On a Red Station, Drifting
Aug. 13th, 2013 19:07![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starladyBodard, Aliette de. On a Red Station, Drifting. London: Immersion Press, 2012.
It wasn't until after I'd received my copy of this book in the mail that I realized that Aliette de Bodard had sent me a copy of the manuscript along with the copy of Master of the House of Darts. I've written before about how I really enjoy de Bodard's writing, and this novella was no exception.
I wish I'd read A Dream of the Red Chamber before I'd read this book, because I know that it is drawing on that classic for inspiration, but even without that extra background knowledge, I really enjoyed the novella. It's certainly a well-deserved Hugo nomination, and very deserving of a Hugo vote.
The story is the story of a subtle conflict between two strong-willed women, Linh and Quyen, both distantly of the same family but of very different status. Linh flees to the family hold, Prosper Station, after having submitted an arguably treasonous memorial to the Emperor of the Dai Viet Empire and the planet she governed, as a licentiate of the imperial examination system, having been overrun by the rebels. Quyen is acting Station Mistress in the war-driven absence of all the station's best and brightest, called to serve the empire. The third woman in their triangle is not human at all, but the Honored Ancestress, the AI who runs the station…and who is, slowly but surely, losing her grip on her own processes, and the station itself.
De Bodard is Franco-Vietnamese, and I really liked the world building in this novella--if I'm not mistaken, it seems to possibly be set in the far future of her Xuya verse, but either way, it was really interesting to read a space opera in which the human diaspora isn't dominated by white people, to be quite frank. I also thought it was super cool to see a plausible non-sexist Confucianism! For any and all of these things, you should totally check the novella out. Although the paper copies are all gone, you can still buy the ebook.
It wasn't until after I'd received my copy of this book in the mail that I realized that Aliette de Bodard had sent me a copy of the manuscript along with the copy of Master of the House of Darts. I've written before about how I really enjoy de Bodard's writing, and this novella was no exception.
I wish I'd read A Dream of the Red Chamber before I'd read this book, because I know that it is drawing on that classic for inspiration, but even without that extra background knowledge, I really enjoyed the novella. It's certainly a well-deserved Hugo nomination, and very deserving of a Hugo vote.
The story is the story of a subtle conflict between two strong-willed women, Linh and Quyen, both distantly of the same family but of very different status. Linh flees to the family hold, Prosper Station, after having submitted an arguably treasonous memorial to the Emperor of the Dai Viet Empire and the planet she governed, as a licentiate of the imperial examination system, having been overrun by the rebels. Quyen is acting Station Mistress in the war-driven absence of all the station's best and brightest, called to serve the empire. The third woman in their triangle is not human at all, but the Honored Ancestress, the AI who runs the station…and who is, slowly but surely, losing her grip on her own processes, and the station itself.
De Bodard is Franco-Vietnamese, and I really liked the world building in this novella--if I'm not mistaken, it seems to possibly be set in the far future of her Xuya verse, but either way, it was really interesting to read a space opera in which the human diaspora isn't dominated by white people, to be quite frank. I also thought it was super cool to see a plausible non-sexist Confucianism! For any and all of these things, you should totally check the novella out. Although the paper copies are all gone, you can still buy the ebook.