Aliette de Bodard – In the Vanishers’ Palace
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Parent Category: Reviews
Published: 29 November 2018

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As a US-born, raised (and now living) in Paris, English-writing author of half-French and half-Vietnamese origin Aliette de Bodard has both the background/grounding in and the interest to explore non-Western cultures and settings in her novels and short stories in a convincing way. She meanwhile has 12 books of varying lengths to her name, and has won a number of awards for her work, including BSFA and Nebula Awards. She writes across SF, Fantasy, and Alternate History settings, although frequently her stories are hard to assign to one or the other, never mind her series which can combine several in a very natural way. The book at hand, In the Vanishers' Palace, is not part of any of her series/universes (Aztec, Xuya, Domion of the Fallen), but is a Việt story and thus naturally closer to her Xuya ones, even if I have not found anything which would connect it to either the historical or future settings.
But even if this is set in a world of it's own, it hopefully won't remain like that!

The story kicks off in an (unnamed) village, where Oanh, the village head's child is found to be sick from a genetic virus. Yện, a scholar trapped in the village as she did not pass the exam which would take her to the court, attends together with her mother, the village healer. There is nothing that her mother can do to help, except use her (limited) magic abilities to call a dragon to help.
But whilst Vu Côn, the dragon called, saves Oanh, this comes at a price; and the village elders give her Yện, mainly because she is of less use, less value to them than her mother. But instead of the expected painful death Yện is taken to the palace where the dragon lives, and put to work teaching her children.
Doesn't this sound like classic Fantasy to you, maybe with an Eastern slant? Except for the genetic virus, maybe? This world is much more complex. Here once lived, and ruled, the Vanishers. But when they left (and I have no idea if they were known as Vanishers before that!) they threw out all their toys, poisoned, twisted and broke the world, and left behind loads of technological artefacts, creatures and things roaming the wilds, all kinds of mutating genetical deceases, and a palace, which is now being inhabited by Vu Côn, one of their former servants.
But whilst Yện teaches the twins, dragons, in the teachings of the Broken-World-Teacher and the rules of filial piety she does not seem to notice that they are different, not really dragons like her master. But maybe living whilst expecting to be dead, or to be violently dying at any point, and living in a Vanisher house/palace with nausea-inducing doors, and rooms with improbable geometry ("their idea of geometry wasn't quite ours") of course provides plenty of distractions of its own, never mind her attraction to the dragon Vu Côn.


Vu Côn herself is also a healer (how's that for symmetry!(+), both to other dragons, but also to humans who petition her, using both magic, but also the technology available to her in the Vanisher's palace.

I don't really want to spill (and spoil) more of the story, it worth reading and discovering it yourself. But I can assure you that it feels complex - in the way the plot unrolls, in expression, in the aims of the protagonists, in their desires and the interrelation of these. In the relationships playing out, changing. The whole setting is posed on the brink of change, in ever so many ways and levels which makes it deliciously unpredictable!
This is steeped in cultural references, family ties, forms of address, filial piety as a concept, complex and evolving parent/child relationships, prescriptions on behaviour, taboos...
I don't know if my lack of background awareness, of cultural knowledge really allows me to really judge this, to have an opinion about this which is not purely preconception and ignorance, to do this justice. So, these are the opinions of an outsider, less than informed, looking in on a world he does not understand, not even in derivation. Then again, I would expect this to apply to a substantial part of the potential readership for the story, and for those I can speak to some extent. Lack of knowledge as qualification? It's a new claim for me...

I frequently find mixes of both technology and magic in the same world to be uneasy bedfellows, so I was interested in how Aliette would handle this here, given her penchant for well-execute cross-cultural approaches.
From the point of view of the villages there is no real difference, of course, fully in line with Asimov's famous paradigm. And from my point of view I'm still not sure, after reading to the end, if magic and technology are the same thing, or different and separate/complementary in this world. Never mind if there is one, or several types of magic. Or if they also are only different expressions of the same thing.
But I am sure that, in the end, I didn't care, it didn't matter, and the story and the world it is set in worked, which is rather an achievement in my experience for such a setting.
One of the things which really stuck out for me, culturally as well as shaping and expressing the complex and changing relationships in the story are the pronouns the author uses - neuter (they, them) for singular individuals, and female (she, her), which appears to be related to familiarity, formality, and not really gender. I'm not sure if that's more of a cultural thing I'm ignorant about (although I know that Vietnamese does have complex structure of personal pronouns, so this might be a transposition of that), or an attempt to break the endlessly trodden-in structures in a fantastical setting, akin to what Ann Leckie did in her Ancillary series.

One thing which was rather depressingly realistic in this fantastical setting was that, even if humanity is not the major destroying factor in the story (and it possibly might be fascinating to pull this apart into human/spirits/Vanishers as a simile for different parts of humanity and human society. Even if I don't think that's what the author does/intended) we still see how humanity is entirely capable of being destructive, horrible, cruel, and self-centred even at the reduced societal level they are set as here.

So here you have it – Aliette provides us with a world where spirits and dragons are as much part of as technology is. I'm not sure what this is, if you really want to classify and pigeonhole it. Not SF, really. Not Fantasy, either. But clever, that it is for sure.
And whilst this is, in it's setting, reminiscent of the western Beauty & Beast trope, and I at times wondered about Stockholm syndrome, I really don't think that much should be made of this possible parallel.
The story also does not need this - It is fascinating, both for the setting (of which I'd love more), but all the more so for the shifting relationships of the characters, the changing levels of power over each other; all set in a world where the top predators have left amongst their own hubris, breaking their playthings in the process and leaving everybody else to deal with it.

And – I feel that the end of the book isn't really the end of the story. This is a beginning, not an ending. And I sincerely hope to hear more.


More Aliette de Bodard

Title: In the Vanisher’s Palace
Author: Aliette de Bodard
Reviewer: Markus
Reviewer URL: http://thierstein.net
Publisher: JABberwocky Literary Agency/Zeno
Publisher URL: http://www.awfulagent.com
Publication Date: Oct 2018
Review Date: 181116
ISBN: 9781625673749
Pages: 133
Format: ePub
Topic: SF
Topic: Dystopia

Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.

This book is beautiful. It has unique world-building, fascinating Vietnamese influences, frank discussions of consent and destiny, insights into the damage done by colonialism, amazing LGBTQ and non-binary representation, beautiful descriptive passages, and a whole lot of flawed, complex characters.

BUT.

For some reason I just couldn't connect with it. I didn't find the main characters to have much chemistry, and I'll echo other reviewers in preferring not to have the words 'cold' and 'slimy' involved in sex scenes. I didn't think the story had much in common with Beauty and the Beast, barring the initial set up. The world-building is also extremely confusing. I never understood what the Vanishers were or why they left - it almost feels like this is a sequel to another series that I'd need to read for context.

I think this is a great book that some people will utterly adore, and I urge anyone who likes unusual fantasy to give it a try. It's not for me, but I will continue to recommend it highly to my friends.

I've read quite a lot by Aliette de Bodard, so I was very pleased to get approved for a pre-release copy of this by Netgalley. Well, it was pre-release when I got it, even if it's taken me forever to get around to actually reading it and then even longer to review it! That shouldn't be taken as a comment on the quality of the story, just on sudden craziness in my life and inability to settle down and actually read stuff.

Anyway, on to the story. The basic premise of In the Vanisher's Palace is that it's set on a world where aliens had ravaged everything and the characters we come across now are literally living in the ruins of what has been left behind. One of our main characters (Yên) is the daughter of the local healer, who is dealing with all sorts of odd illnesses caused by mutating viruses, and they live in a community where being useful is the key to survival. Yên herself is a scholar and not particularly good at anything else, so when attempts to heal the daughter of one of the community's leaders fail to be effective and more stringent measures are needed, she gets traded away to the dragon Vu Côn in exchange for a more effective treatment.

Vu Côn is one of the last dragons living and takes Yên to her palace, the abandoned ship of one of their former alien conquerors (the Vanishers), a place that literally does not obey the rules of physics. Rather than being killed in a bloody and violent manner, as Yên is expecting (and as was her potential fate in the outside world for the crime of not being useful to the community), she's given the job of tutor to Vu Côn's teenage children and also find herself unexpectedly attracted to said dragon.

Anyway, no secret has been made of the fact that this is a Beauty and the Beast re-telling in any of the publicity for In the Vanisher's Palace, so you can probably figure out roughly how it all works out. Finer details would spoil the story, so I just urge you to check it out if you like stuff that's inspired (as much of de Bodard's work is) by her Vietnamese heritage. To be honest, as is often the case with novellas, I get frustrated by the fact that they just don't on for as long as I would like and this is also the case here - there's enough world-building for a novel at least and it's constrained down to support the fairy-tale storyline instead. That's probably why I didn't give 5 stars in the end.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

One of the most unique stories I've read in a long time. Aliette de Bodard brings us a romantic fantasy based on Beauty and the Beast. But in this case, the Beast is a dragon. In addition, it has a peculiar magic system in a post-apocalyptic environment and inspired by Vietnamese mythology. LGBT characters, use of the neutral gender in some of them, an environment of millenary magic but at the same time it seems to take place in an apocalyptic land of the future ...
The only downside is that it stretches too long in some sections staying halfway between the fable and the novel.

Yên is not important in her village. Her mother is a healer who knows magic but Yên has no powers herself; all she does is teach the village children but knowing about long-dead scholars isn’t considered important in a devasted world where everyday survival is hard enough.

When another girl – the daughter of a village elder – falls sick and the healing skills of Yên’s aren’t enough to help her, the elders decide to call the dragon and offer Yên’s life in exchange. Much to Yên’s surprise, the dragon doesn’t want to kill or torture her. Vu Côn wants her as teacher for her children. Still, things aren’t easy for Yên. She struggles to deal with the unfairness of her situation, the separation from her mother, Vu Côn’s distant behaviour and living in a palace where a wrong step can mean death.

It’s no new revelation that fairy tales often aren’t very good when it comes to consent. Apart from the often-discussed Sleeping Beauty, there are also rows of kings, promising their daughter to whoever completes a quest – without any mention if the daughter is OK with that. Retellings often avoid this issue by having the couple know – and love – each other already and the prince/tailor/penniless adventurer uses the quest to win over the dad who wouldn’t have agreed to the marriage otherwise over. In the Vanisher’s Palace is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast and it’s not news that consent is also a complicated issue in this story. But instead of avoiding the issue by adding something or changing parts of the story, consent becomes a major part of it.

Yên is relieved when it turns out that Vu Côn doesn’t mean to harm her. She’s even attracted to her. But she still sees her as the person who tore her from her home and is now keeping her a prisoner. With time she realises that Vu Côn didn’t have much choice: Yên couldn’t have stayed in her village and has no chance of surviving on her own in the post-apocalyptic world the story is set in. It takes her some time to see that not everybody is against her (an understandable fear, since apart from her mother, she hasn’t met many people who were truly on her side).

But Vu Côn keeps making decisions for her. She keeps information concerning Yên and her family from her and also doesn’t tell the whole truth about what is going on in the palace. And Yên can’t simply switch off her mistrust, so both have a lot to learn (and unlearn).

In the Vanisher’s Palace is a romance but one set in a post-apocalyptic world. So, while Yên and Vu Côn do get their happy end, there is no magical solution that turns the world in a better place again. Things still look rather dark at the end, and I prefer my romances a bit more light-hearted. I want to make clear that this isn’t the ‘fault’ of the book. An ending with a magical cure-all solution wouldn’t have fitted the story – and the fascinating world de Bodard created – at all. And after all, the fact that it was a post-apocalyptic story was made clear in advance, so I knew I wouldn’t get a typical ‘And they lived happily ever after’-ending. I gave the book a try anyway because the premise sounded fascinating. And I did love how this version of Beauty and the Beast was interpreted and how the relationship developed. Yên and Vo Côn, as well as the other characters, were great. But in the end, I couldn’t completely forget that it’s still a genre that’s not my cup of tea at all. If it is yours I can wholeheartedly recommend this story.

Beauty and the Beast has always been one of my favorite fairy tales, and despite the problematic elements present in the story, I would always eagerly read re-tellings of the classic story.

In the Vanishers’ Palace ranks as one of the best re-tellings I’ve read. It features a scholar, Vietnamese dragons, and an entirely unique non-Western, Vietnamese-inspired setting. Plus, it even addresses the problematic elements in the original story. I liked how it dealt with those problematic elements and how the conflict was eventually resolved. In the Vanishers’ Palace is a queer, diverse re-telling of a classic fairytale and it does it so well, it surpasses previous re-tellings I’ve read of the story.

First, the world-building. Here, the world was basically shaped by the Vanishers, a mystical race of beings who turned the world into their playground and then disappeared. As a result, every human fears the spirits who were the Vanishers’ servants and the plagues the Vanishers left behind. The world-building is very clear and lush, and I had no problem visualizing everything. I loved the setting and I found it very refreshing to read a Vietnamese-inspired fantasy. There’s even a lot of folklore here which made me interested in learning more. I hope the author writes more in this setting as I personally really enjoyed it.

Additionally, queer people are so integrated in the society. LGBTQ+ people are everywhere in the society and there’s no question of them being accepted. They are part of the society and there isn’t any homophobia or anything. I also noticed this trend of LGBTQ+ people being so well-integrated in fantasy societies and I hope it continues.

I also loved the characters. Yen keeps a lot of her agency despite being essentially Vu Con’s captive. She remains curious, she stands up to Vu Con, and above all, she shows one of the best examples of filial piety I’ve seen in fantasy. Given that filial piety is such a huge thing in Asia, I love that it’s such a big part of the story.

Vu Con also demonstrates filial piety. She is a mother- she may not have been the one who gave birth to her twins, she is no less her mother. I love that the book explores motherhood and asks what it means to be a parent. Not just through Vu Con, but also through Yen’s mother.

The plot moves fairly quickly, since this is a novella. I wouldn’t call it predictable since it doesn’t follow the original story to the letter. It’s a completely fresh take on the original fairy tale and it’s so much stronger for it. There’s a certain dreamy quality to the writing which I also appreciated and the description of magic and how spells work are also unique and interesting. I won’t spoil it too much since I want readers to discover the magic for themselves.

Overall, In the Vanishers’ Palace is a very satisfying story. I’d recommend it to both fans and non-fans of the original fairy tale.

This is billed as a retelling of Beauty and the Beast but to be honest I don’t think the connection does this credit. It’s a slim tale of honour and love and duty, set in an amazing futuristic vision, tinged with an ‘exotic’ Vietnamese setting, and full of fantasical imagery brought to life with Aliette de Bodard’s delicately wonderful use of language.

Phew – that’s a lot to squeeze in to 200-ish pages! Recommended :)

This was just plain lovely.

In the Vanishers’ Palace is, at its core, a delightfully queer retelling of Beauty and the Beast set in alternate Vietnam. Yên is a failed scholar, assisting her healer mother, but thought to be fairly useless. When her friend and a daughter from an important family, Oanh, falls gravely ill, she is exchanged for a cure from the dragon, Vu Côn, expecting to be killed, but instead becoming a teacher to her children.

I admit I went into this book more than a little hesitant. A romance between a dragon and a young woman who is sold to her? It sounded like it could end up all sorts of creepy, even though the friend who recommended it to me assured me it isn’t. And luckily, the issue of consent in such a situation is explicitly addressed and handled both delicately and well. So no fears there.

The characters weren’t as developed as I would have liked, but the prose is good and the setting more than made up for it. There’s a slight whiff of sci-fi and biotech. The titular Vanishers’ palace is strange and dangerous and wonderful as is the magic, and the Vietnamese setting is way more than just window-dressing. The characters clearly speak a different language, with different pronouns and means of address based on the person they are speaking to, which is a nice twist and done well. However, as always with novellas, I wish there was just a little more time spent exploting the setting and especially the characters.

In a way, parallels could also be drawn between the Vanishers and colonialism - they came, took over, exploited the land and its people, then went away and left everything broken behind them.

I read this book courtesy of the author via NetGalley, in exchange for a review.

In the Vanishers' Palace has been described as a sapphic retelling of The Beauty and the Beast. This is true, though it focuses on the parts of the book I liked the least, at the expense of those I liked best. This novella tells the story of Yên, a scholar (and teacher) and daughter of a village healer, and Vu Côn - a dragon, and mother to two teenagers just coming into their own powers. All this happens against the backdrop of a devastated, post-apocalyptic (postcolonial) world of danger, disease and human unkindness.

The worldbuilding is superb. The Vietnamese cultural and linguistic inspiration is rendered in exquisite and beautiful detail, and combined with science fictional ideas that would be enough for a whole saga of novels. The descriptions of words and their power were worth the admission price all on their own. They were spellbinding.

I liked the family relationships, too. The bonds between Yên and her mother, and especially between Vu Côn and her children are written well and when the latter receives narrative attention, the book becomes quite gripping.

Unfortunately, (and YMMV here,) the sapphic aspect of the book didn't command comparable attention from me. I found the plotting and pacing, particularly with regard to the romantic storyline, to be relatively uninteresting. I didn't see much chemistry between the characters (despite occasionally great descriptions of desire). To me, their relationship lacked depth and the emotions they experienced didn't ring true or seem compelling. I really wanted to care about the romantic storyline, but I didn't.

I wish some aspects of the world and particularly characters actions and emotions had been explained a little more clearly. Occasionally, the story seemed to assume certain actions and decisions have obvious motivations, when that was not quite the case; at other moments, characters reacted with shock and surprise to actions that seemed entirely in character based on everything we (and they) knew.

All in all, I am glad I read the novella for its descriptions and language, but I wish the plot had been stronger.

As someone who actively advocates Asian-inspired fantasies, no one is more disappointed in me for not liking this book... than, well, myself. I really, really wanted to love this. I was so excited to dive in!

But... nothing worked for me. In the Vanishers’ Palace is easily the weirdest book I’ve read this year. It’s messy and confusing and ugh, I need some time to process all of this.

Quick thoughts:
- All sorts of weirdness going on.
- What was really the plot here? And how is this a retelling of Beauty and the Beast? It all seemed farfetched to me.
- Beastiality that I 100% could not appreciate. Dragon sex??? Algae aftertaste from a kiss??? Oily???
- The characters had no personality at all.
- Absolutely no chemistry between Vu Côn and Yên. Their relationship was so poorly developed.
- A ton of cringing on my part.
- I was happy to see an all-Vietnamese cast.
- The magic system was confusing for me, too.
- The Vanishers???
- I swear, I tried really, really hard to like this bUT I JUST CAN'T.

Full review to follow!

The most recent novel from Aliette de Bodard (The House of Shattered Wings, The Tea Master and the Detective) puts a high-fantasy spin on the already magical story of Beauty and the Beast. The characters are complex, each with layered perceptions of themselves and their place in this broken world. The magic is beautiful, the palace itself is a mindblowing entity, and the originality is evident on every page.

In the Vanishers’ Palace will transfix you from the start, weaving a deftly written adaptation of Beauty and the Beast into a magic-filled world burdened with the evil remnants of a dark pass. It’s so much more than a retelling of a classic story. Bodard has made it her own with enthralling prose and an inspired version of dragons that shows much more than their scaly exteriors would betray. Prepare to be swept away.

Full review at: https://reviewsandrobots.com/2018/10/22/in-the-vanishers-palace-dragons-love-magic/

I’d previously read – and loved – Ms. de Bodard’s reimagining of Sherlock and Watson, so when I saw she had a Beauty and the Beast retelling coming out, I was ridiculously excited – and even more so when I saw the gorgeous cover. Ms. de Bodard has a way of condensing a familiar story down to its bones, and then rebuilding it in a way that’s both familiar and unfamiliar. What we end up with, in this case is a delightfully queer Vietnamese-flavored post-apocalyptic fairy tale – with dragons!

The Vanishers came, destroyed the earth with pollution and genetic modification viruses, and then left suddenly (as the name suggests). The people left survive in small villages, with survival of the healthiest being the rule. Yên is the daughter of the village healer and the schoolteacher, but after showing no aptitude for magic and failing the scholar examination, she knows it’s only a matter of time before she’s banished or killed. When her mother calls upon the old spirits to heal the daughter of one of the village elders, the dragon Vu Côn answers, and demands a life as payment. The elders offer up Yên, and so she becomes the teacher to the twins in Vu Côn’s palace, a Vanisher relic that thumbs its nose at physics and seems more likely to kill its inhabitants than protect them. An attraction simmers between the girl and the dragon, but Vu Côn thinks her attentions are unwanted and Yên considers herself a prisoner and beneath the dragon’s notice.

“She wore flowing silk: a stark, black cloth of a shade that Yên had only seen in Vanishers’ cloth, with not one clearer patch to mar the deep color. When she moved, it was as if the night sky shifted and spread around her. What would it be like, to have those sleeves enfold Yên—those long, thin fingers wrapped around Yên’s shoulders? Yên found her breath catching in her throat again.
Beautiful. No. No. She couldn’t afford to think of the dragon that way. She was Yên’s master, Yên’s executioner. There was no future in desire or love.”


Vu Côn is fascinating – selfless, in the sense that she’s seemingly the last spirit to take any interest in humans, but also arrogant in that she thinks she knows what’s best for everyone (without actually asking them), and in believing in her ability to control a situation – or her own emotions. I loved the relationship between Vu Côn and the twins. They’re poised on the brink of adulthood, and it was sweet to see the powerful dragon struggle tread the line between treating them like the children she remembers and the adults they will become. Honestly, the twins stole the show in any scene they were in. Yên, for her part, is brave – first fighting for her place in the village and later standing up to Vu Côn. Their relationship is slow and fraught with problems. Ms. de Bodard doesn’t shy away from the problems inherent in their relationship (prisoner/captor, mortal/dragon, young/ancient, powerless/powerful). One of the more fascinating themes was when it’s morally acceptable to keep information from someone – if the knowledge won’t change anything but will only hurt them?

There’s so much more, too. There’s a lyrical quality to the story that’s simply magical. Things involving the village smell like mold and decay, the Vanishers’ magic is full of knives and destruction, and Vu Côn is swamps and deep rivers. The pacing is tight without feeling like the story’s rushing along. The worldbuilding in general, and the magic system in particular, is fascinating. In the end, though, it’s the characters that really made the story shine for me.

Overall, this was an absolute delight and I’d recommend it to anyone looking for an original and immersive fairy tale retelling.

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

This is billed as a F/F Beauty and the Beast retelling where the Beast is a dragon and definitely the bare bones of the B&tB story are there, but this is very much its own story. I for one was very thankful for that because I'm always afraid with B&tB retellings that they are going to stay too close to the original and it will be too Stockholm Syndromy for me, but this one was really cute and I liked the way it developed and moved away from the standard story as it went on. The world is very interesting and the characters were enjoyable. I would definitely recommend it for anyone who is looking for a short F/F story with a fairytale twist.

Who can resist an f/f reworking of Beauty and the Beast featuring a dragon (!!!!)? Certainly not me, and I'm very glad I picked this one up. This particular story is based on Vietnamese myth and culture as well, which is a nice change from "generic European myth and culture". I will admit that I did not fully understand some of the worldbuilding involving the Vanishers, but for me, the most important aspects were the character interactions and growth, which were everything I want out of a BatB storyline. My only quibble was that the author wrote out the honorifics (I'm not sure if that's the correct word - the way the characters refer to each other, such as "elder aunt" or "younger sister") in English. I think I would have preferred them to be in Vietnamese, but in the grand scheme of things, that is not a big deal at all.

Overall, an awesome story by an awesome writer.

This review is based off an ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

WOW. Simply fabulous. Teacher and daughter of her village's healer Yên is not special. She reads, she yearns, she aches to be more, but she is simply a good teacher and a quick study. In a world that has been ruined by the Vanishers - creatures that revel in destruction and who have now moved on to other worlds to destroy - Yên is just trying to survive and make something of her simple life. But the world is sick and death is barely a step away. The village's sacrifice, Yên is sold to Vu Côn, the last dragon. Yên's fight for life and love is only just beginning.

This is a beautiful story. Rich, descriptive language and joyously dark worldbuilding make this a colorful tapestry of words - enjoyable and entertaining to read. A great scifi/fantasy. I thoroughly recommend it.

In the Vanisher’s Palace is imaginative. It is vivid and colorful. The book draws on Vietnamese language, culture and style. The author is herself a Franco-Vietnamese woman who has a strong rating on Goodreads. All that being true, I’m not sure why I had a difficult time with this book. I have a couple of theories.

Number 1 – the source material. It is a loose re-telling of Beauty and the Beast. I love Belle as much as the next girl, but I think we’re all adult enough to admit that story is problematic at best. A young woman of promise is abducted and falls in love with her captor. Ms. de Bodard does a good job of trying to ameliorate these issues that are hard boiled into the plot. Her Beauty and Beast (in this case a dragon/woman hybrid) have an immediate attraction. This lays to rest ideas of Stockholm syndrome, but in the process some of the tension is lost. In fact, the characters become romantically involved very early in the book. Then there is the dragon sex. Maybe some readers will like it, it’s just not my jam. I like the dragons though! The castle is also mind bending and a real plus!

Number 2 – I had trouble understanding what was going on sometimes. I’ve encountered this with some other fantasy books. The reader is thrust into a situation where the learning curve is high, and there is not enough opportunity to familiarize yourself with what is going on. In this case, there was a history of “Vanisher’s” who at some point left the planet after first abusing the population and ruining the environment. But you’re never quite sure what was going on with them, how are they connected to the current cast of characters, and what exactly went on here. I need to have a more concrete understanding of a book by at least 50% and in this case I didn’t.

I think this book could be appreciated by other readers. I am not the right person for this one. My thinking is a little too linear I think to appreciate what the author was going for.

Song for this book: The Light Before We Land by The Delgados

A f/f retelling of Beauty and the Beast in a Vietnamese setting, with a shapeshifting dragon doctor. ‘Beauty’ acts as the governess for her adopted children, in a mysterious castle which was designed as a dangerous trap from a race of people who inflicted viruses on the world. Really unique and interesting, and it definitely stands out from the other multiple retellings of this fairy tale.

“She didn't need a pathway into the future,
or a road that took her years ahead, all the way to old age.
She just needed a reason to take the next breath.”

I don't know about you, but I am feeling particularly blessed by Aliette de Bodard this year. After her amazing novella The Tea Master and the Detective, she graces us with this stunning f/f retelling of Beauty and the Beast in which the Beast is a dragon, with an all-Vietnamese, almost all-female (and non-binary) cast, and I. am. in. love.

Funny thing is, I am not that much of a fan of the original Beauty and the Beast, though I do like retellings because, more often than not, they "fix" what bothers me in the original story. But In The Vanishers' Palace is not just any retelling, it is more of a re-appropriation of the source story: Bodard borrows a few elements and weaves them into incredible settings, dark storytelling(view spoiler), compelling characters, myths, and (literal) mind-blowing magic

I absolutely adored the romance between Yên and Vu Côn. The push and pull between desire and doubt, the fact that Yên is a brilliant, independent young woman, something that Vu Côn (an all-powerful dragon ) immediately sees and is attracted to, when Yên was made to believe by circumstances that she was worthless. They both make mistakes but in the end, their relationship is one of mutual respect and love and my heart is soaring.

Finally, I also really loved the importance of family in this book. Yên's mother is not just a plot-device to get her to the Palace, she is essential to this story and to Yên's life. The same goes for Vu Côn and the twins, about how their future is in their hands, not in their ancestors'. A beautiful reminder that family and destiny are not dictated by blood.

Now I need a physical copy of this book, and so do you. ♥

This is a beautiful, incredibly imaginative story that really rewards a slow, savouring read, where you can best enjoy the sumptuous imagery and clever world-building. The way it tackles the familiar Beauty and the Beast story, by mixing Vietnamese mythology and post-colonial destruction with intriguing sci-fi elements, really worked for me. B&tB is one of my favourite fairy tales, so it was lovely to get such an original re-imagining. The fact that Vu Côn is a dragon was just more icing on an already delicious cake.

I loved the world-building, it’s the best part of this story for me, but I liked the characters too. Yên is definitely a woman out of place, desperate to find a way to fit – not just inside the Vanisher’s palace, but in the world beyond where she was viewed as not useful enough. I liked her, but I also found her a little dull compared to the others. Her mother is much more interesting, and I liked both children, Thông and Liên. However, I wish we could have actually seen a lesson and how Yên tackled teaching them. Vu Côn was fascinating, and had many changes to make in her behaviour and beliefs, although I’m still not sure what drew her to Yên.

It is a short read, though, and I think the romance suffered the most because of it. These two don’t spend much time together, their feelings aren’t really explored and the sex scene was a bit too close to monster porn for my personal tastes. Which is a shame, because there are flashes of sweetness between them, but mostly the wider plot is busy getting in the way and forcing their attention elsewhere.

Which is fine, because the wider plot is fascinating and intriguing and has a lot to say about living in a post-colonial world. So even though it isn’t perfect, it’s still beautiful and well worth a repeat read.

This heavily Viet inspired fantasy written by a French author is utterly unlike anything I have read before. I heard it talked about as a f/f Beauty and the Beast retelling where the beast is a dragon, and while that summary piqued my interest, I also think that this book is so much more than that.

True, one of the main characters is a dragon, who can shift forms to look human. But the way she thinks is incredibly other, consistently so, which I liked. I also loved her two wards and the secret they carry.

The Vanishers were once a race of creatures who used the world to their own ends and didn't care who else or what else they hurt before they disappeared, leaving a world filled with diseases and magic that those left don't quite understand.

Yên's family suffers one such disease when the book opens, before she is sold to Vu Côn in exchange for healing. The Vanisher's palace, where she comes to live, is so confusing to read, which I think is exactly the point, but I will admit to finding that at times off putting. Which, again, was likely the point.

Although this is a romance, the plot and various friendships were more fleshed out than the eventual couple who ended up getting together by the end. But it was honestly difficult to understand what their relationship could be like as not enough time was given in the story to establish how they could work together.