB/F couple of high standing) while also retaining the very patriarchal idea that there is a “lesser spouse” and that that lesser spouse is responsible for child-bearing and/or rearing. How does THAT work? One of the great things about queer relationships is that it is a bit easier to question received gender roles because it isn’t immediately obvious who’s “supposed” to do what…so to just have this dynamic be accepted is a bit depressing. Also, we don’t see any M/M couples and no M/F ones where we can observe the dynamic, but I have a hard time believing that men, as a group, would just go “yeah, we’re cool with a significant fraction of us being officially the ‘lesser spouse’ now!” Like, de Bodard is a good writer so I am confident she has some explanation in her head or in another book; I just don’t know what it is!
Those are fairly minor quibbles, though, as overall I really enjoyed seeing the world unfold. The idea that tea grown in the space habitats vs. planets tastes different, for instance, was a wonderful detail! I also liked the way that people use digital “overlays” to add fancy, sometimes animated, details to their outfits or houses – and that, of course, more expensive overlays tend to have more detailed animation.
Our three main characters, in order of introduction are:
- Minh, the daughter of a prefect (basically a high-ranking judge), who chafes against her mom’s plans for her life.
- Quýnh, a scholar executed and left for dead by that same prefect (and a general who is the mother of Minh’s Mindship bestie, The Fruit of Heart’s Sorrow), who has reinvented herself as the glamorous Alchemist of Streams and Hills to exact her revenge, Count of Montecristo style.
“Well, there wasn’t anything specific about her face, but it was…the way she carried herself - as though the entire world was an egg that needed to be broken open* to release the hatchling within. The face of someone who’d gladly set things afire with a shrug. Minh realized she’d forgotten to breathe^.”
*‘Revolutionary Girl Utena’ reference?
^ Same, Minh. Same.
But she starts to waver a little as she finds herself drawn to…
- Hoá, a poor engineer who lost her elder sister to politically-motivated violence and so is understandably wary of coming to the attention of important people, but:
“Hoá had seen the worst of what the world had to offer, and yet still chose to be upright. To stand, unmoving, in the centre of a universe that had wounded her again and again - and choose to be kind. Quýnh couldn't imagine how much strength that would take. She knew she didn't have it, and never would.”
These three characters’ stories become fully intertwined when
I quite enjoyed the complexity of Hoá and Quýnh’s budding but seemingly-doomed romance…some of that complexity being added by a “third wheel”. This takes the form of Guts of Sea, Quýnh’s Mindship sworn sister who is both jealous of Hoá and (being even more committed to vengeance than Quýnh) worried that she will lead Quýnh to back out of the plan. And, again, I appreciate that basically all the relationships we see in this book are Sapphic ones. The prefect is implied to be a lesbian (she’s had two wives, Minh’s birth mother and her present wife), while Quýnh and the general are probably bisexual (both have had past relationships with men).
The ending is really good, wrapping up all the threads in a satisfying and hopeful way.
Overall, I would recommend this if, like me, you prefer romances where worldbuilding and plot take up as much of the book (or more) than the pining, misunderstandings, spicy bits, etc…or if you think you would enjoy a sci-fi story that almost forgets men exist, LOL. However, if having new worldbuilding elements thrown at you with little immediate explanation stresses you out or bores you – maybe try starting with a Xuya short-story or two first, and see if that helps! I, as yet, couldn’t say…but I would be interested to read more stories in this universe.
This is a Sapphic romance + revenge politics book set in de Bodard’s Xuya universe. It is billed as a stand-alone, but there is a LOT of world-building here, and I couldn’t help wondering at multiple points whether I was missing something by having this be my first entry point! Nevertheless, I enjoyed this quite a lot, even when slightly confused.
(Also, I just have to share this.
Me (holding up book): “I mean, look at this cover! Isn’t it pretty!”
My partner (teasing): “You mean the girls are pretty?”
Me: “I…Well, yes. But also the colors and stuff.”
Though having read the book, I don’t know what’s up with Quýnh’s soldier outfit on my edition. She’s a scholar! This image is just raising false hopes for readers who like sword lesbians, LOL!)
According to de Bodard’s website (https://www.aliettedebodard.com/bibli...
) “Xuya is a series of novellas and short stories set in a timeline where Asia became dominant, and where the space age has Confucian galactic empires of Vietnamese and Chinese inspiration: scholars administrate planets, and sentient spaceships are part of familial lineages”…with the inspiration shifting more Vietnamese from older to newer stories. And there’s a lot of explanation there about China having colonies in the Americas and so on in this timeline, but unfortunately nothing that answered the questions that most itched at my brain.
First, the Mindships are very cool, but were a little hard to wrap my head around because: I feel like a brief explanation would have been nice, if this is indeed meant to be a stand-alone.
Second, as mentioned the society is very Confucian; there’s a LOT of stuff about the way the Chinese imperial court functioned that is still relevant (eg scholar exams to get into the bureaucracy) but also family stuff like a strong emphasis on filial piety. One thing that felt odd, though, is that the society depicted is at the same time very queer-normative (We see multiple F/F couples and one NB/F couple of high standing) while also retaining the very patriarchal idea that there is a “lesser spouse” and that that lesser spouse is responsible for child-bearing and/or rearing. How does THAT work? One of the great things about queer relationships is that it is a bit easier to question received gender roles because it isn’t immediately obvious who’s “supposed” to do what…so to just have this dynamic be accepted is a bit depressing. Also, we don’t see any M/M couples and no M/F ones where we can observe the dynamic, but I have a hard time believing that men, as a group, would just go “yeah, we’re cool with a significant fraction of us being officially the ‘lesser spouse’ now!” Like, de Bodard is a good writer so I am confident she has some explanation in her head or in another book; I just don’t know what it is!
Those are fairly minor quibbles, though, as overall I really enjoyed seeing the world unfold. The idea that tea grown in the space habitats vs. planets tastes different, for instance, was a wonderful detail! I also liked the way that people use digital “overlays” to add fancy, sometimes animated, details to their outfits or houses – and that, of course, more expensive overlays tend to have more detailed animation.
Our three main characters, in order of introduction are:
- Minh, the daughter of a prefect (basically a high-ranking judge), who chafes against her mom’s plans for her life.
- Quýnh, a scholar executed and left for dead by that same prefect (and a general who is the mother of Minh’s Mindship bestie, The Fruit of Heart’s Sorrow), who has reinvented herself as the glamorous Alchemist of Streams and Hills to exact her revenge, Count of Montecristo style.
“Well, there wasn’t anything specific about her face, but it was…the way she carried herself - as though the entire world was an egg that needed to be broken open* to release the hatchling within. The face of someone who’d gladly set things afire with a shrug. Minh realized she’d forgotten to breathe^.”
*‘Revolutionary Girl Utena’ reference?
^ Same, Minh. Same.
But she starts to waver a little as she finds herself drawn to…
- Hoá, a poor engineer who lost her elder sister to politically-motivated violence and so is understandably wary of coming to the attention of important people, but:
“Hoá had seen the worst of what the world had to offer, and yet still chose to be upright. To stand, unmoving, in the centre of a universe that had wounded her again and again - and choose to be kind. Quýnh couldn't imagine how much strength that would take. She knew she didn't have it, and never would.”
These three characters’ stories become fully intertwined when
I quite enjoyed the complexity of Hoá and Quýnh’s budding but seemingly-doomed romance…some of that complexity being added by a “third wheel”. This takes the form of Guts of Sea, Quýnh’s Mindship sworn sister who is both jealous of Hoá and (being even more committed to vengeance than Quýnh) worried that she will lead Quýnh to back out of the plan. And, again, I appreciate that basically all the relationships we see in this book are Sapphic ones. The prefect is implied to be a lesbian (she’s had two wives, Minh’s birth mother and her present wife), while Quýnh and the general are probably bisexual (both have had past relationships with men).
The ending is really good, wrapping up all the threads in a satisfying and hopeful way.
Overall, I would recommend this if, like me, you prefer romances where worldbuilding and plot take up as much of the book (or more) than the pining, misunderstandings, spicy bits, etc…or if you think you would enjoy a sci-fi story that almost forgets men exist, LOL. However, if having new worldbuilding elements thrown at you with little immediate explanation stresses you out or bores you – maybe try starting with a Xuya short-story or two first, and see if that helps! I, as yet, couldn’t say…but I would be interested to read more stories in this universe.
December 25, 2024
The mysterious Quynh comes to the Scattered Pearls Belt and quickly ingratiates herself to the nobility by rescuing the prefect's daughter from a misadventure. However, Quynh has ulterior motives. Long ago, she was an innocent, betrayed by people she trusted and thought executed for a tangential link to a traitor... who are also members of the prefect's family. Quynh managed to survive being thrown out an airlock, with the help of a damaged mindship with a similar grudge, and the two forged new identities and set about on a long path of revenge, a revenge she's willing to sacrifice almost everything for, even her own life... only she doesn't count on meeting the sister of an old friend, or the attraction the two develop for each other.
I've read a few short stories in the author's Xuya universe (a space opera based on Vietnamese culture) and quite liked them, so I was excited to dive into a full length novel. It should be noted it's not the first full length novel (and there are novellas that are almost novel-length as well, which I also have not read), but they're considered standalone and mostly seem to work as such so (with a few potential qualifiers I'll get to in a bit).
My main worry going in was that the book might veer too much into romance for my tastes. No slight intended on the genre, but for my own tastes, I can enjoy a romantic plot in a book, but when it feels like the whole book is a romance book and the setting and other plot elements merely plot decoration or creative complications where the romantic couple goes through their ups and downs and finally has their happy ending... that's generally not my style of book. The reasons for that aren't very interesting and possibly downers but they're a factor I use in what I choose to read and sometimes there's books I take a chance on that I think might go that way, because the rest of the plot sounds cool. In this case, though, it gets close to that, but still firmly on the side of "book where romance is a major factor in the plot but isn't the whole thing." I'm not sure technically if it qualifies as science fiction-slash-romance since I'm dimly aware the genre has conventions they can be pretty firm on, but if it does, the balance is just about right for my tastes. I liked the main couple and rooted for them but the other characters and the revenge plot drew me in more and it wasn't short-changed.
That's not to say the book was a complete hit more though... just the issues I had with had almost nothing to do with romance (I say almost, but really my only minor qualm was that they seemed to fall into love a little too quickly from their previously-established vibe together, and until then I was almost expecting the main romance to be with another character who--at least initially--seemed to have more of a basis for it and more juicy complications. Other than that though, I have no problems myself with that side of things, but am also not the best judge of romantic fiction writing). Once issue was that this is a world where people have assortments of bots doing various tasks, and have various implants that let them alter perceptions of themselves or guests so that somebody who is distant might seem to be in the same room, or the room itself to be laid out or decorated in different ways, and so on. It might have been solely on me and my concentration issues (read in November 2024, oof), but there were times that I didn't feel like I had a good grip of what, exactly, was going on, on a physical level. Like, in a sense of, "if I, an unaugmented human was plopped down in a room watching this interaction, what exactly would I be seeing? Handsize-robots crawling all over each other to imitate a human body while digitally painted over by the other person's eyes? Nanotech goo? I don't know. Maybe it was both, in different scenarios. It may also be that more familiarity with other books in the setting would have solved this, and the author simply didn't feel the need to go over the setting's technological basis again. If so, it might be one area where reading it as a standalone is a detriment. Not a serious one, but there. Similarly, in issues that might have stemmed solely from my own lack of focus, while the two or three main characters I got a pretty good grasp on, but I had trouble keeping track of a lot of the other characters and what all their relationships were, who in the revenge plot was related to who... to the point where when a direct move was finally played against one of the targets of the main character, I found myself completely surprised because I thought they were the parents of one character when that was actually two other people (who were in the same family, but actually parents of a different major character) and I was taken aback because I was expecting much more significant blowback on the wrong person.
Finally, although I really liked the setting in smaller doses, I find I'm just not a huge fan of worlds with a rigid hierarchy and caste systems and power players who might be untouchable unless they're disgraced in the eyes of the emperor, and so the best method of going against them is to make them unfavorable which of course never really addresses the systemic issues that caused them, etc, etc etc. Palace intrigue generally, not my thing, when what a part of me is really hoping for is to tear down the palace and institute a fair system. From my previous readings of the author, I guess I knew this was an aspect of the setting but maybe it wasn't so prominent? I don't know. I still liked the book a fair bit, and I'd read more in the setting, I just think I'd want another story either to be set in another type of society within the universe, or perhaps focusing more on ordinary people stuck in the system and living their lives without much thought of the elites except as an abstract worry. I don't want to focus on people having to deal with them directly unless they're ACTUALLY dealing with them in a revolutionary sort of way. A quick look at the synopses of some of the other books in the universe suggests they might be a bit more up my alley so I'm definitely willing to try again.
That said, I still had a fair bit of fun with the book and thought there was a lot of interesting stuff in it, and the general arc of the story was quite appealing even if I had issues with some of it or couldn't always follow what was going on. It's just a somewhat milder like. I'd put it somewhere above three stars, but probaby something like 3.25 stars, maybe even a bit more, it didn't cater to my tastes enough or generally wow me enough where rounding up to 4 is something I'd seriously have to consider, and thus, rounding down is the only option. Three stars.
I've read a few short stories in the author's Xuya universe (a space opera based on Vietnamese culture) and quite liked them, so I was excited to dive into a full length novel. It should be noted it's not the first full length novel (and there are novellas that are almost novel-length as well, which I also have not read), but they're considered standalone and mostly seem to work as such so (with a few potential qualifiers I'll get to in a bit).
My main worry going in was that the book might veer too much into romance for my tastes. No slight intended on the genre, but for my own tastes, I can enjoy a romantic plot in a book, but when it feels like the whole book is a romance book and the setting and other plot elements merely plot decoration or creative complications where the romantic couple goes through their ups and downs and finally has their happy ending... that's generally not my style of book. The reasons for that aren't very interesting and possibly downers but they're a factor I use in what I choose to read and sometimes there's books I take a chance on that I think might go that way, because the rest of the plot sounds cool. In this case, though, it gets close to that, but still firmly on the side of "book where romance is a major factor in the plot but isn't the whole thing." I'm not sure technically if it qualifies as science fiction-slash-romance since I'm dimly aware the genre has conventions they can be pretty firm on, but if it does, the balance is just about right for my tastes. I liked the main couple and rooted for them but the other characters and the revenge plot drew me in more and it wasn't short-changed.
That's not to say the book was a complete hit more though... just the issues I had with had almost nothing to do with romance (I say almost, but really my only minor qualm was that they seemed to fall into love a little too quickly from their previously-established vibe together, and until then I was almost expecting the main romance to be with another character who--at least initially--seemed to have more of a basis for it and more juicy complications. Other than that though, I have no problems myself with that side of things, but am also not the best judge of romantic fiction writing). Once issue was that this is a world where people have assortments of bots doing various tasks, and have various implants that let them alter perceptions of themselves or guests so that somebody who is distant might seem to be in the same room, or the room itself to be laid out or decorated in different ways, and so on. It might have been solely on me and my concentration issues (read in November 2024, oof), but there were times that I didn't feel like I had a good grip of what, exactly, was going on, on a physical level. Like, in a sense of, "if I, an unaugmented human was plopped down in a room watching this interaction, what exactly would I be seeing? Handsize-robots crawling all over each other to imitate a human body while digitally painted over by the other person's eyes? Nanotech goo? I don't know. Maybe it was both, in different scenarios. It may also be that more familiarity with other books in the setting would have solved this, and the author simply didn't feel the need to go over the setting's technological basis again. If so, it might be one area where reading it as a standalone is a detriment. Not a serious one, but there. Similarly, in issues that might have stemmed solely from my own lack of focus, while the two or three main characters I got a pretty good grasp on, but I had trouble keeping track of a lot of the other characters and what all their relationships were, who in the revenge plot was related to who... to the point where when a direct move was finally played against one of the targets of the main character, I found myself completely surprised because I thought they were the parents of one character when that was actually two other people (who were in the same family, but actually parents of a different major character) and I was taken aback because I was expecting much more significant blowback on the wrong person.
Finally, although I really liked the setting in smaller doses, I find I'm just not a huge fan of worlds with a rigid hierarchy and caste systems and power players who might be untouchable unless they're disgraced in the eyes of the emperor, and so the best method of going against them is to make them unfavorable which of course never really addresses the systemic issues that caused them, etc, etc etc. Palace intrigue generally, not my thing, when what a part of me is really hoping for is to tear down the palace and institute a fair system. From my previous readings of the author, I guess I knew this was an aspect of the setting but maybe it wasn't so prominent? I don't know. I still liked the book a fair bit, and I'd read more in the setting, I just think I'd want another story either to be set in another type of society within the universe, or perhaps focusing more on ordinary people stuck in the system and living their lives without much thought of the elites except as an abstract worry. I don't want to focus on people having to deal with them directly unless they're ACTUALLY dealing with them in a revolutionary sort of way. A quick look at the synopses of some of the other books in the universe suggests they might be a bit more up my alley so I'm definitely willing to try again.
That said, I still had a fair bit of fun with the book and thought there was a lot of interesting stuff in it, and the general arc of the story was quite appealing even if I had issues with some of it or couldn't always follow what was going on. It's just a somewhat milder like. I'd put it somewhere above three stars, but probaby something like 3.25 stars, maybe even a bit more, it didn't cater to my tastes enough or generally wow me enough where rounding up to 4 is something I'd seriously have to consider, and thus, rounding down is the only option. Three stars.
January 16, 2024
I mean...Count MC, but queer and in space? Sounds like a perfect book!
This book was a full Aliette de Bodard experience and I loved it. I do think it got a little slower towards the end and could have been somewhat shorter. That said, I definitely enjoyed all the Dumas intrigue and complex plotting but with mindships and overlays. Very cool!
This book was a full Aliette de Bodard experience and I loved it. I do think it got a little slower towards the end and could have been somewhat shorter. That said, I definitely enjoyed all the Dumas intrigue and complex plotting but with mindships and overlays. Very cool!
January 21, 2024
I'm in total awe of the unique setting full of east asian culture in a queernormative space empire. The visual ideas and daily life details are incredibly creative and fascinating. Once a character wears a gown embroidered with flowers and branches and the overlay hologram technology would make it look like the plants are blowing in the wind along with her movements and that's just exactly the kind of (magical) clothes I hoped for in "A Fragile Enchantment" I didn't get.
On the other hand though, as creative as it is, as good as NOTHING is explained about the world. What are these places, what is the empire, what is their history, what is the timeline of the different parts of the series, are there other "nations", why are people born to be spaceships of all things etc etc? No idea. (At least it states later on the parents can choose if their want their child to be born a mindship though. But it doesn't say how the children feel about this, if they'd rather be human-shaped or vice versa. Or if children *need* to be born from a womb or if splicing is part of reproduction). Eeverything has to be gleaned from the context. It only helped that I've read other books of the universe before, so I knew not to expect more but had heard many terms before so I wasn't completely thrown into cold water. Or maybe the descriptions here ARE a bit clearer to let it flow nicely while making the ideas enjoyable.
Anyway, the plot is great. It's strongly inspired by "The Count of Monte Christo" and follows the original closely and while that does sound a bit uncreative, given that Monte Christo has this complex cast of characters with loads of different connections among each other, I rather respect how the author transfers those connections in her way shorter novel with a completely different setting and background. (Note that the Villefort-inspired characters get more attention than the Moncerf ones though.) I can easily believe in a as corrupt society in space as in 19th century France. I thoroughly enjoyed seeking and finding the paralelles, links and nods to the original and how the author varies them, especially regarding how female, queer and asian the book is, though there could be more transgender representation.
Obviously, much depends on how catching the avenger character is and Quynh here absolutely delivers. She is introduced as this charismatic, confident and capable winner manipulating her way into the trust of her marks like the count of Monte Christo (although I miss his various disguises and fake identities or my highlight scene where he - seemingly clueless - tells his guests a scary story knowing full well it's the true account of a crime some of them committed but you can't have everything). Yet we also see how deeply she cares about people, missing those she loves (and lost) and helps those in need and at other times, it's shown how she isn't always this cool and powerful character but suffering from PTSD and chronic illness and this complicated personality is portrayed in line with the themes of the story and it becomes as touching as thrilling.
However, I was less moved by the love story here. Part is because the couple has the same dynamic as those in two other works of the author I've read ("In the Vanishers' Palace" and "The Red Scholar's Wake", the latter being from just a year before this one), namely a kind and talented underdog woman becomes the ray of hope for a more illustrious but weary older woman who faced tremendous loss and it feels kinda repetitive and it isn't my favourite dynamic to start with. Yet while their first encounter isn't a sparkling meet-cute to be honest, they're set up as love interests immediately crushing for each other from the start. Maybe this would work better if love interest Hoa was part of the revenge plot (she isn't) but the unexpected love they didn't know they craved and needed should've been a slow burn instead. Hoa doesn't also win me over with her "don't work with the rich and powerful, it's dangerous"-attitude while she does exactly that though I guess this conflict is supposed to be an element of her character development.
On the other hand though, as creative as it is, as good as NOTHING is explained about the world. What are these places, what is the empire, what is their history, what is the timeline of the different parts of the series, are there other "nations", why are people born to be spaceships of all things etc etc? No idea. (At least it states later on the parents can choose if their want their child to be born a mindship though. But it doesn't say how the children feel about this, if they'd rather be human-shaped or vice versa. Or if children *need* to be born from a womb or if splicing is part of reproduction). Eeverything has to be gleaned from the context. It only helped that I've read other books of the universe before, so I knew not to expect more but had heard many terms before so I wasn't completely thrown into cold water. Or maybe the descriptions here ARE a bit clearer to let it flow nicely while making the ideas enjoyable.
Anyway, the plot is great. It's strongly inspired by "The Count of Monte Christo" and follows the original closely and while that does sound a bit uncreative, given that Monte Christo has this complex cast of characters with loads of different connections among each other, I rather respect how the author transfers those connections in her way shorter novel with a completely different setting and background. (Note that the Villefort-inspired characters get more attention than the Moncerf ones though.) I can easily believe in a as corrupt society in space as in 19th century France. I thoroughly enjoyed seeking and finding the paralelles, links and nods to the original and how the author varies them, especially regarding how female, queer and asian the book is, though there could be more transgender representation.
Obviously, much depends on how catching the avenger character is and Quynh here absolutely delivers. She is introduced as this charismatic, confident and capable winner manipulating her way into the trust of her marks like the count of Monte Christo (although I miss his various disguises and fake identities or my highlight scene where he - seemingly clueless - tells his guests a scary story knowing full well it's the true account of a crime some of them committed but you can't have everything). Yet we also see how deeply she cares about people, missing those she loves (and lost) and helps those in need and at other times, it's shown how she isn't always this cool and powerful character but suffering from PTSD and chronic illness and this complicated personality is portrayed in line with the themes of the story and it becomes as touching as thrilling.
However, I was less moved by the love story here. Part is because the couple has the same dynamic as those in two other works of the author I've read ("In the Vanishers' Palace" and "The Red Scholar's Wake", the latter being from just a year before this one), namely a kind and talented underdog woman becomes the ray of hope for a more illustrious but weary older woman who faced tremendous loss and it feels kinda repetitive and it isn't my favourite dynamic to start with. Yet while their first encounter isn't a sparkling meet-cute to be honest, they're set up as love interests immediately crushing for each other from the start. Maybe this would work better if love interest Hoa was part of the revenge plot (she isn't) but the unexpected love they didn't know they craved and needed should've been a slow burn instead. Hoa doesn't also win me over with her "don't work with the rich and powerful, it's dangerous"-attitude while she does exactly that though I guess this conflict is supposed to be an element of her character development.
October 17, 2023
I have enjoyed everything I have read by Aliette de Bodard, but this is my favorite thus far. Something about the characters grabbed me immediately and held my interest for the entire book. They felt incredibly real and believable and I cared deeply about all of them.
Her writing style is very dense, so her books take me longer to read than most others, but I always enjoy the journey. Sometimes it's nice to be forced to slow down and linger over a story rather than speed through it.
The characters and their motivations are complicated. Revenge and fear and hate and greed and love and justice. They're all very powerful emotions and the book itself feels very powerful. It's a grand struggle and epic battles that play out in subtle manipulations and power plays and scholars crafting the perfect response alluding to classic texts.
I love how expansive and complicated this universe is, with the mindships and bots and the avatars and overlays and perception filters, as well as the Vietnamese names and culture that feels deep and consistent. It feels so vast and so physical, and even though I know it's not real, it feels like it is.
I have read a good handful of Xuya universe novels and novellas now so I feel like I have a pretty good handle on the world, where I was confused occasionally even in the previous novel. It's more sci-fi than I normally read, and I love it. It has such a lovely texture.
I also love how queer relationships are treated as normal and unremarkable, and how many examples of them we have in this book (and her others). There is at least one nonbinary character and it is completely normal. The main relationships are all pairs of women. It's so refreshing and validating.
I have not had such a deeply enjoyable and satisfying reading experience in a while and it felt so good. Wading through the dense language that Aliette de Bodard uses felt rewarding and I was swept away by the strong emotions and convictions of the characters. I am sad to leave this world and eagerly await the next Xuya universe novel.
(It should be noted that I am in the process of moving so the only time I have had to read in the past few weeks is when I wake up in the middle of the night and can't sleep. So I read most of this between the hours of 3 and 6am. And I still adored it and happily spent days wading through its complexity. That's how good it is.)
*Thanks to NetGalley and JAB Books for providing an early copy for review.
Her writing style is very dense, so her books take me longer to read than most others, but I always enjoy the journey. Sometimes it's nice to be forced to slow down and linger over a story rather than speed through it.
The characters and their motivations are complicated. Revenge and fear and hate and greed and love and justice. They're all very powerful emotions and the book itself feels very powerful. It's a grand struggle and epic battles that play out in subtle manipulations and power plays and scholars crafting the perfect response alluding to classic texts.
I love how expansive and complicated this universe is, with the mindships and bots and the avatars and overlays and perception filters, as well as the Vietnamese names and culture that feels deep and consistent. It feels so vast and so physical, and even though I know it's not real, it feels like it is.
I have read a good handful of Xuya universe novels and novellas now so I feel like I have a pretty good handle on the world, where I was confused occasionally even in the previous novel. It's more sci-fi than I normally read, and I love it. It has such a lovely texture.
I also love how queer relationships are treated as normal and unremarkable, and how many examples of them we have in this book (and her others). There is at least one nonbinary character and it is completely normal. The main relationships are all pairs of women. It's so refreshing and validating.
I have not had such a deeply enjoyable and satisfying reading experience in a while and it felt so good. Wading through the dense language that Aliette de Bodard uses felt rewarding and I was swept away by the strong emotions and convictions of the characters. I am sad to leave this world and eagerly await the next Xuya universe novel.
(It should be noted that I am in the process of moving so the only time I have had to read in the past few weeks is when I wake up in the middle of the night and can't sleep. So I read most of this between the hours of 3 and 6am. And I still adored it and happily spent days wading through its complexity. That's how good it is.)
*Thanks to NetGalley and JAB Books for providing an early copy for review.
September 1, 2023
The more I read about the Xuya universe, the more I love it. Aliette de Bodard’s world building and the characters that inhabit that world are simply amazing.
Quynh was convicted of a crime that she didn’t really commit and was sentenced to death. But she didn’t die and years later, she arrives in the Scattered Pearls Belt seeking revenge on those who cost her everything. Minh is the daughter of the Belt’s Prefect who rules harshly and Minh is desperate to try and control her own future. And then there is Hoa, a lowly technician repairing bots whose sister is possibly dying of a mystery illness. All three women become connected and tangled up in Quynh’s plans which definitely didn’t involve any romance.
I loved all three of the main characters as well as the young mind ship, Heart’s Sorrow. I really liked that that he was trying to find his own way and not be the person his mothers and everyone else expected him to be.
The romance is a strong thread that runs through the book but it never over-powers the plot. It’s never completely certain if the romance will work out either which adds an extra layer to the story. Family ties are huge part of this society and I really enjoyed how the dynamics played out between the individual family members
I love a good political intrigue and this book delivers that brilliantly. We are given enough of the backstory to make sense of what is happening but there is never any sense of the author giving us an info dump. The author’s vision of the technological achievements in the future is detailed and makes perfect sense within this society that she has created. I am fascinated by the idea of the mind ships and we learn a lot more about them in this book including the fact that they have human mothers!! I think that the young ship, Moon, was possibly my favourite character in the whole book. She was adorable
This is set in the same universe as The Red Scholar’s Wake but is a completely separate tale. However, having read the earlier book did give me a sense of familiarity with the society and how it worked which I think helped my enjoyment of this one.
This was a brilliant space opera and I can’t wait to read more set in this universe. Huge thanks to Net Galley and the publishers, Orion, for providing this ARC.
Quynh was convicted of a crime that she didn’t really commit and was sentenced to death. But she didn’t die and years later, she arrives in the Scattered Pearls Belt seeking revenge on those who cost her everything. Minh is the daughter of the Belt’s Prefect who rules harshly and Minh is desperate to try and control her own future. And then there is Hoa, a lowly technician repairing bots whose sister is possibly dying of a mystery illness. All three women become connected and tangled up in Quynh’s plans which definitely didn’t involve any romance.
I loved all three of the main characters as well as the young mind ship, Heart’s Sorrow. I really liked that that he was trying to find his own way and not be the person his mothers and everyone else expected him to be.
The romance is a strong thread that runs through the book but it never over-powers the plot. It’s never completely certain if the romance will work out either which adds an extra layer to the story. Family ties are huge part of this society and I really enjoyed how the dynamics played out between the individual family members
I love a good political intrigue and this book delivers that brilliantly. We are given enough of the backstory to make sense of what is happening but there is never any sense of the author giving us an info dump. The author’s vision of the technological achievements in the future is detailed and makes perfect sense within this society that she has created. I am fascinated by the idea of the mind ships and we learn a lot more about them in this book including the fact that they have human mothers!! I think that the young ship, Moon, was possibly my favourite character in the whole book. She was adorable
This is set in the same universe as The Red Scholar’s Wake but is a completely separate tale. However, having read the earlier book did give me a sense of familiarity with the society and how it worked which I think helped my enjoyment of this one.
This was a brilliant space opera and I can’t wait to read more set in this universe. Huge thanks to Net Galley and the publishers, Orion, for providing this ARC.
October 10, 2023
The 3 star rating is a bit disingenuous - this is definitely a high 3 stars, a 3.5 stars, if you will. And I enjoyed it quite a bit, but there were a few things tempering my enjoyment a bit. But we'll get to that.
I had read The Red Scholar's Wake, so I was familiar with the world already, with the most jarring piece of world building being the mind ships. You can tell that Aliette de Bodard has thought a lot about her world and its society, but she throws the reader right into it and doesn't hold your hand. Which is cool! And also more than a bit confusing at times - sometimes, laying out a bit of the history, just laying it out flat, can be appreciated. The society is very obviously deeply and richly imagined, and unlike anything I've encountered before, so it's a credit to say that I would like to explore it more. But de Bodard isn't super interested in things like "answers."
While this book is a standalone, it's hard not to compare it to The Red Scholar's Wake, as they're set in the same world and my feelings on both are actually pretty similar. That is to say, the creativity of the world and the politics of the plot are standouts, but the characters are missing something.
I'm not sure exactly what the characters are missing, but I never got fully invested in them. By all rights, I should have! I can't pinpoint why this is the case, but I felt a detachment to all of the characters. On paper (. . . metaphorically), they all sounded like characters I would connect with or be interested in, but the presentation of them left me pretty emotionally empty, sadly.
I wanted to end on a high note, so I'll say the plot is wonderful. I love a good revenge plot, and the minute details and twists, along with all of the politics of this world, made it a good time. I didn't always love the execution of the plot or perhaps the pacing, but I think there were definitely good bones for this book and I was pretty well-engaged throughout.
Thank you to the publishers, Independent Publishers Group and JAB Books, and to NetGalley for the ARC.
I had read The Red Scholar's Wake, so I was familiar with the world already, with the most jarring piece of world building being the mind ships. You can tell that Aliette de Bodard has thought a lot about her world and its society, but she throws the reader right into it and doesn't hold your hand. Which is cool! And also more than a bit confusing at times - sometimes, laying out a bit of the history, just laying it out flat, can be appreciated. The society is very obviously deeply and richly imagined, and unlike anything I've encountered before, so it's a credit to say that I would like to explore it more. But de Bodard isn't super interested in things like "answers."
While this book is a standalone, it's hard not to compare it to The Red Scholar's Wake, as they're set in the same world and my feelings on both are actually pretty similar. That is to say, the creativity of the world and the politics of the plot are standouts, but the characters are missing something.
I'm not sure exactly what the characters are missing, but I never got fully invested in them. By all rights, I should have! I can't pinpoint why this is the case, but I felt a detachment to all of the characters. On paper (. . . metaphorically), they all sounded like characters I would connect with or be interested in, but the presentation of them left me pretty emotionally empty, sadly.
I wanted to end on a high note, so I'll say the plot is wonderful. I love a good revenge plot, and the minute details and twists, along with all of the politics of this world, made it a good time. I didn't always love the execution of the plot or perhaps the pacing, but I think there were definitely good bones for this book and I was pretty well-engaged throughout.
Thank you to the publishers, Independent Publishers Group and JAB Books, and to NetGalley for the ARC.
October 13, 2023
A Fire Born of Exile is a standalone novel set in Aliette de Bodard's Xuya Universe. This is a far future setting where a Sino-Vietnamese Empire rules much of space, "mindships" are born from human mothers and maintain familial relationships with their relatives, and "bots" are ubiquitous extensions of regular citizens' senses. This entry focuses on Quynh, a charming, intelligent newcomer to the outlying space station where the book takes place. She inserts herself into the power structure of the station when she saves the children of its ruling officials: the General, providing martial rule, and the Prefect, representative of the Empire's justice system. She's there for revenge against the two corrupt officials, who once upon a time condemned her to death. Quynh's plans will be complicated by the relationships she is forming, both romantic and otherwise.
The plot is relatively straightforward: Quynh wants revenge, and she needs to manipulate the ruling powers of the Empire to bring down two of its favored children. But the character relationships make her goals complex. She cultivates relationships with the officials' children, knowing very well that her expressions of care will just add to the betrayal when her plans come to fruition. And though she tries to keep her romantic relationship out of her revenge plot, her lover turns out to be working for just those officials' children that Quynh is manipulating.
The book is a little slow to start, as De Bodard sets the scene. Even for a reader familiar with the Xuya Universe, it takes some settling in time to assimilate to the bots, overlays, mindship projections, and more. But once the players are established and the ultimate revenge plot is fully unveiled, the reading moves more swiftly. This is definitely a speculative SF book. At the same time, it is a sapphic romance with the HEA required by the genre. A Fire Born in Exile is a book about the corruption of power, the inevitable emptiness of revenge, and (yeah it sounds cheesy) the power of love.
If you're prepared to take your time easing into the world, this would be a great place to start reading Aliette de Bodard.
This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novel.
The plot is relatively straightforward: Quynh wants revenge, and she needs to manipulate the ruling powers of the Empire to bring down two of its favored children. But the character relationships make her goals complex. She cultivates relationships with the officials' children, knowing very well that her expressions of care will just add to the betrayal when her plans come to fruition. And though she tries to keep her romantic relationship out of her revenge plot, her lover turns out to be working for just those officials' children that Quynh is manipulating.
The book is a little slow to start, as De Bodard sets the scene. Even for a reader familiar with the Xuya Universe, it takes some settling in time to assimilate to the bots, overlays, mindship projections, and more. But once the players are established and the ultimate revenge plot is fully unveiled, the reading moves more swiftly. This is definitely a speculative SF book. At the same time, it is a sapphic romance with the HEA required by the genre. A Fire Born in Exile is a book about the corruption of power, the inevitable emptiness of revenge, and (yeah it sounds cheesy) the power of love.
If you're prepared to take your time easing into the world, this would be a great place to start reading Aliette de Bodard.
This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novel.
September 1, 2023
A Fire Born of Exile by Aliette de Bodard
Thank you Netgalley and Orion Books for an arc for an unbiased review.
Although a huge fan of The Red Scholar's Wake from last year, I always try to go into a new book by the same author with as little bias as possible. Yet, within minutes of starting A Fire is Born of Exile, I just knew I was heading down a rabbit hole of absolute joy. Again.
This story, much like it's predecessor, is a Xuya, Vietnamese universe sci-fi setting. Very much space opera, at it's best.
The opening is explosive. Literally and metaphorically. The main characters of Minh, Hoà, and Quynh, are immediately introduced.
We quickly begin to understand that Quynh has ulterior motives. As an alchemist, Quynh is enigmatic and confident, and also the character that, because of ulterior motives, you could readily dislike. Yet, there is sympathy & understanding as to what drives them.
Minh could also fall into easily disliking them, but again, you feel the sympathy and understanding for their plight.
Hoà is a balance I thought that allowed it all to gel. And I was surprised to find probably my favourite character out of them all.
However, even the side characters serve an important purpose. A feat not always achieved by some writers.
We have a mystery, wrapped up in an slow burn, complicated romance, with political intrigue meshed together that drives the story forward extremely well.
What I loved previously about The Red Scholar's Wake was how it was presented to us, the reader, and it doesn't disappoint here. The details were rich with fantastic world building. It had many elements that I love in books such as these, and you also don't need to have read The Red Scholar's Wake to immerse yourself into this story. Although, I'd highly recommend you read both.
For anyone who wants to be transported into a wonderous world, for escapism, to see good triumph over evil. For friendships and for joy. And ultimately for love, all with a delightfully queer backdrop in a space opera sci-fi setting with a twist, this book is most definitely for you.
Another easy 5/5 stars 🌟 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Thank you Netgalley and Orion Books for an arc for an unbiased review.
Although a huge fan of The Red Scholar's Wake from last year, I always try to go into a new book by the same author with as little bias as possible. Yet, within minutes of starting A Fire is Born of Exile, I just knew I was heading down a rabbit hole of absolute joy. Again.
This story, much like it's predecessor, is a Xuya, Vietnamese universe sci-fi setting. Very much space opera, at it's best.
The opening is explosive. Literally and metaphorically. The main characters of Minh, Hoà, and Quynh, are immediately introduced.
We quickly begin to understand that Quynh has ulterior motives. As an alchemist, Quynh is enigmatic and confident, and also the character that, because of ulterior motives, you could readily dislike. Yet, there is sympathy & understanding as to what drives them.
Minh could also fall into easily disliking them, but again, you feel the sympathy and understanding for their plight.
Hoà is a balance I thought that allowed it all to gel. And I was surprised to find probably my favourite character out of them all.
However, even the side characters serve an important purpose. A feat not always achieved by some writers.
We have a mystery, wrapped up in an slow burn, complicated romance, with political intrigue meshed together that drives the story forward extremely well.
What I loved previously about The Red Scholar's Wake was how it was presented to us, the reader, and it doesn't disappoint here. The details were rich with fantastic world building. It had many elements that I love in books such as these, and you also don't need to have read The Red Scholar's Wake to immerse yourself into this story. Although, I'd highly recommend you read both.
For anyone who wants to be transported into a wonderous world, for escapism, to see good triumph over evil. For friendships and for joy. And ultimately for love, all with a delightfully queer backdrop in a space opera sci-fi setting with a twist, this book is most definitely for you.
Another easy 5/5 stars 🌟 🌟🌟🌟🌟
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