fffriday | Entries tagged with author: aliette de bodard

(crossposted from my own blog)

This is a short novella: Amazon says 106 pages, I read it in less than an afternoon. It's dense and bittersweet and comes to a ... hopeful, if not necessarily a happy ending. Thanh is a princess of Binh Hải, returned two years ago from a childhood and early adulthood as a "guest" (hostage) in powerful, northern Ephteria. Now Ephteria has come to put pressure on her home country, and Thanh's former lover, the Princess Eldris, is in the negotiating party for personal as well as expansionary motives. Meanwhile Thanh is haunted by the dreams of the fire that destroyed the Ephterian palace during her stay, and small flames that burn impossibly in her presence.

Highly recommended.

ursula

I read ARCs of two upcoming f/f stories via NetGalley recently.

Charlie Jane Anders' Victories Greater Than Death is a YA story about a girl who was raised on Earth but whose true identity is a six-foot-tall purple alien trying to save the galaxy. She falls in love with a Brazilian hacker who doesn't really trust all these promises of universal peace. It's a goofy, fun adventure that feels to me like a somewhat more nuanced take on the same ideas as Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. I posted a longer review here.

Aliette de Bodard's Seven of Infinities is a novella about two scholars. One is a mindship who has retired from a life of daring heists and knife-edge adventure. But the human she cares about, the virtuous woman from a poor family, has secrets too. This has some classic de Bodard motifs (the lover who is sometimes beautiful in human terms and sometimes beautiful like an ocean or a star, questions around mentorship and raising young people in a community). There's also a really interesting take on the interaction between an imperial exam system and computer-aided ancestral memory.

sophia_sol

Just realized I've been forgetting to let you folks know about the f/f book reviews I've written in the....year since I last posted here, whoops. Here's links to my reviews, along with a brief description of each!

1. A Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics, by Olivia Waite - Absolutely delightful historical romance featuring one woman who's a scientist and one who's an artist.

2. The Wolf and the Girl, by Aster Glenn Gray - The ending is ambiguous about whether it ships the two women or not but I think it falls under the spirit of this community. Historical fantasy featuring the early silent film industry and werewolves. Lovely.

3. In the Vanishers' Palace, by Aliette de Bodard - A Beauty & the Beast inspired novella. The worldbuilding is compelling, but the romance doesn't quite work for me personally.

4. Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir - Okay everyone's already heard about the lesbian necromancers, right? Anyway it's great as advertised, though a bit too far in the horror direction for me to be really happy with personally.

5. Catfishing on Catnet, by Naomi Kritzer - YA novel featuring lots of queer characters as well beyond the f/f relationship. Also a major character is an AI! Fun.

6. A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine - far-future SF, my favourite book I read last year, completely brilliant and riveting.

7. Once Ghosted, Twice Shy, by Alyssa Cole - modern romance novel, I liked the characters but the romance arc doesn't work for me personally.

8. The True Queen, by Zen Cho - historical fantasy, absolutely delightful.

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FF Friday

Entries tagged with author: aliette de bodard

Fireheart Tiger by Aliette de Bodard

aliens and spaceships

8 reviews!

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May 2025

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