Aliette de Bodard's In the Vanishers' Palace is a masterfully crafted retelling of Beauty and the Beast, set in a post-apocalyptic world filled with dragons and sentient plants. The writing is graceful and immersive, painting a vivid picture of a richly detailed universe. The characters are complex and multifaceted, with hidden depths and intriguing secrets that add depth and tension to the story. The romance between the two main characters is beautifully portrayed, emphasizing mutual understanding, respect, and consent. Overall, In the Vanishers' Palace is a stunning fusion of science fiction and fantasy, and is an essential read for fans of either genre. De Bodard's expertise in world-building and storytelling shines through in every aspect of this book, and it is a true testament to her skill as a writer. I wholeheartedly recommend this novel to anyone looking for a captivating and thought-provoking read.

It took me three tries to get out of the first third of this book, but on the final attempt I did make it all the way through! It's interesting, the worldbuilding is so cinematic that I kind of wish it *had* been a film because I had a lot of trouble visualizing anything from the descriptions. It's very inventive, though! I deeply, deeply wish that translating the forms of address wasn't the hill that Aliette de Bodard has chosen to die upon -- I promise, Western audiences have figured out gege and we can learn chị and em -- but it is what it is.

In the Vanishers’ Palace is a Beauty and the Beast retelling set in a Vietnamese-inspired historical world. It follows Yên, a young and unlucky scholar. Unlike her mother, she is incapable of using magic to heal people so, she’s seen as useless by the heads of her village. One day, her mother asks for the help of a dragon spirit, Vu Côn, to heal the daughter of a noble. The dragon helps her but asks for her life in exchange. Yên decides to sacrifice herself to the dragon instead to protect her mother. She doesn’t expect Vu Côn to, not only allow her to live but, to also bring her back to her palace.

I’ve been intrigued by this story for years because it combines a lot of elements that I usually like in stories. The main character is a scholar, it has dragons, a lesbian relationship and an historical Asian-inspired setting. However, while I enjoyed several elements of the story, a couple things tainted my enjoyment of this book.

First, let’s start with the good: the world created by De Bodard was fascinating. She did a fantastic job at creating a great sense of atmosphere. I could easily picture the world, the characters, the clothes and the buildings. Vu Côn’s palace reminded me a lot of Hogwarts in the way some rooms could appear and disappear according to the characters’ will. It also had an amazing library (you just need to ask for a book and it appears!) that I really wanted to visit. I was immediately pulled into the world after only a couple of pages and I thought I was really going to love the novella… until the Beauty and the Beast element started to play a role in the story.

The romantic relationship between the Yên and Vu Côn plays a big part in the story. We are supposed to believe that they have an immediate and strong attraction for each other the moment they meet and, that in a few days, they are in love.

While I can understand why Yên, a poor scholar who has never see anything outside of her small village and who is treated like an outcast by her people, would by impressed by Vu Côn. She’s after all a freakin’ immortal dragon. I would also be impressed. However, I don’t get what Vu Côn saw in Yên and I don’t see why I should believe in their immediate romance. I might sound harsh toward Yên’s character but, except whining about her lost village and dreaming about Vu Côn, she didn’t do much to earn my sympathy. She isn’t even much of a scholar: she is imprisoned in a very old and mysterious palace that was built by the Vanishers, people that used to rule her world and, she doesn’t even try to learn more about them.

In the end, I just wished the story wasn’t so focused on the romance between Yên and Vu Côn. Since I didn’t get their relationship, my personal enjoyment of the story of hindered quite a bit. The plot and the imaginative world were not enough to save this novella in my mind, though, I would really like to read other stories set in the same world. I think De Bodard is really good at crafting fascinating worlds.

Three stars.



I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Netgalley and Jabberwocky Literary Agency. All opinions are my own.

[3.5 stars] Aliette de Bodard frequently appears on lists of the most exciting authors currently working in the fantasy field, but I'm ashamed to say that I haven't read anything by her until now (despite owning several of her works). As a writer of French-Vietnamese descent, she's interested in exploring fantasy traditions beyond the white, European, medieval worlds that dominate the genre. In this novella, she takes us to a post-apocalyptic Vietnam, in which a young woman is given up by the elders of her village to placate a dragon. In its simplest form, it's much the same story as Uprooted, but de Bodard challenges our expectations just as much as Novik did - though in a much more unfamiliar idiom.

Since the breaking of the world, when the Vanishers disappeared leaving desolation in their wake, humans have struggling against the odds. Yên's small village is ringed with woods, where the creatures of the Vanishers still roam, and food is scarce enough that the elders are always watching out for those who aren't useful, who don't pull their weight. If you aren't useful, there are only two options: exile or execution, the latter making use of a Vanisher device that literally flays the skin and muscles from a living body. It's a torment that Yên can't even imagine - but one that haunts her thoughts. She knows that her elderly mother, the village healer, is beginning to become a burden (in the eyes of the elders). Even worse, Yên knows that she herself is an even worse burden, for she has precious little to offer. She's her mother's assistant, but she can't wield the magic that her mother commands in order to heal. She's a teacher, trying to educate children in a world where simple survival is more important. She's a scholar, who failed to qualify for the official exams that would have got her away from her stultifying, close-minded village and given her a glimpse of the world. In short, she's dangerously close to becoming useless. When the daughter of the village headwoman falls perilously sick, Yên's mother is forced to call upon a greater power to help with the healing - but a favour of that magnitude requires repayment. A life for a life.

Yên's life is judged the most expendable. Yên, obviously, doesn't agree but she has very little say in the matter. When the elders take her down to the river, and call on the healing spirit to take her payment, Yên is captivated by the elegant dragon which rises from the waters. Dragged down beneath the surface in her new mistress's claws, Yên doesn't know what to expect. Exactly what does one do, as the slave of a dragon spirit? She certainly doesn't expect to wake up to find two children - well, teenagers - sitting on her bed waiting for her. To her astonishment, she learns that these are her new charges: the twins, Thông and Liên, children of the dragon Vu Côn. Yên is to teach them, to instil morality and respect, while they in turn introduce her to the terrifying wonders of Vu Côn's home. For this is a palace created by the Vanishers, where normal rules don't apply, where corridors twist and tumble, where doors open onto impossible worlds, and where danger lies around every corner. 

And Yên doesn't just have to adjust to the palace. She has to rethink everything she's ever known, for Vu Côn is not just a fearsome dragon (though usually found in human form), but also a gifted and compassionate healer. Her new students are not only lively teens, but powerful creatures struggling to find their own place and form in the world. And it seems that Yên has found herself on the brink, in a place where worlds collide, where boundaries are thin, and where Yên's own magical abilities are beginning to manifest. Indeed, the palace was so complicated that I often found de Bodard's descriptions very hard to imagine - I failed on numerous occasions, which added to the sense of unreality even while meaning that I couldn't get quite as lost in the world as I wanted to. There are so many ideas here that I wanted more space to explore, to understand - to get my head around exactly what this library looks like, and to understand more about the diseases suffered by Vu Côn's unfortunate patients. As it is, with fewer than 150 pages, I simply couldn't fix everything properly in my mind and the palace remains - appropriately - a shape-shifting, nebulous mass which doesn't seem to have any particular form.

The novella also introduced me to various aspects of Vietnamese language and culture - specifically the customs of referring to strangers as 'elder aunt' or 'younger aunt', depending on their age, or 'big sister' or 'little sister' for intimate friends. De Bodard also tells us, several times, when characters use language that is particularly gendered - an important consideration, as two of her characters don't identify with any gender and take the 'they' pronoun. It only struck me at the end that, with the exception of Vu Côn's deceased husband (whom we never meet) and one other minor character, there are no male figures in this story. Everyone is either female or non-gendered. I don't know whether women traditionally occupy more elevated positions in Vietnamese society than they do in old-school European cultures, or whether de Bodard created this matriarchal world specifically for her novel, but it adds another layer of exoticism to her story.

I enjoyed the chance to experience a different kind of fantasy - to get a sense of how dragons are regarded in Asian cultures, in particular. Despite its charm, the novella leaves many questions unanswered, especially with respect to the Vanishers (were they human? Alien? Spirits? Something else altogether?), so it isn't perfect, but I get the feeling that a lot had to be sacrificed because it's so short. It could easily have been expanded into a whole book, which would have allowed us more 'cool-down' space at the end, and explained a little more about the hospital that Vu Côn is running. As it is, however, it served as an amuse-bouche for the rest of de Bodard's work, which I certainly will be reading, as much of it is already waiting on my Kindle.

For the review, please see my blog:
https://theidlewoman.net/2019/11/03/in-the-vanishers-palace-aliette-de-bodard/

This is a Beauty and the Beast retelling set in an alternate world that uses Vietnamese culture to tell the story and has a science fictional feel to it. A dragon that also use science and gene therapy to cure the virus damage done by the Vanishers plays the part of the beast. Yên is traded to Vu Côn to pay the debt her healer mother incurred by calling on the dragon to heal someone important from the village. Yên is convinced that she will be eaten or killed for entertainment, but it turns out she is tasked with teaching the children of the dragon. Of course the palace she is in could also kill her since it is the former home of the Vanishers. There are secrets in the palace and a growing attraction between the two. Overall this was an interesting retelling and I would certainly read more in this setting.

Vietnamese inspired Beauty and the Beast retelling but lesbians and shapeshifting and a non binary character??? SIGN ME TF UP!!! I've been meaning to read something by de Bodard for AGES so when I got this as an e-arc a while back (that I did not read in time oops) I figured this would be as good place to start.

It takes real talent to write a short story or novella that is so fleshed out, rich and succinct and Aliette definitely is one of these talented few. In less than 200 pages she manages to tackle issues of power relations (and consent which the OG beauty and the beast disney or otherwise, does... not..), gender, and the relationship between poverty and illness. Also kissing monsters. Also I just love HOW GOOD the world building was!! I almost want another story set in the same world, but also I don't because I feel like this was so perfect in it's own little bubble that writing more might spoil how perfectly tied up it is.

https://hercommonplaceblog.wordpress.com

In the Vanisher's Palace is a really interesting Beauty & the Beast retelling, and is written so beautifully. Much of the imagery is truly other-worldly.

This is a f/f romance with several non-binary characters, and I love that they don't presume gender but instead wait and rely on the types of pronouns people use for themselves. I was a little confused about if there even were any male-identifying people in this world though, as all of the characters seem to be either female-identifying or non-binary. They do eventually reference Vu Côn's deceased husband, so that cleared it up a bit for me - which, by the way, Vu Côn may be the most casually dropped in there with no upset at all that she's bi character I've ever read.

I really struggled with getting behind the "romance" between Vu Côn and Yên. First of all, there doesn't seem to be much (or any...) actual development of their relationship in the story, just a growing attraction that somehow springs out of "she's a child" and "yikes, scary dragon." And then in the sex scenes where Yên is describing the sensations of coupling with Vu Côn in her dragon form... wet, cold, oily... It was just too bizarre for me to wrap my head around.

I was kind of confused about the Vanishers plot, but intrigued by the broken and poisoned world they left behind. It was really interesting world-building, and I really liked the ending!

I wanted and expected to love this story. It’s a queer retelling of Beauty and the Beast, based on Vietnamese folklore with sci-fi elements as well, and dragons. There’s even a sci-fi library that I really want to exist. I pre-ordered it, requested it on Netgalley, and generally waited on tenterhooks. How did I find it? Well.

It opens promisingly enough: Yên, the daughter of a healer, is traded to a dragon in exchange for her healing powers. It’s clear they live in a post-apocalyptic universe, with viruses wracking the human population and contagion spreading from person to person. As a failed scholar, she’s just not valuable to her village, and so she’s traded away in order to save one of the leaders’ daughters. Off she goes to live with Vu Côn, the dragon, to look after her children — and it turns out that Vu Côn lives in a palace made by those who wrecked the world and disappeared, and the children aren’t any ordinary dragons.

After the start, though, I rarely felt like I understood what was happening or why. Or rather, I could give you a running summary for the whole story, but I felt all adrift; I didn’t know why things were happening, I didn’t catch the undercurrents, and the relationship between Vu Côn and Yên came completely out of nowhere from my point of view. I do like a story where I have to work for it, where I have to figure out where I stand and how this world is different to ours, but I don’t think that was the problem. It was more the characters and their motivations that never worked for me (or when they did, it was only for a few pages). The setting itself was fascinating, but. But.

I seem to be fairly alone in that, looking around at bloggers I trust, which makes me almost reluctant to admit that I just really did not get it. And it makes me reluctant to give this a poor rating, but… my ratings have to be my ratings, not how I think I ought to rate a book.

It’s clear there’s plenty here that’s enchanting other people, and in many ways I’m an aberration. I’ll be passing on my copy to my sister and seeing if it ticks her boxes!

The issue with speculative fiction (a genre that is essentially science fiction and fantasy together) is that it can be very confusing. I love the idea of really unique stories being told; but when you take out a base premise that is easily understood by your reader then you need to provide some tethers. Aliette de Bodard is missing the points of context that allow a reader to stay engaged in a story and able to process the information. In the Vanishers' Palace is so convoluted at times that it made my head spin.

Most Won't Finish
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that most people likely won't finish this story. While only 145 pages long, it feels like it takes forever to read. For example, this excerpt is a sample of the over-the-top descriptions that de Bodard uses:
"The same kind of odd letters she'd seen glowing in the water ran down the side of the bed she was lying in. As they went farther, they altered and shifted orientation, and the walls of the room turned with them and expanded, the unknown words multiplying, turning and growing until they blurred somewhere in an infinite distance, a vertiginous effect that made Yen clutch the sides of the bed for reassurance-look away, she had to look away lest she be drawn into a chasm that had no end"
Where do you even start? Never mind the run-on sentence; but how about the use of 'vertiginous' (as if anyone knows what that really means) or the disorientation that trying to imagine this room causes. I realize that de Bodard is trying to make us feel like our lead gal Yen, and I suppose my confusion and inability to imagine this room is perhaps what she was going for. However it made me feel uncomfortable and unsettled in the story; never mind that these descriptions are throughout the narrative.

Brilliant Romantic Ending<
It's funny that amoungst all of the messy and disorienting prose there is a really beautiful story. One where our characters come to know one another in an intimate and caring way. It leads to a lovely, romantic ending that I just loved. Unfortunately you have to get through 90% of the story first to realize this lovely ending.
I didn't realize or think of this as a beauty and the beast story, but others have pointed out it is. In a way it is; but in other ways it is not. Right from the beginning there is a misunderstanding of what is needed from our lead gal and I never felt the dragon was malicious towards her. So to call the dragon a beast is perhaps too literal as her heart never seems to be beastly to me.

Gender
There is one interesting thing that In the Vanishers' Palace handles and that is gender. Our characters that are not human do not necessarily have a gender. They are instead gender fluid. The dragon seems to be a female; which is why many are calling this a f/f beauty and the beast story; but to me it didn't feel like there was really a relevance to anyone's gender except our lead gal and her mother. It wasn't like the dragon, in dragon form, has breasts or female attributes. In human form the dragon may be obviously female but that didn't really solidify it as a f/f story for me. Especially when the dragon is often showing flashes of both forms.

Overall
There are some interesting ideas here but I would have liked the language to be simplified and more touch points provided that made me feel like I could be a part of the story. It was too alien feeling to me. Maybe I just wasn't prepared for that at the start and it threw me off; but I'd like to think I can adapt easily to any sci-fi/fantasy or speculative fiction thrown at me. Instead this felt very aloof and out of my grasp until the very end.
I also guessed the 'big reveal' long before it happened. It was far too obvious to me and I think will be to almost any reader. That is assuming you even get that far.
I give this three stars, instead of two, only because the ending is beautiful and it's clear that de Bodard is trying to do something different here, it just misses the mark for me.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

In the Vanisher's Palace dice ser un retelling de la Bella y la Bestia con dos mujeres en vez de hombre y mujer, pero no es simplemente eso. Sí, es cierto que se conservan algunos detalles de la historia original, pero está tan lejos en cuanto a escenario y a motivaciones de los personajes que no tengo del todo claro que retelling sea la palabra más adecuada para describirlo. En cualquier caso, es otra muestra de que el rango de Aliette de Bodard a la hora de contar historias no es precisamente monocorde.

La historia ocurre en un futuro, en un planeta poscolonizado, donde las criaturas poderosas como los dragones son reales y están despiertos y los humanos han vuelto (si acaso alguna vez han abandonado en determinadas partes) a un modo tribal de vida en el que mezclan magia, tecnología y tradición. Sus protagonistas son una joven cuya madre pide la ayuda de un dragón para salvar a una enferma (y acaba siendo sacrificada por el pueblo como pago por esa salvación) y la dragona que está cuidando de dos retoños, a los que entrega como discípulos a la joven. Poco a poco se va desarrollando una relación entre ambas y vamos descubriendo detalles del pasado de la dragona y secretos del castillo en el que vive, que es una reliquia de tiempos pasados. El único pero respecto a la historia sucede más o menos hacia el final, donde todo se atropella y queda desdibujado, aunque hay un motivo dentro de la trama que puede dar razón  a esa situación.

La relación de las protagonistas es muy agradable y da calorcito, y el descubrimiento del mundo por parte de la joven es maravilloso porque lleva a que el lector tenga que cuestionarse todo lo que conoce y todo lo que puede ser una imagen especular de la realidad respecto a la posición de los europeos respecto al lejano Oriente y sus culturas. Es una historia que consigue que el lector quiera saber más de los personajes y de su mundo, pero al mismo tiempo se autocontiene de forma que tengas toda la información y los sentimientos necesarios en ese espacio.

En definitiva, nos encontramos ante un buen libro que quizá no pase a los anales de las lecturas del año pero sí consigue que pases un buen rato y te plantees cosas que, quizás, solo puedes plantearte cuando te encuentras con una perspectiva tan distinta a la que habitualmente te encuentras.

Wonderful short novel of a broken world full of magical illnesses. The heroine - Yen - is given away to a dragon in a way of a payment for curing such illness. She becomes a teacher to a dragons' children. This could be described as "Beauty and the Beast" and part "The King and I", but I think it would be a disservice to a story that is original enough, to be considered on its own merits..

Wait a sec, a Beauty and the Beast retelling in which the romance is F/F and both parties set out on equal footing? No kidnap or selling of daughters? Oh and beautifully told in de Bodard’s exquisite prose with strong roots in Vietnemise mythology. Sign me the hell up. And it wasn’t a disappointment either. I’ve read so many B& the B retellings and many in the last year or so. This is easily the best of them. Clever, witty and poignant from beginning to end.

A very intense and dark book. I've loved how the author twisted the Beauty and the Beast retelling so the character had actual choices to make about their freedom. The relationship between the girls was my favorite thing and,I wish this was longer !

What a hell of a book! Action, romance, and redemption all condensed down into a novella that packs a punch that comes straight from left field. (Trust me, it's the only straight thing this book does, wink wink nudge nudge.)

What can I say that hasn't already been said? The prose is tight enough to bounce a dime on and get a quarter back, the characters are life-like to the point of asking me to share my coffee, and I would gladly snatch up and all continuations of this story. But what works so well for it is that there isn't a whole lot of extras!

Yeah, we could've gone on for fifty pages about what it means to desire someone who technically owns your life (or whose life you technically own), or what it means to be responsible in terms of what you owe the people around, but we get every ounce of those things in every action in the story. There's no reason to sit and ruminate on what things mean when we're already doing it on their behalf while the story is happening, if that makes sense?

Either way, what an amazing story! Check out the podcast episode for the full review!

I have seen some really positive things about Bodard’s writing and when I saw this novella up for review I knew I had to finally give her work a chance. Unfortunately, this one didn’t quite work for me the way I had hoped it would.

The world of Vanishers’ Palace is quite intriguing and steeped in Vietnamese lore, which is something that I am largely unfamiliar with. We have two different planes of existence, our world and the world of spirits where the dragons live. There is also a very interesting magic system that relies on spoken words. I liked what Bodard presented us with, but I wish there had been more. The Vanishers are continually painted as these horrid beings full of selfish desire and as creatures who do something simply because they can, but beyond that, we are left in the dark as to what they truly are. They partially sound like aliens given the strangeness of their palace and focus on science. In addition to this, we don’t get to learn a lot about life in the world other than there is the rampant illness.

The relationship between Vu Côn and Yên was also a majority selling point for me, I don’t read nearly enough books with f/f relationships. I’ve seen it mentioned that this is supposed to a be a play on Beauty and the Beast, and while I do see that similarity I would say that it excels in some areas and fails in others. There is a focus on consent and power dynamic in this, which I appreciated, but the actual relationship lacks a lot of passion or tension. The intimate moments were also kind of odd in the sense that it left far more questions than it answered.

I think my major qualms for Vanishers Palace lies in the style in which it is written. Parts of the story come off as flowery while others are stark and very blatant, and it seemed to be at odds with itself. In addition, there were several sections that were very hard to follow because of how vague/abundant the details were in areas.

While this one felt a bit distant to me I do think that it offered something in regards to the imagination that I haven’t seen in other novels, and I’m still quite curious to see what Bodard’s other work are like.

I received this in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This was absolutely unexpected and totally amazing. I had no clue what this novel would be about or anything at all, I read it on a recommendation from a friend and I'm so glad I did. I'm afraid I missed lots and lots of nuances in the story simply because I have no clue of the culture the story is based upon and at first was confused by a couple of smaller things. But the magical world and the author's amazing style of writing drew me into the story. And it's a great story. Short and sweet but with some serious undertones it's a great and fascinating retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

The world has been decimated by the Vanishers -- a race of aliens who came and exploited the world and then disappeared.

Now, humanity lives in the vestiges of a world created in their image. Life isn't easy. Due to the power vacuum the Vanishers left behind, society has fractured down into small villages. Unknown, new diseases ravage the population.

Fortunately, there is one individual who is helping humanity. The Vanishers left one of their servants behind: the dragon Vu Côn. She walks the earth, trying to make things better for those left behind. Normally, if she helps heal someone, she takes them as her own. Instead of complying to this practice, Yên's village makes a switch. They trade Yên, a failed scholar, instead.

Fortunately, Vu Côn has need of a scholar. She has two children at home in the Vanishers' palace. A scholar is exactly what she needs. So Yên goes to live in the Vanishers' Palace.

On her blog, de Bodard described this book as a story she wrote for herself. She had decided to write a f/f re-telling of Beauty and the Beast, with a mythical Vietnamese setting. It really works perfectly, for several different reasons. First, you can tell that the story is a labor of love. From the subject matter to her decision to self-publish, de Bodard made choices that allowed the story to be what she wanted it to be.

I really admire that decision. We got a lovely little work that feels familiar and fresh at the same time. Also, I think it does a great job of being daring. If de Bodard had focused on writing a book that would have been friendly to publishers, the work would not have been so strong to it's vision.

As I was reading, I kept confronting a singular question. What does the word "vertiginous" mean? It was used at least six different times to describe the palace. Normally, I can understand an unfamiliar word from the story's context, but this time I was puzzled.

At first I thought it was talking about a deep, watery green. Which shows a bit of personal prejudice. I tend to associate Asian dragons with water, Probably because of sources like Chinese dragon mythology. Miyazaki's river dragon, Haku, from Spirited Away also influences my perspective.

The word actually has a more apt meaning. According to Merriam Webster, it's characterized by vertigo or dizziness. It can also mean inclined to frequent, pointless change.

This definition makes a lot of sense with the description of the Vanishers: an alien race who was fearsome and unfathomable. It was a nice twist on expectations. I was expecting a fantasy based in mythology, but the Vanishers are more akin to the pantheon of the Cthulhu Mythos.

Vu Côn, as the Beast analog, was a particularly fascinating character. She was a servant of the Vanishers that got left behind. She feels obligated to the destroyed world that her overlords left behind. Instead of being a Beast trapped by a curse, Vu Côn is motivated by a sense of responsibility. She is seen as a Beast because her motivations aren't clearly understood.

Her lot is particularly poignant when you think about the way people treat her. Afraid of the dragon, they don't treat her like a person. They see her as someone to be feared. Vu Côn doesn't want to be ostracized in this way, but she accepts it as a form of personal atonement for the deeds she did.

In a similar way, Yên is an outsider. She is interested in academics, but isn't good enough to go to the academy. She can't find her purpose in the village, but feels tied there by familial obligation. It is only with another outsider that she can accept who she is and find fulfillment.

In the Vanisher's Palace isn't a long read, but it is well done. If you're looking for a different take on fairy tales, or for a lesbian love story with a great setting, I highly recommend it.

Esta reseña es una transcripción del podcast en el que salió.

Aliette de Bodard es una escritora franco-vietnamita, que ha ganado o ha sido finalista de un porronazo de premios: como el Nebula, el Locus, el Hugo, el BSFA. Es una escritora de ficción breve súper prolífica y la novela corta de la que hablamos hoy, «In the Vanishers' Palace», es uno de sus últimos trabajos publicados. Además de esta lista de premios extranjeros, de Bodard es la última ganadora del «Premio Ignotus» en relato corto por su excelente cuento «Tres tazas de aflicción a la luz de las estrellas», traducido al castellano por marcheto y publicado en «Cuentos para Algernon».

«In the Vanishers' Palace» se presenta a sí mismo como un retelling de «La bella y la bestía» pero entre una mujer y una mujer/dragón. Todo esto sumergido en un ambiente que sale de una tradición distinta a la que solemos ver en el género más mainstream. Quien haya leído a de Bodard antes sabe que esto es algo común en su obra. Mezcla diferentes tradiciones para aportar algo nuevo y original. En este caso, el entorno proviene de la cultura vietnamita y es increíblemente rico. La historia parte de la base de que, en el pasado, unos seres muy poderosos llamados los «vanishers», surgieron de la nada, produjeron una devastación brutal (llenando el mundo de enfermedades, criaturas horrendas y de magia) y tal y como llegaron, un buen día desaparecieron de la faz de la tierra. En este contexto conocemos a Yen, la hija de una curandera que vive junto con su madre en un pueblo dominado por la mano férrea de los ancianos (y ojo aquí con el español porque en inglés es «the elders» y no tiene marca de género, esto es importante por algo que comentaré luego). En esta comunidad, si no eres valioso eres expulsado y has de abandonar el pueblo y enfrentarte a las monstruosidades que acechan fuera, o peor, acabar siendo sacrificado en un artefacto, uno de los muchos que los «vanishers» dejaron tras su marcha, que te despedaza por completo, átomo por átomo, haciéndote pasar por un sufrimiento indescriptible. Por otro lado, cabe comentar que la magia no era algo desconocido antes de los «vanishers», tan solo menos poderosa. Otros seres, a medio camino entre dioses y quimeras, poblaban el mundo. Pero incluso estos se vieron tremendamente mermados hasta casi desaparecer con la llegada de los vanishers.

Un día, un hijo (o una hija, no me acuerdo exactamente) de uno de los ancianos más importantes, cae enferma, y la madre de Yen, en vista de que no puede hacer nada por ayudar (pues sus conocimientos de ciencia y medicina son muy limitados) decide invocar a un dragón para que lo cure. El problema es que esto no es gratuito y que hay que pagar un precio muy alto, normalmente, la vida de la persona que es salvada, que debe acompañar para siempre al dragón a su mundo. En este caso, los ancianos coaccionan a Yen para que se ofrezca voluntaria con la promesa de que su madre no será nunca expulsada del poblado. Así, Yen acaba partiendo hacia el palacio del dragón (dragona en este caso, que además puede adoptar forma humana) y descubriendo que las cosas no son lo que parecen. Vu Con, que así se llama su nueva ama, no va a devorarla como las historias para no dormir de tradición oral le han hecho creer y no parece que sea cruel. Lo que hace, es nombrarla institutriz de sus dos hijos: Thong y Lien. A partir de aquí arranca una historia que me ha resultado muy bella y muy bien llevada. Los personajes están dibujados con gran mimo y todos ellos (con una sola excepción) están llenos de grises. Esa excepción, además, es buscada y proviene de los tropos de los cuentos clásicos. Si bien en «La bella y la bestia», Gastón, el antagonista, es una persona horrible que no tiene ni una sola cosa positiva, aquí también tenemos ese equivalente en los lideres de los ancianos. Quitando esto, la relación que se crea entre Yen y Vu Con es interesantísima por sus matices. Y no solo con Vu Con: con Thong y Lien, sus alumnos, comienza a surgir un cariño y un respeto mutuo que no hace más que enriquecer las luchas internas de cada uno de estos personajes. (Luchas que no voy a revelar).

No os voy a engañar, pedí este libro porque era Aliette de Bodard y porque era corto. A mí el retelling no es un tema que me apasione y no sabía muy bien que esperar de esta historia. Pues bien, la verdad es que me ha sorprendido bastante; no sólo por lo que ya daba por sentado, que es que está muy bien escrito, sino porque las cosas que menos me atraían del libro las he disfrutado igual. Sí, es un retelling de «La bella y la bestia» (en este caso entre dos mujeres, siendo la bestia un dragón), pero está lo suficientemente alejado de la historia que todos tenemos en la cabeza como para que, aun viendo las conexiones entre ambas, no sea tan evidente que te saque de la lectura. Por otro lado, hay que decir que la construcción de mundo que hace Aliette de Bodard en tan poco espacio es maravillosa: muy colorida y llena de detalles de los que me encantaría leer más. Lo que sí tengo que decir es que por momentos el inglés se me hizo complicado. Las descripciones del palacio y de los elementos más fantásticos tienden a lo onírico y el lenguaje que utiliza la autora es relativamente elaborado. Es por esto que, a pesar de que el libro tiene unas 150 páginas, tardé un poco en leerlo. Si estás empezando a leer en inglés no es la mejor opción.

Una cosa interesante de la novela es el uso de los pronombres. Tanto para referirse a personas no binarias o de las que no se conoce el género, que esto es quizá algo a lo que las personas que leemos fantástico estamos más acostumbrados, como al uso de pronombres que marcan la jerarquía social o el grado de confianza que tiene una persona con su interlocutor. Me ha parecido que enriquece muchísimo la novela. Ahora bien, siendo esto algo que en general me ha gustado, es cierto que en algún momento muy concreto me ha parecido que está introducido de una forma un tanto infodumpy, con explicaciones de por qué un personaje ha usado x pronombre dentro de la propia narración, que me han sacado un poco del libro. Como digo, esto me ha pasado en ocasiones muy concretas y por lo general me ha gustado.

Otro elemento interesante que ya dejé caer en la sinopsis es la mezcla de magia y tecnología. Esto es algo que queda a interpretación del lector. Pero una de las cuestiones que suscita la novela es la de si los «vanishers» eran realmente crueles o no. Se puede interpretar como que eran un raza extraterrestre llegada a la tierra y que su tecnología es tan avanzada, que lo que parece magia no es más que desconocimiento. Y las enfermedades que ahora asolan la tierra podrían no ser más que un efecto secundario inesperado de su llegada y su tecnología.

La construcción de mundo que hace Aliette de Bodard en esta novela es muy sugerente y el está lleno de color, de sorpresas y de sentido de la maravilla. No he podido dejar de imaginarme el libro todo el rato como una historia de Miyazaki, tanto por la trama, como por estas caracteristicas del imaginario que utiliza la autora. Me encantaría leer más cosas en este universo. Muchas gracias a la editorial por el ejemplar.

*ARC received from NetGalley in return for an honest review*

This was a very short and pretty sweet little story. I enjoyed the main character, but even now after a week, I can't remember much about her. I remember more about Vu Côn then I do about Yên. I feel like the story also lacked from the fact that I didn't come to care for the children very much. All of these could have been easy fixes if the story had been longer, but sadly it wasn't meant to be.

I did enjoy the story and the conflictions both Yên and Vu Côn have about their feelings for one another. That was one bright spot I do remember. Many retellings of Beauty and the Beast don't go into the fact that the Beast is actually a jailer. The fact that the author mentioned this struggle was a portion that I very much enjoyed.

This is true Aliette de Bodard, meaning it's lush, emotional, and absolutely lovely. It's a story of survival and love set in a post-war world, and about the secrets that can affect both.