A novel set in Aliette de Bodard's Xuya Universe setting.

It's billed as a Xuya romance, like The Red Scholar's Wake, and isn't linked to any of the other threads in the universe, which are more straight SF.

I found it mildly confusing as characters can have aliases or nicknames - at different stages in life or as part of the literati. Also, there is the Eastern tradition of referring to others by addressing respectfully them as relatives; this can be confusing where actual relatives are also present. I had encountered this phenomenon previously in Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee books, so wasn't phased by it, but it did mean I had to concentrate on the context of the conversation.

Apart from this, it was a rattling good story, better than The Red Scholar's Wake (where I disliked the insta-love trope). The main theme was vengeance against official actions - not necessarily corrupt actions, but overly legalistic actions.

Yes, there was a happy ending!

I really, really, liked a lot of this book. The world building was second to none and the universe felt populated and absolutely fascinating. Right from the first page it felt like a real, bustling world just waiting to be explored.
It's a standalone novel, yes, but I did wonder early on if maybe reading the short story (stories?) In the same universe would have helped me understand a little more of that delicious world building from the off, as it did on occasion feel like it was assumed I would understand something that hadn't really been explained. I feel like an absolute fraud for saying that, though, as I'm a firm believer in readers extrapolating things like that from the text. Maybe I should have just put more attention into understanding it. Who knows.
I really enjoyed the characters in this book, and especially watching them get to know one another. There was some absolutely great relationships to see develop, and I enjoyed the experience of reading it.

A solid book, and thanks to both the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC!

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.

I am new to the Xuya universe, as I don't read a lot of short stories, but this full length novel set in this world is wonderful. The premise that humans can give birth to mindships, sentient beings, part machine and part organic, is one I find thrilling, and I have discovered a full list of the background short stories and novella I have to work my way through whilst I wait for the next novel in the series.
Once I had settled my mind to the (initially confusing to my English experience) names and decided to ignore the various diacritic marks and invent my own pronunciations, the characters took on their proper place in my head and I could enjoy the plot, which is so deep and political that you have to read the book and find it for yourself. Which I recommend you to do as soon as possible.