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Universe of Xuya
Seven of Infinities
Vân is a scholar from a poor background, eking out a living in the orbitals of the Scattered Pearls Belt as a tutor to a rich family, while hiding the illegal artificial mem-implant she manufactured as a student.
Sunless Woods is a mindship—and not just any mindship, but a notorious thief and a master of disguise. She’s come to the Belt to retire, but is drawn to Vân’s resolute integrity.
When a mysterious corpse is found in the quarters of Vân’s student, Vân and Sunless Woods find themselves following a trail of greed and murder that will lead them from teahouses and ascetic havens to the wreck of a mindship--and to the devastating secrets they’ve kept from each other.
Sunless Woods is a mindship—and not just any mindship, but a notorious thief and a master of disguise. She’s come to the Belt to retire, but is drawn to Vân’s resolute integrity.
When a mysterious corpse is found in the quarters of Vân’s student, Vân and Sunless Woods find themselves following a trail of greed and murder that will lead them from teahouses and ascetic havens to the wreck of a mindship--and to the devastating secrets they’ve kept from each other.
176 pages, Hardcover
First published October 31, 2020
79 people are currently reading
2619 people want to read
About the author
Aliette de Bodard
265 books2,233 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 166 reviews
January 5, 2021
An unusual genre-bender set in de Bodard’s Xuya Universe. It combines sci-fi, a murder mystery and a bit of romance, wrapped in the feel of a structured Vietnamese society. The Xuya Universe is a loose collection of stories set in a future and alternate universe where Asia is dominant and sentient mindships are part of familial timelines (link for de Bodard’s brief explanation). I have The Tea Master and the Detective in my collection, so I was sure this was going to be equally interesting.
One day the scholar Vân has an unexpected visit from a respected member of her poetry group, the mindship, The Wild Orchid in Sunless Woods. Many people in this culture have ancestor mind implants, reminiscent of imagos in A Memory Called Empire but Vân’s is illegal and discovery of it would mean social exile. Meanwhile, her charge, the teenager Uyên, has her own unexpected–but unknown–visitor. By the time Uyên returns from making the visitor tea, the visitor has mysteriously died. Sunless Woods involves herself to prevent Van from running afoul of the militia and because she might just be a bit bored.
I didn’t know what to expect, which was kind of wonderful. It feels a little darker than some of the other Xuya stories, with Vân carrying a lot of guilt about her past that continues to impact her ability to carry herself now. The characters developed quickly for a novella, and I felt like everyone had a little bit of good and interesting with the flaws. Sunless Woods has secrets of her own, and I spent a little bit of time wracking my brain trying to remember how mindships work.
“Her avatar was as unconventional as her name… it was a vaguely humanoid shape: at first glance, she appeared to have two arms and two legs and to be about Vân’s size, but whenever she moved Vân would catch a glimpse of something far, far larger00sleek and polished metal, the reflection of distant stars, and a feeling the room, the entire habitat were twisting and folding back on themselves, unable to contain the vastness of her.”
On the downside, there’s instant attraction between two of the leads, that results in a rather extreme insta-emotional connection. It’s a device that ordinarily doesn’t set that well with me, but I suppose the fact that one of the players has severe emotional baggage is part of it. At any rate, it plays out reasonably well, and there are a couple of moments that are truly sweet, along with truly poetic. de Bodard is pushing boundaries here.
“Up close, the hull looked as if a giant, distorted flower of metal had burst outwards from the heart of the ship–and behind that hold was a vast, profound darkness in which nothing lived or breathed, a silence more final than that of stars or planets. Vân toggled, with a flick of her fingers, the light on her own glider. It illuminated a large structure that looked like a hanger, with the scattered debris of shuttles, and a single bloodied thread linking each of them back to the ship.”
Yes, probably worth it, although you’ll get a better bargain with Kindle.
No, you don’t need to have read any stories in the Xuya Universe. It’s all quite self-contained, although some of the stories will tell you more or less about the mind-ships or the culture.
Yes, you’ll probably note that I liked it significantly better than TTo Be Taught, If Fortunate, another novella I read at the same time, even though I’m not crazy about romance. I thought it a challenging, interesting read with a lot of re-read potential. I’m glad I added such a beautiful edition to my personal library.
One day the scholar Vân has an unexpected visit from a respected member of her poetry group, the mindship, The Wild Orchid in Sunless Woods. Many people in this culture have ancestor mind implants, reminiscent of imagos in A Memory Called Empire but Vân’s is illegal and discovery of it would mean social exile. Meanwhile, her charge, the teenager Uyên, has her own unexpected–but unknown–visitor. By the time Uyên returns from making the visitor tea, the visitor has mysteriously died. Sunless Woods involves herself to prevent Van from running afoul of the militia and because she might just be a bit bored.
I didn’t know what to expect, which was kind of wonderful. It feels a little darker than some of the other Xuya stories, with Vân carrying a lot of guilt about her past that continues to impact her ability to carry herself now. The characters developed quickly for a novella, and I felt like everyone had a little bit of good and interesting with the flaws. Sunless Woods has secrets of her own, and I spent a little bit of time wracking my brain trying to remember how mindships work.
“Her avatar was as unconventional as her name… it was a vaguely humanoid shape: at first glance, she appeared to have two arms and two legs and to be about Vân’s size, but whenever she moved Vân would catch a glimpse of something far, far larger00sleek and polished metal, the reflection of distant stars, and a feeling the room, the entire habitat were twisting and folding back on themselves, unable to contain the vastness of her.”
On the downside, there’s instant attraction between two of the leads, that results in a rather extreme insta-emotional connection. It’s a device that ordinarily doesn’t set that well with me, but I suppose the fact that one of the players has severe emotional baggage is part of it. At any rate, it plays out reasonably well, and there are a couple of moments that are truly sweet, along with truly poetic. de Bodard is pushing boundaries here.
“Up close, the hull looked as if a giant, distorted flower of metal had burst outwards from the heart of the ship–and behind that hold was a vast, profound darkness in which nothing lived or breathed, a silence more final than that of stars or planets. Vân toggled, with a flick of her fingers, the light on her own glider. It illuminated a large structure that looked like a hanger, with the scattered debris of shuttles, and a single bloodied thread linking each of them back to the ship.”
Yes, probably worth it, although you’ll get a better bargain with Kindle.
No, you don’t need to have read any stories in the Xuya Universe. It’s all quite self-contained, although some of the stories will tell you more or less about the mind-ships or the culture.
Yes, you’ll probably note that I liked it significantly better than TTo Be Taught, If Fortunate, another novella I read at the same time, even though I’m not crazy about romance. I thought it a challenging, interesting read with a lot of re-read potential. I’m glad I added such a beautiful edition to my personal library.
February 1, 2025
Another gorgeous Xuya novella. I thought the tone of this one was a bit different from the typical mood of the stories de Bodard has written in this universe - it has a bit more of the dark secrets and sexual tension feel that I expect from the Dominion of the Fallen books - but I thought it worked well for this story and these characters.
October 30, 2020
Ahoy there me mateys! I received this sci-fi eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. So here be me honest musings . . .
The cover drew me in and three things convinced me to read this book:
1) I love the author's Universe of Xuya;
2) It is a Subterranean Press book and they do great work; and
3) Do I need another reason? . . .
I was introduced to the Universe of Xuya with Subterranean's edition of the tea master and the detective. The author’s excellent page discussing this world says that:
I have a soft spot for ships of any kind (Arrr!) and this world has mindships. They are awesome. In this new story, the mindship is The Wild Orchid in Sunless Woods who pays a visit to Vân, a human, to discuss the inner politics of their poetry club. But soon there are bigger problems when a person suddenly drops dead in Vân's household. From the outside it looks like murder. From the inside it is the part of a bigger mystery.
Like other Xuya stories, the dead body problem is not the focus of the story. The murder drives the character interactions and growth. The point is very much the inter-character dynamics between the AI ship and the human. There is also a strong look at past secrets and choices of each character and how those issues affect their relationship.
Some of the plot points of this story were not what I was expecting but for the better. I have to admit that I find meself more and more driven to read all the Xuya tales. I am very glad to have read this one.
So lastly . . .
Thank you Subterranean Press!
The cover drew me in and three things convinced me to read this book:
1) I love the author's Universe of Xuya;
2) It is a Subterranean Press book and they do great work; and
3) Do I need another reason? . . .
I was introduced to the Universe of Xuya with Subterranean's edition of the tea master and the detective. The author’s excellent page discussing this world says that:
The premise of Xuya is that China discovered the Americas before the West, and that the exploration of this new continent prevented China from sinking inwards (not to mention being invaded by the Manchu, who later founded the ill-fated Qing dynasty, China’s last imperial dynasty). Xuya (旴 涯), a Chinese colony founded in the 15th Century in North America, plays a central role in the stories.
I have a soft spot for ships of any kind (Arrr!) and this world has mindships. They are awesome. In this new story, the mindship is The Wild Orchid in Sunless Woods who pays a visit to Vân, a human, to discuss the inner politics of their poetry club. But soon there are bigger problems when a person suddenly drops dead in Vân's household. From the outside it looks like murder. From the inside it is the part of a bigger mystery.
Like other Xuya stories, the dead body problem is not the focus of the story. The murder drives the character interactions and growth. The point is very much the inter-character dynamics between the AI ship and the human. There is also a strong look at past secrets and choices of each character and how those issues affect their relationship.
Some of the plot points of this story were not what I was expecting but for the better. I have to admit that I find meself more and more driven to read all the Xuya tales. I am very glad to have read this one.
So lastly . . .
Thank you Subterranean Press!
January 2, 2025
Yes, there is a most revolting case of insta-lurve in this story (*shudders*), BUT it’s set in Aliette de Bodard’s most scrumptious Xuya Universe, a galactic world of Vietnamese inspiration that centers on a matriarchal society administrated by scholars, in which sentient ships are part of familial lineages. Meaning it’s refreshing as fish and definitely not your average sci-fi novella. I say more? Didn’t think so.
P.S. Aliette de Bodard is the queen of genre-bending and gender-swapping, just so you know.
P.P.S. All the stories in this universe are standalone and can be read independently. You can find out more about them here.
P.S. Aliette de Bodard is the queen of genre-bending and gender-swapping, just so you know.
P.P.S. All the stories in this universe are standalone and can be read independently. You can find out more about them here.
November 4, 2020
Another fun short story from someone who is rapidly shifting from “author I really like” to “one of my favorite authors.” De Bodard is just always so creative, distinct, and evocative, at this point I’d be excited to read the back of a shampoo bottle if it was written by her. And I’d assume there’s some interesting bits of Vietnamese culture sprinkled among the ingredients.
This is something between a murder mystery and a heist story. The main protagonist is a tutor, talented but from a lower-class family, helping a young wealthy woman prepare for the civil service examinations. The other main protagonist is someone she knows from her poetry club, the holographic (or something) avatar of a sentient starship. Both the tutor and the mindship have a secret, and both are so caught up in their own secret that it takes them a long time to consider that maybe the other is hiding something of her own.
The stakes rise early on, when the tutor’s student has an unknown visitor who promptly drops dead in their sitting room.
The mystery of what is going on is fine, but what really shines is the setting (de Bodard is absolutely brilliant at settings) and the relationship between the tutor and the mindship. Another gift of de Bodard’s is writing books about relationships between very, very unequal beings (check out In the Vanishers’ Palace for a great story featuring a relationship between a village girl and a dragon).
This is something between a murder mystery and a heist story. The main protagonist is a tutor, talented but from a lower-class family, helping a young wealthy woman prepare for the civil service examinations. The other main protagonist is someone she knows from her poetry club, the holographic (or something) avatar of a sentient starship. Both the tutor and the mindship have a secret, and both are so caught up in their own secret that it takes them a long time to consider that maybe the other is hiding something of her own.
The stakes rise early on, when the tutor’s student has an unknown visitor who promptly drops dead in their sitting room.
The mystery of what is going on is fine, but what really shines is the setting (de Bodard is absolutely brilliant at settings) and the relationship between the tutor and the mindship. Another gift of de Bodard’s is writing books about relationships between very, very unequal beings (check out In the Vanishers’ Palace for a great story featuring a relationship between a village girl and a dragon).
December 1, 2022
Vân, a poor scholar with a scandalous secret that could endanger her career, gets in more than a bit over her head when a corpse appears in her student's apartment. That's why I picked it first: I felt like reading about a scholar. She is helped by Sunless Woods, a mindship with secrets of her own. It's a dense novella with a lot going on, a bit of murder mystery, a bit of sapphic romance, lots of worldbuilding. Still, it perhaps, not the best choice out of the Xuya books to read this soon after
The Red Scholar's Wake
as the romance dynamic in both books felt fairly similar, but it was well done.
Enjoyment: 4/5
Execution: 4/5
More reviews on my blog, To Other Worlds.
Enjoyment: 4/5
Execution: 4/5
More reviews on my blog, To Other Worlds.
September 18, 2020
I have enjoyed whatever short fiction I’ve come across till date by Aliette de Bodard, so I excited when I got the advance copy of this one. However, this was my first in her Xuya universe and it was such a fascinating dive into this world.
I wasn’t sure how much I would understand being thrown into this universe which already has many published stories set in it, so I decided to read up about the world itself on the author’s website, and I thought it was nice to get that background. But I was very glad that I really didn’t need to know too much of it before getting into this story, because it’s self contained and vague enough to be intriguing as well as rewarding. The writing in this is really beautiful and poetic, captivating me right from the get go. I couldn’t understand how a romance between a human and an AI mind ship would work, but the author makes it absolutely believable as well as emotional, and I was completely enchanted. Add to this a very interesting and mysterious murder plot, a lovely teacher student relationship and some very eccentric past heist crew members, and this becomes a short but very enjoyable story.
I also enjoyed the theme of filial piety, what it means to be dutiful towards the younger ones in your family and how far should one be ready to go for the sake of duty. There are also some interesting conversations about righteousness, doing the correct thing even if it goes against empire’s policy and how it’s possible to be critical of such policy and wanting to be a part of it to make it change for the better.
To conclude, this was a beautifully written murder mystery with a romantic plot, and I thoroughly enjoyed both the elements. You’ll probably love it even more if you’ve read any of the other stories set in the Xuya universe, but it should be equally compelling for anyone like me just treading into this world. My only complaint with works such as this is as usual that it’s short and I wish it was longer and we could see more of the characters. And now I’m just more excited for the author’s next work, which unfortunately doesn’t come out for quite a while.
I wasn’t sure how much I would understand being thrown into this universe which already has many published stories set in it, so I decided to read up about the world itself on the author’s website, and I thought it was nice to get that background. But I was very glad that I really didn’t need to know too much of it before getting into this story, because it’s self contained and vague enough to be intriguing as well as rewarding. The writing in this is really beautiful and poetic, captivating me right from the get go. I couldn’t understand how a romance between a human and an AI mind ship would work, but the author makes it absolutely believable as well as emotional, and I was completely enchanted. Add to this a very interesting and mysterious murder plot, a lovely teacher student relationship and some very eccentric past heist crew members, and this becomes a short but very enjoyable story.
I also enjoyed the theme of filial piety, what it means to be dutiful towards the younger ones in your family and how far should one be ready to go for the sake of duty. There are also some interesting conversations about righteousness, doing the correct thing even if it goes against empire’s policy and how it’s possible to be critical of such policy and wanting to be a part of it to make it change for the better.
To conclude, this was a beautifully written murder mystery with a romantic plot, and I thoroughly enjoyed both the elements. You’ll probably love it even more if you’ve read any of the other stories set in the Xuya universe, but it should be equally compelling for anyone like me just treading into this world. My only complaint with works such as this is as usual that it’s short and I wish it was longer and we could see more of the characters. And now I’m just more excited for the author’s next work, which unfortunately doesn’t come out for quite a while.
January 25, 2021
TL;DR: Very enjoyable short novel from de Bodard set in her Xuya universe, but think intimate relationship oriented story, not space opera.
de Bodard's work has often been in the very good but flawed category for me, but I think this one is mostly a win. Like most of her stuff I've read there's a murder mystery element, but it's more threat to the main characters than puzzle for the detective / reader type.
One of the lead characters is a mindship just like we see in The Tea Master and the Detective. That typically is a big draw for me in SF, and I usually find them to be the best characters in the story, but the "avatar" mediated interactions and de Bodard's handling of the ships in this universe makes me think you could easily rewrite this with Sunless Woods as a normal human and change virtually nothing else. Which, I don't want to say is bad... a character who just happens to be a ship. It is after all something generally desirable in representation, characters who happen to be X rather than entirely defined by their X-ness. I guess I'm focusing on it because Sunless Woods kind of lacked the aspects that I generally enjoy about AI characters. Which is not to say they were a bad character, just a misalignment of expectations.
Speaking of misaligned expectations, the elements here do invite comparisons to various other SF, but this has a smaller, more personal feel than the sort of space opera one might be inclined to expect if just going by blurb based checklists. The story is almost claustrophobic? There's no picture of the wider world painted beyond that implied by the characters' personal experiences. The focus is more the two lead characters navigating a potential relationship where the constraints are coming more from their own secrets than societal opposition to the potential relationship itself.
The beginning felt a bit slow, but overall it's good. I would be happy to see more of these characters and will be reading more of de Bodard's Xuya books.
de Bodard's work has often been in the very good but flawed category for me, but I think this one is mostly a win. Like most of her stuff I've read there's a murder mystery element, but it's more threat to the main characters than puzzle for the detective / reader type.
One of the lead characters is a mindship just like we see in The Tea Master and the Detective. That typically is a big draw for me in SF, and I usually find them to be the best characters in the story, but the "avatar" mediated interactions and de Bodard's handling of the ships in this universe makes me think you could easily rewrite this with Sunless Woods as a normal human and change virtually nothing else. Which, I don't want to say is bad... a character who just happens to be a ship. It is after all something generally desirable in representation, characters who happen to be X rather than entirely defined by their X-ness. I guess I'm focusing on it because Sunless Woods kind of lacked the aspects that I generally enjoy about AI characters. Which is not to say they were a bad character, just a misalignment of expectations.
Speaking of misaligned expectations, the elements here do invite comparisons to various other SF, but this has a smaller, more personal feel than the sort of space opera one might be inclined to expect if just going by blurb based checklists. The story is almost claustrophobic? There's no picture of the wider world painted beyond that implied by the characters' personal experiences. The focus is more the two lead characters navigating a potential relationship where the constraints are coming more from their own secrets than societal opposition to the potential relationship itself.
The beginning felt a bit slow, but overall it's good. I would be happy to see more of these characters and will be reading more of de Bodard's Xuya books.
July 7, 2021
4.5 I find the Xuya universe intriguing- though not always easy to wrap my mind around. But this book had a more straightforward plot- and I’ve read enough other Xuya- that i found it easier. It explores a theme around past mistakes and secrets, self-worth snd acceptance. The characters are many layered and there is a nice twist toward the end.
September 22, 2023
Rating: 3.5 stars
Seven of Infinities is a lovely addition to the Xuya Universe stories, which are set in a future/alternate universe 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. I love the world building. It's certainly different and interesting. This particular story is a combination of murder mystery and romance. The murder mystery was ok, but seemed to be more a vehicle for character interactions. The romance I felt went too fast and didn't feel real. While this story was an entertaining and well written diversion, it is also not particularly memorable.
Seven of Infinities is a lovely addition to the Xuya Universe stories, which are set in a future/alternate universe 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. I love the world building. It's certainly different and interesting. This particular story is a combination of murder mystery and romance. The murder mystery was ok, but seemed to be more a vehicle for character interactions. The romance I felt went too fast and didn't feel real. While this story was an entertaining and well written diversion, it is also not particularly memorable.
September 5, 2021
This book tells the story of Vân, a young scholar and teacher, and Sunless Woods, a mindship who is actually a master thief looking to retire. Their paths cross when a murder happens and they proceed to unravel the mystery, while also unraveling each of their secrets as they become entangled themselves.
Pretty interesting little book (only about 175 pages), with plenty of lyrical writing and some solid world building in such a short number of pages. I am particularly drawn to multi genre books, and this one flits from one (mystery) to another (romance) to another (crime), all the while set in an Asian influenced far far future.
There were some great lines and I wish I had been reading the ebook version so I could have highlighted them. Some powerfully romantic and some with serious insights. I loved how each of the protagonists had some deeply hidden secrets and how they ever so slowly became exposed. I can't wait to read more of this series.
Pretty interesting little book (only about 175 pages), with plenty of lyrical writing and some solid world building in such a short number of pages. I am particularly drawn to multi genre books, and this one flits from one (mystery) to another (romance) to another (crime), all the while set in an Asian influenced far far future.
There were some great lines and I wish I had been reading the ebook version so I could have highlighted them. Some powerfully romantic and some with serious insights. I loved how each of the protagonists had some deeply hidden secrets and how they ever so slowly became exposed. I can't wait to read more of this series.
March 27, 2022
I love Alliette de Bodard’s Xuya series. After having read The Tea Master and the Detective, Of Wars, and Memories, and Starlight, The Citadel of Weeping Pearls and On a Red Station, Drifting it was finally time for me to read the fifth and most recent novel, Seven of Infinities.
The author about Xuya: “Xuya is a recurring universe in my alternate histories, the premise being that China discovered the Americas before the West, and that the exploration of this new continent prevented China from sinking inwards (not to mention being invaded by the Manchu, who later founded the ill-fated Qing dynasty, China’s last imperial dynasty).”
I loved the Xuya universe and in particular the mindships with their fantastic poetic names. There were The Shadow’s Child, The Three in the Peach Gardens, Sharpening Steel into Needles, Pomegranates Burried in Sand, The Sorrow of Four Gentlemen, The Turtle’s Golden Claw and in this one we meet The Wild Orchid in Sunless Woods and The Bearer of Healing Wine.
As always there is a murder mystery, lots of space opera, honoured ancestors, mem-implants, and family drama! And also a romance between a fake scholar and a thieving mindship! I really recommend the whole series!
5 Stars
The author about Xuya: “Xuya is a recurring universe in my alternate histories, the premise being that China discovered the Americas before the West, and that the exploration of this new continent prevented China from sinking inwards (not to mention being invaded by the Manchu, who later founded the ill-fated Qing dynasty, China’s last imperial dynasty).”
I loved the Xuya universe and in particular the mindships with their fantastic poetic names. There were The Shadow’s Child, The Three in the Peach Gardens, Sharpening Steel into Needles, Pomegranates Burried in Sand, The Sorrow of Four Gentlemen, The Turtle’s Golden Claw and in this one we meet The Wild Orchid in Sunless Woods and The Bearer of Healing Wine.
As always there is a murder mystery, lots of space opera, honoured ancestors, mem-implants, and family drama! And also a romance between a fake scholar and a thieving mindship! I really recommend the whole series!
5 Stars
December 16, 2023
One day when my husband and I were talking about books, he was telling me about one of his favorite fantasy authors and I asked the question that I normally start with when deciding whether to try out a cis male author: “are there any women in the books?”
“No,” said my husband, who’s definitely a feminist and normally gets this sort of thing. “There’s not much romance in them.”
The fact that his mind immediately went “woman in SFF=love interest” was on my mind a lot when I was reading this book, as I went through all 169 pages without ever once meeting a male character. The book is full of women: scholars, thieves, soldiers, mindships, outlaws, murderers and murder victims. And the all-female cast isn’t The Point - it’s not even mentioned. It’s just women living their lives and having adventures. Yes, there’s a romance, but both of them have other stuff going on besides love.
Anyway, this is nominally the first of the Xuya Universe books and is now one of my favorites (The Tea Master and the Detective is probably still tops for me). I love murder mysteries in space, and the delicacy and compassion of the interpersonal relationships was well handled.
“No,” said my husband, who’s definitely a feminist and normally gets this sort of thing. “There’s not much romance in them.”
The fact that his mind immediately went “woman in SFF=love interest” was on my mind a lot when I was reading this book, as I went through all 169 pages without ever once meeting a male character. The book is full of women: scholars, thieves, soldiers, mindships, outlaws, murderers and murder victims. And the all-female cast isn’t The Point - it’s not even mentioned. It’s just women living their lives and having adventures. Yes, there’s a romance, but both of them have other stuff going on besides love.
Anyway, this is nominally the first of the Xuya Universe books and is now one of my favorites (The Tea Master and the Detective is probably still tops for me). I love murder mysteries in space, and the delicacy and compassion of the interpersonal relationships was well handled.
July 7, 2022
I really want to like Bodard's Xuya universe but it just keeps not clicking. I think the issue is that they keep focusing on the interpersonal relationships of the characters at the cost of setting and plot, but the characters are often the least interesting things around.
I suspect I am going to take this as a sign that Bodard is proooobably not for me, with the Obsidian & Blood series being a fluke. Pity.
I suspect I am going to take this as a sign that Bodard is proooobably not for me, with the Obsidian & Blood series being a fluke. Pity.
December 17, 2023
I think this book is fine. There wasn't much that kept me interested. I think the world building is cool, and I love lesbian relationships. But the relationship was weird--and that's totally fine lol--it's just it's between a sentient spaceship and a human woman haha. I think being queer and knowing our community's history with unique relationships makes me think this is actually so cool just maybe not for me.
March 12, 2021
This novella has 163 pages of story, but I feel as if I just finished a novel. And I achieved the ideal of thinking, "Oh, no, I've reached the end!"
Spouse: "What's it about?"
Me: "Er, it's a Vietnamese space story about a dishonest, guilty-secret scholar and a shipmind that's pretending not to be a master thief, and they solve a murder and rescue people and [spoiler omitted.]"
Spouse: *taps temple and walks away*
Me: "It's really good!"
I would have gone on to say it's also elegantly written, and skilfully leaves unsaid those things that would have made it novel-length if included. We have to understand that in a novella we have to stop asking "how would they ...?" and just get on with the story.
Another excellent work from AdeB.
Spouse: "What's it about?"
Me: "Er, it's a Vietnamese space story about a dishonest, guilty-secret scholar and a shipmind that's pretending not to be a master thief, and they solve a murder and rescue people and [spoiler omitted.]"
Spouse: *taps temple and walks away*
Me: "It's really good!"
I would have gone on to say it's also elegantly written, and skilfully leaves unsaid those things that would have made it novel-length if included. We have to understand that in a novella we have to stop asking "how would they ...?" and just get on with the story.
Another excellent work from AdeB.
May 23, 2022
Never thought I would need a lesbian romance between a scholar and a sentient spaceship but here we are, and I loved every minute of it.
November 11, 2022
Me ha encantado volver al mundo de xuya. Que fantasía con todo, especialmente con el bot-touching.
November 4, 2021
I found this novella even stronger than the other one I’ve read in the Universe of Xuya, The Tea Master and the Detective. We still have this fascinating mix of Vietnamese traditional culture and SF concepts, but with even more subtlety in the worldbuilding.
The heroine, Vân, is a scholar and private tutor, and relies almost exclusively on an illegal memory implant for her literary references. But it's a bit of a cheat, since her mem-implant, "Laureate An Thành", is not one single person but a collection of fragments of dead scholars' minds - which means that she knows a lot more literature and poetry than any living person should. Laureate An Thành turns out to be very useful solving the murder mystery thanks to her immense cultural knowledge and provides hilarious background commentary to Vân's actions, like love poetry rhymes when Vân has a romantic moment.
The sapphic love interest is a sentient mindship, The Wild Orchid in Sunless Woods, the name itself an obscure reference to the examinations system's failure to recognize scholars of merit. Sunless Woods might be part of the poetry club but she hides a tumultuous past as a high-profile thief. She's uniquely well-placed to help Vân uncover the murder mystery and I loved her particular brand of arrogance, pragmatism and care for Vân.
I was however a bit disappointed with the melodrama in the second part of the novella. The mystery is linked with Vân's past, which means that she has to confront old ghosts and a kind of survivor guilt. Both Vân and Sunless Woods feel guilty of hiding the crimes they've committed in order to be accepted into society. The romance happened relatively quickly but was satisfying and unusual on many levels.
The heroine, Vân, is a scholar and private tutor, and relies almost exclusively on an illegal memory implant for her literary references. But it's a bit of a cheat, since her mem-implant, "Laureate An Thành", is not one single person but a collection of fragments of dead scholars' minds - which means that she knows a lot more literature and poetry than any living person should. Laureate An Thành turns out to be very useful solving the murder mystery thanks to her immense cultural knowledge and provides hilarious background commentary to Vân's actions, like love poetry rhymes when Vân has a romantic moment.
As my ship tears itself from orbit
My heart twists and turns with the stars
Pained, falling and falling,
As I remember butterflies flitting from orchid to orchid…
The sapphic love interest is a sentient mindship, The Wild Orchid in Sunless Woods, the name itself an obscure reference to the examinations system's failure to recognize scholars of merit. Sunless Woods might be part of the poetry club but she hides a tumultuous past as a high-profile thief. She's uniquely well-placed to help Vân uncover the murder mystery and I loved her particular brand of arrogance, pragmatism and care for Vân.
I was however a bit disappointed with the melodrama in the second part of the novella. The mystery is linked with Vân's past, which means that she has to confront old ghosts and a kind of survivor guilt. Both Vân and Sunless Woods feel guilty of hiding the crimes they've committed in order to be accepted into society. The romance happened relatively quickly but was satisfying and unusual on many levels.
September 3, 2020
Seven of Infinities by Aliette de Bodard- A Scattered Pearls mystery- A dead body is found in the home of a semi-wealthy family living in an orbital habitat. Van is a tutor from humble beginnings, who carries a deadly secret and recognizes this body as something from her past. Sunless Worlds is a mind-ship, also with a dark past who comes to her aid, but speaks in half truths and riddles. What they will find is a web of mystery and danger involving more clues, more dead bodies, and mind-shipwrecks. The prose is beautiful and the setting mystical. I found some of this a little slow and confusing, but still it held my attention and was rewarding.
November 27, 2022
I love it when an author takes into account that their readers can fairly keep up with the world they are making up as they read along, more revealed as more novellas are read, and at the same time, producing a slick story that's partial space soap opera and partial mystery.
The universe in itself is quite fascinating, a Vietnamese galactic empire, with the culture heavily influencing this setting - the respect for scholars, the ancient ways of rich patrons sponsoring teachers for their child's advancement and all around appreciation and love for poetry.
I am more fascinated with this world, the relationships that exists and the way they evolve and above all that, pretty distinct.
The universe in itself is quite fascinating, a Vietnamese galactic empire, with the culture heavily influencing this setting - the respect for scholars, the ancient ways of rich patrons sponsoring teachers for their child's advancement and all around appreciation and love for poetry.
I am more fascinated with this world, the relationships that exists and the way they evolve and above all that, pretty distinct.
January 19, 2021
Exquisitely beautiful and strange, with characters I loved, a richly detailed and layered world in which mindships interacted directly with humans in ways I did not expect from previous books in the series, and a love story and sex scene that showed me how small and limited my conception of the world had been. Rich and spare. A masterwork.
January 19, 2024
In the future everything will be overlays, projections and avatars.
- it should be depressing. But in the context of the Xuya Universe, it is somewhat fascinating. A 2.75 rounded up
It was okay. It could have been great or at least my definition of great. But the interaction between Van and Sunless Woods (though obviously meant to be wrought with tension and chemistry) came across more cardboard and pregnant silences that dragged and dragged. I understand in the context infantilizing a grown up in the ElderAunt-BigSis-Child system is a way to drive home the Matriarchal culture but I got tired of the titles. They weren't extensively used in Teamaster and Firestarter, but here "Child this and Child that" got old.
Plot/Storyline/Themes:
In an entirely matriarchal Exam-driven intellectual society; with first and second mothers "Big Sis" and "Elder Aunts" - a scholar who doesn't belong (Van+Memimplant), a Mindship (Sunless Woods) and an elite student (Uyen) are saddled with a dead body in a study room - the beginnings of a great space whoddunit sprinkled with theft and skulduggery.
Character Development/Favorite Character:
Van has her own mind and a bastardized Scholar-AI mind nestled right next to it. What could go wrong?
The Wild orchard of Sunless Woods is at once badass, sneaky, haughty, majestic and something I can't put my finger on. Oh yeah and bloody arrogant.
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene: :
Uyen and Van (with the help of Mem-implant) find literary allusions in paintings
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 "Good steeds don’t always get the proper grooms, or jade the right carver to make it come alive.” (Sunless Woods on the stupidity Class structures)
🖤 “Vân was the kind of person who walked through the world expecting it to kick her” (Sunless reading Van like a script)
🖤 “She was fierce and utterly compelling, the kind of leader people would follow into supernovas or fragmenting orbitals” (Van on o Uyen)
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
■ Mindships and Mindship names
■Ancestral Mem-implants
■ Bot-wearing like jewellery or a scarf
■The Bare-House tokens
■Death by exile-implants
StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Science Fiction Books by 2025
It was okay. It could have been great or at least my definition of great. But the interaction between Van and Sunless Woods (though obviously meant to be wrought with tension and chemistry) came across more cardboard and pregnant silences that dragged and dragged. I understand in the context infantilizing a grown up in the ElderAunt-BigSis-Child system is a way to drive home the Matriarchal culture but I got tired of the titles. They weren't extensively used in Teamaster and Firestarter, but here "Child this and Child that" got old.
Plot/Storyline/Themes:
In an entirely matriarchal Exam-driven intellectual society; with first and second mothers "Big Sis" and "Elder Aunts" - a scholar who doesn't belong (Van+Memimplant), a Mindship (Sunless Woods) and an elite student (Uyen) are saddled with a dead body in a study room - the beginnings of a great space whoddunit sprinkled with theft and skulduggery.
Character Development/Favorite Character:
Van has her own mind and a bastardized Scholar-AI mind nestled right next to it. What could go wrong?
The Wild orchard of Sunless Woods is at once badass, sneaky, haughty, majestic and something I can't put my finger on. Oh yeah and bloody arrogant.
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene: :
Uyen and Van (with the help of Mem-implant) find literary allusions in paintings
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 "Good steeds don’t always get the proper grooms, or jade the right carver to make it come alive.” (Sunless Woods on the stupidity Class structures)
🖤 “Vân was the kind of person who walked through the world expecting it to kick her” (Sunless reading Van like a script)
🖤 “She was fierce and utterly compelling, the kind of leader people would follow into supernovas or fragmenting orbitals” (Van on o Uyen)
Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
■ Mindships and Mindship names
■Ancestral Mem-implants
■ Bot-wearing like jewellery or a scarf
■The Bare-House tokens
■Death by exile-implants
StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Science Fiction Books by 2025
March 11, 2021
Seven of Infinities is a novella (roughly 120 pages) set in the Xuya Universe (from the author’s website: “a universe in which 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.”).
While it is part of a series it’s not really necessary to have read previous installments set in the same universe to enjoy it: I would recommend also checking out the short stories and the novellas set in the same universe (in particular The Citadel of Weeping Pearls and The Tea Master and the Detective, but you can get a feel of it even through short stories, some of which are available for free and linked on the author’s website), but Seven of Infinities can definitely be read and enjoyed on its own.
I don’t think I should talk much about the plot, considering how brief the story itself is, but if you’re looking for a fun and yet challenging space opera adventure I would definitely recommend checking this out. It’s both a murder mystery and a heist, with a dash of romance in it, all set in a complex and fascinating universe, mostly inspired by Vietnamese culture and folklore.
While it is part of a series it’s not really necessary to have read previous installments set in the same universe to enjoy it: I would recommend also checking out the short stories and the novellas set in the same universe (in particular The Citadel of Weeping Pearls and The Tea Master and the Detective, but you can get a feel of it even through short stories, some of which are available for free and linked on the author’s website), but Seven of Infinities can definitely be read and enjoyed on its own.
I don’t think I should talk much about the plot, considering how brief the story itself is, but if you’re looking for a fun and yet challenging space opera adventure I would definitely recommend checking this out. It’s both a murder mystery and a heist, with a dash of romance in it, all set in a complex and fascinating universe, mostly inspired by Vietnamese culture and folklore.
May 4, 2022
The book was so full of character study, ruminations and sexual tension that the mystery and its solution got completely dumped into space. Too bad. The author can write absolutely cracking mysteries when she wants them, as evident from her 'Dominion of the Fallen' works. Unfortunately, as far as this book is concerned, she scatters gorgeous prose like pearls, without creating a coherent and compact work. We are left only with introspection, regrets, and lingering images.
Those who have a weakness for such stuff should collect this one.
For me, this was good, but not good enough.
Those who have a weakness for such stuff should collect this one.
For me, this was good, but not good enough.
Read
July 6, 2025This was just awkward and confusing
2⭐️
2⭐️
March 8, 2021
I received a digital ARC of this title from the publisher via NetGalley.
My first thought upon finishing Aliette de Bodard's latest Xuya novella was that it was great fun, which comes as a mild surprise. Her stories set in this Vietnamese-inspired space empire universe are always both character-driven and thematically rich, but the ones I've read are often quite melancholy. Seven of Infinites isn't without loss and heartache, moral uncertainty and thorny interpersonal relationships, but at its core, it's a tightly-constructed mystery with a deliciously unfolding romance between two people each harboring their own secrets. As a side note, it's also a story that casually doesn't happen to have any men in its cast of characters. To be clear: there are men in the Xuya universe... just not in this book.
Our first protagonist is a scholar named Vân, who comes from a lower-class background, but is scraping by in respectable society as a tutor to a promising young student with the help of a memory-assisting device called a mem-implant, meant to be the passed-down memories of one's accomplished ancestors. But Vân's "honored ancestor", Laureate An Thành, is no such thing. She's a fabrication of Vân's own from her student days studying mem-implant technology, an incredible testament to Vân's skill, but an utterly scandalous secret that would destroy her meagre reputation should it come to light.
Our second protagonist is a mindship (a sentient spaceship, but with the ability to interact in human spaces usinng an avatar) named The Wild Orchid in Sunless Woods, whom Vân knows as a highly respectable member of her poetry club. Sunless Woods should be well above Vân's social sphere, but she is also not who or what she claims to be. She's a famous thief, lying low with her heist crew disbanded, trying to convince herself that she isn't itching to get back into the action.
When Vân's pupil receives a mysterious visitor who promptly dies on the spot, Sunless Woods comes to Vân's aid in solving a mystery that may start with a dead body, but isn't, as it turns out, exactly a murder mystery. It's all tied up in Vân's secretive past. Of course, Sunless Woods is hiding how very helpful the connections and skills from her secretive past can be in this context, and is also wrestling internally with how deeply she finds she actually cares about Vân. It's a relationship dynamic where both parties' gradually deepening trust and attraction are hindered by potentially explosive secrets that inevitably come to light in a big climactic showdown full of all sorts of messy feelings, and if that's your personal catnip, then yes, this book is for you.
On a less fangirlish front, I think this novella should also appeal to fans of last year's Hugo Award-winning novel, A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine. There are some obvious parallels in the themes of imperial space cultures, the cultural significance of poetry, and the use of implanted memory technology as a means of preserving knowledge from generation to generation. But the lens through which de Bodard views these themes is quite different. Unlike in Martine's novel, the mem-implants here are used by the powerful families maintain a hold on knowledge, power, and status. The story raises questions about who is worthy, not just of knowledge or family heritage, but of the social status they can impart. But regardless of whether you read it for the big-idea themes, for the relationship drama, or both, Seven of Infinities delivers exactly what I've come to expect from de Bodard's novella-length fiction: a story with more nuance than meets the eye that doesn't overstay its welcome.
My first thought upon finishing Aliette de Bodard's latest Xuya novella was that it was great fun, which comes as a mild surprise. Her stories set in this Vietnamese-inspired space empire universe are always both character-driven and thematically rich, but the ones I've read are often quite melancholy. Seven of Infinites isn't without loss and heartache, moral uncertainty and thorny interpersonal relationships, but at its core, it's a tightly-constructed mystery with a deliciously unfolding romance between two people each harboring their own secrets. As a side note, it's also a story that casually doesn't happen to have any men in its cast of characters. To be clear: there are men in the Xuya universe... just not in this book.
Our first protagonist is a scholar named Vân, who comes from a lower-class background, but is scraping by in respectable society as a tutor to a promising young student with the help of a memory-assisting device called a mem-implant, meant to be the passed-down memories of one's accomplished ancestors. But Vân's "honored ancestor", Laureate An Thành, is no such thing. She's a fabrication of Vân's own from her student days studying mem-implant technology, an incredible testament to Vân's skill, but an utterly scandalous secret that would destroy her meagre reputation should it come to light.
Our second protagonist is a mindship (a sentient spaceship, but with the ability to interact in human spaces usinng an avatar) named The Wild Orchid in Sunless Woods, whom Vân knows as a highly respectable member of her poetry club. Sunless Woods should be well above Vân's social sphere, but she is also not who or what she claims to be. She's a famous thief, lying low with her heist crew disbanded, trying to convince herself that she isn't itching to get back into the action.
When Vân's pupil receives a mysterious visitor who promptly dies on the spot, Sunless Woods comes to Vân's aid in solving a mystery that may start with a dead body, but isn't, as it turns out, exactly a murder mystery. It's all tied up in Vân's secretive past. Of course, Sunless Woods is hiding how very helpful the connections and skills from her secretive past can be in this context, and is also wrestling internally with how deeply she finds she actually cares about Vân. It's a relationship dynamic where both parties' gradually deepening trust and attraction are hindered by potentially explosive secrets that inevitably come to light in a big climactic showdown full of all sorts of messy feelings, and if that's your personal catnip, then yes, this book is for you.
On a less fangirlish front, I think this novella should also appeal to fans of last year's Hugo Award-winning novel, A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine. There are some obvious parallels in the themes of imperial space cultures, the cultural significance of poetry, and the use of implanted memory technology as a means of preserving knowledge from generation to generation. But the lens through which de Bodard views these themes is quite different. Unlike in Martine's novel, the mem-implants here are used by the powerful families maintain a hold on knowledge, power, and status. The story raises questions about who is worthy, not just of knowledge or family heritage, but of the social status they can impart. But regardless of whether you read it for the big-idea themes, for the relationship drama, or both, Seven of Infinities delivers exactly what I've come to expect from de Bodard's novella-length fiction: a story with more nuance than meets the eye that doesn't overstay its welcome.
October 31, 2020
Who ever knew a spaceship could make me feel so romantic?
Seven of Infinites is at once a murder mystery, a space opera, and a heartwarming romance. Vân is a scholar with a secret--the memory implant in her mind who assists her scholarship isn't sanctioned at all, but rather a creation of her own design. 'The Wild Orchid in Sunless Woods' is a mindship in Vân's poetry club, once a dashing and high-profile thief, now living a semi-retired life in space. The two are drawn together by the mystery of a body discovered in the quarters of Vân's student.
I have limited experience with de Bodard's Xuya Universe besides the remarkable 'Tea Master and the Detective’, but I found this novella to be on par with that one, if not exceeding it. The world-building insinuated itself throughout the story in clever details that caught my attention—personal bots worn as jewelry, holographic street food designed for consumption by the walking avatars of ships--all of it was artfully constructed and not overwhelming. Furthermore, Vân and Sunless Woods were compelling protagonists. I was especially enraptured by the artful and alien descriptions of Sunless Woods—at once a vast spaceship and a human-esque avatar—and the way that her years of experience and knowledge guarded a tender, human core. Vân was brave and driven and I sympathized with her plight as a broader meditation on class and the accessibility of scholarship. Their romance was delightful and unique and had me murmuring "awww" quietly to myself in my living room. I'm a sucker for well-writen sapphics :)
As always, I'm struck by de Bodard's ability to weave together Vietnamese culture, social commentary, and well-paced action to create an irresistible story. Seven of Inifinites was an all-around good read.
Seven of Infinites is at once a murder mystery, a space opera, and a heartwarming romance. Vân is a scholar with a secret--the memory implant in her mind who assists her scholarship isn't sanctioned at all, but rather a creation of her own design. 'The Wild Orchid in Sunless Woods' is a mindship in Vân's poetry club, once a dashing and high-profile thief, now living a semi-retired life in space. The two are drawn together by the mystery of a body discovered in the quarters of Vân's student.
I have limited experience with de Bodard's Xuya Universe besides the remarkable 'Tea Master and the Detective’, but I found this novella to be on par with that one, if not exceeding it. The world-building insinuated itself throughout the story in clever details that caught my attention—personal bots worn as jewelry, holographic street food designed for consumption by the walking avatars of ships--all of it was artfully constructed and not overwhelming. Furthermore, Vân and Sunless Woods were compelling protagonists. I was especially enraptured by the artful and alien descriptions of Sunless Woods—at once a vast spaceship and a human-esque avatar—and the way that her years of experience and knowledge guarded a tender, human core. Vân was brave and driven and I sympathized with her plight as a broader meditation on class and the accessibility of scholarship. Their romance was delightful and unique and had me murmuring "awww" quietly to myself in my living room. I'm a sucker for well-writen sapphics :)
As always, I'm struck by de Bodard's ability to weave together Vietnamese culture, social commentary, and well-paced action to create an irresistible story. Seven of Inifinites was an all-around good read.
December 15, 2023
This entry in the Universe of Xuya begins as a murder and a whole bunch of mysteries – not all of which are wrapped around the murder. Although, more are than first appears – which is true for the whole marvelous thing. There’s way more under every single surface than the characters initially believe. Still, it all begins when Student Uyên admits a forceful woman into her rooms, goes to make tea because she’s been taught to be a good hostess, and returns to find that her unidentified guest is dead on the floor.
Uyên may be on the cusp of adulthood, but she definitely needs a MUCH adultier adult to help her figure out this mess, so she calls for her teacher, Vân. Who, fortunately for them both, is in the midst of a discussion with her friend and fellow scholar, the mindship Sunless Woods. And an extremely fortunate happenstance for Vân, Uyên, and very much to her own surprise, Sunless Woods.
Van has secrets she can’t afford to have revealed. Sunless Woods has grown tireder and more BORED than she imagined keeping her own. While Uyên is in danger of being caught in the midst of a militia investigation designed to provide a guilty party for trial whether or not the party is guilty or not. Which Uyên, at the very least, most definitely is not.
Not that THAT little fact has ever stopped such an interrogation. After all, under enough torture, even the innocent will, sooner or later, confess to something, as Vân knows all too well.
Except that Vân really was guilty of the crime her best friends were executed for. It just wasn’t murder. And they weren’t innocent either. Then again, they also weren’t executed – at least not until the levers of justice finally ground one of them under and deposited the body in her student’s rooms.
Not that Vân knows that, yet. Not that much of what Vân thinks she knows is remotely still true. Not the identity of that first corpse, not the reason her former friends have come hunting, and not an inkling of the true nature of the prize that they seek.
All Vân is certain of is that she and her student are in deep, deep, trouble, so she reluctantly reaches out to her only real friend, the mind ship Sunless Woods. Only to discover that she had even less idea about the secrets that her friend was keeping than even the mind ship had fathomed about her own.
Escape Rating A-: I had heard of the author’s vast, sprawling Universe of Xuya and was always intrigued by its loosely connected galaxy of short stories and novellas, but didn’t get the round tuit to actually pick it up somewhere in its vastness until The Tea Master and the Detective was nominated for the Hugo and the Nebula a few years ago and won the Nebula. That particular entry in the series was a great hook for this reader, as it is a science fiction mystery, a reimagining of Holmes and Watson as mind ships(!) and just a cracking good story all the way around.
So I kept my eye out for more entries in the series that were long enough to warrant separate publication, and therefore had a chance of eARCs. Which is rarer than one might think as most entries in this series are short stories that have been published in pretty much every SFF short fiction publication extant. They’ve not been collected, at least not yet, although I hope that happens.
Which led me, admittedly in a bit of a roundabout way, to Seven of Infinites, which I only remembered to unearth from the virtually towering TBR pile because the eARC of a new book in the Universe of Xuya popped up on NetGalley and I remembered I had this.
It turned out to be the right book at the right time, which is always lovely.
The Universe of Xuya, with its alternate Earth history deep in its background and its sentient population of both humans and mind ships – and possibly other species I haven’t’ met yet, puts together three things I wouldn’t have expected in the same ‘verse.
Which is a bit of a hint, because the leg of the trousers of time that produced the Universe of Xuya seems adjacent to Firefly’s deep background. It’s a history where the U.S. did not emerge as a world superpower and China has a much larger place on the pre-diaspora world’s stage.
As did Mexico, and that combination of cultural influences leads by a slightly more circuitous route to a culture that carries some resonances from Arkady Martine’s Teixcalaan in A Memory Called Empire, particular with its lyrical language and long story-filled names and titles and the way it centers and preserves its traditions over everyone else’s through implanted memories. .
But the central question of this universe as a whole is one that is asked often in SF, and is one of the central points of Ann Leckie’s short story Lake of Souls, coming in the collection of the same name next spring.
It’s the question of what, exactly, are ‘people’? Not what are humans, because that’s a relatively easy question – or at least it can be. But what makes a human – or a member of another species, even one from another planet or another origin story – people? Is it sentience? Is it sapience? Does it require physicality? Does it require that physicality in the same way that humans manifest it?
In the Universe of Xuya, mind ships are people. No more and no less, albeit more differently, than humans are. Society, built on big ships and small space stations out in the black of space, is made to contain both, together and separately.
At the heart of Seven of Infinities is a story about the privileges of power to perpetuate itself, the ties that bind teacher and student in true respect and scholarship, the importance of having old and dear friends who will be there for you when you need to bury a body – even if its your own – and the sure and certain knowledge that the heart wants what the heart wants, whether the heart is made of blood and tissue or wires and circuits.
I came for the mystery, stayed for the world and universe building, and fell surprisingly hard for the romance at its heart. I’ll be back the next time I’m looking for heartbreaking, lyrical, captivating SF. Or for Navigational Entanglements next year, whichever comes first.
Originally published at Reading Reality
Uyên may be on the cusp of adulthood, but she definitely needs a MUCH adultier adult to help her figure out this mess, so she calls for her teacher, Vân. Who, fortunately for them both, is in the midst of a discussion with her friend and fellow scholar, the mindship Sunless Woods. And an extremely fortunate happenstance for Vân, Uyên, and very much to her own surprise, Sunless Woods.
Van has secrets she can’t afford to have revealed. Sunless Woods has grown tireder and more BORED than she imagined keeping her own. While Uyên is in danger of being caught in the midst of a militia investigation designed to provide a guilty party for trial whether or not the party is guilty or not. Which Uyên, at the very least, most definitely is not.
Not that THAT little fact has ever stopped such an interrogation. After all, under enough torture, even the innocent will, sooner or later, confess to something, as Vân knows all too well.
Except that Vân really was guilty of the crime her best friends were executed for. It just wasn’t murder. And they weren’t innocent either. Then again, they also weren’t executed – at least not until the levers of justice finally ground one of them under and deposited the body in her student’s rooms.
Not that Vân knows that, yet. Not that much of what Vân thinks she knows is remotely still true. Not the identity of that first corpse, not the reason her former friends have come hunting, and not an inkling of the true nature of the prize that they seek.
All Vân is certain of is that she and her student are in deep, deep, trouble, so she reluctantly reaches out to her only real friend, the mind ship Sunless Woods. Only to discover that she had even less idea about the secrets that her friend was keeping than even the mind ship had fathomed about her own.
Escape Rating A-: I had heard of the author’s vast, sprawling Universe of Xuya and was always intrigued by its loosely connected galaxy of short stories and novellas, but didn’t get the round tuit to actually pick it up somewhere in its vastness until The Tea Master and the Detective was nominated for the Hugo and the Nebula a few years ago and won the Nebula. That particular entry in the series was a great hook for this reader, as it is a science fiction mystery, a reimagining of Holmes and Watson as mind ships(!) and just a cracking good story all the way around.
So I kept my eye out for more entries in the series that were long enough to warrant separate publication, and therefore had a chance of eARCs. Which is rarer than one might think as most entries in this series are short stories that have been published in pretty much every SFF short fiction publication extant. They’ve not been collected, at least not yet, although I hope that happens.
Which led me, admittedly in a bit of a roundabout way, to Seven of Infinites, which I only remembered to unearth from the virtually towering TBR pile because the eARC of a new book in the Universe of Xuya popped up on NetGalley and I remembered I had this.
It turned out to be the right book at the right time, which is always lovely.
The Universe of Xuya, with its alternate Earth history deep in its background and its sentient population of both humans and mind ships – and possibly other species I haven’t’ met yet, puts together three things I wouldn’t have expected in the same ‘verse.
Which is a bit of a hint, because the leg of the trousers of time that produced the Universe of Xuya seems adjacent to Firefly’s deep background. It’s a history where the U.S. did not emerge as a world superpower and China has a much larger place on the pre-diaspora world’s stage.
As did Mexico, and that combination of cultural influences leads by a slightly more circuitous route to a culture that carries some resonances from Arkady Martine’s Teixcalaan in A Memory Called Empire, particular with its lyrical language and long story-filled names and titles and the way it centers and preserves its traditions over everyone else’s through implanted memories. .
But the central question of this universe as a whole is one that is asked often in SF, and is one of the central points of Ann Leckie’s short story Lake of Souls, coming in the collection of the same name next spring.
It’s the question of what, exactly, are ‘people’? Not what are humans, because that’s a relatively easy question – or at least it can be. But what makes a human – or a member of another species, even one from another planet or another origin story – people? Is it sentience? Is it sapience? Does it require physicality? Does it require that physicality in the same way that humans manifest it?
In the Universe of Xuya, mind ships are people. No more and no less, albeit more differently, than humans are. Society, built on big ships and small space stations out in the black of space, is made to contain both, together and separately.
At the heart of Seven of Infinities is a story about the privileges of power to perpetuate itself, the ties that bind teacher and student in true respect and scholarship, the importance of having old and dear friends who will be there for you when you need to bury a body – even if its your own – and the sure and certain knowledge that the heart wants what the heart wants, whether the heart is made of blood and tissue or wires and circuits.
I came for the mystery, stayed for the world and universe building, and fell surprisingly hard for the romance at its heart. I’ll be back the next time I’m looking for heartbreaking, lyrical, captivating SF. Or for Navigational Entanglements next year, whichever comes first.
Originally published at Reading Reality
March 3, 2023
Unfortunately, while I was more-or-less enjoying the story at first, the repeated tell-not-show nature of the character interactions ( with everything spelt out in inner monologue at great length ) got me down, and then one exceptionally poorly timed sex scene shook me out of the murder mystery aspect so hard I couldn't get back into the suspension of disbelief necessary.
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