Ahoy there mateys! I really love the Xuya universe and so I was excited to get a copy of this full-length novel.  Just note that this is part of the Xuya romance books and not a murder mystery story.  This was an enjoyable revenge story.  It got compared to The Count of Monte Cristo, a personal favorite, but I don't agree with that comparison at all.

In the beginning there is Minh, the daughter of the ruling prefect.  Her life has been planned out for her and she wants more.  So she sneaks out of her compound with her best friend Heart's Sorrow, a mindship, to attend a local festival.  Things go wrong and she is saved by a scholar, Quynh.  Quynh is out for revenge and everyone is a pawn to be used.  That is until she meets Hoa, a technologist, who distracts her from her purpose.  All three woman are tangled up in the revenge plot.

I have to admit that I apparently do not like the Xuya romances.  I did not truly believe in the relationship of Hoa and Quynh.  Their connection never felt real to me and additionally how the conflicts arose in their relationship came from each choosing to not ask questions about problematic things.  The two "teens" Minh and Heart's Sorrow had both angst and no real agency.

That said, I love the mindships (Arrrr!) and I like revenge plots so I enjoy watching how the plot resolved.  I also always enjoy reading more about how the scholars' lives work and about the space culture.  Even though I didn't love the three main characters, I really enjoyed a lot of the side characters and wish I could have seen a lot more of them.  Actually, I would have preferred a book about Quynh's early survival, repairing a mindship, and becoming a scholar rather than how this book told her past.

I have to admit that the two romance-focused Xuya books have been the least favorites in this universe.  Personal tastes aside, I was glad to read this Xuya book.  There are two more books out by this author in 2024.  Arrrr! (3.5 rounded up)

Brilliant, fast-paced revenge story with the most amazing romance. I enjoyed Bodard's writing here and it made me search up the other books in the Xuya universe. I never knew i needed a sapphic Count of Monte Cristo but here we are! Will definitely be reading more of her work. This was more my taste than the space romance I read by them.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you NetGalley and JAB books for e-arc!
I am so hyped for this book. It has so many things that I absolutely love and I have been dying for some more sapphic romances. I was really drawn in due to the premise of a very space opera-themed book with an empire, sapphic romance, and fantastic complex characters. I think the author did a fantastic job of building up our two main characters' relationship and really having such a deep connection between them. As the story continues we get to see how the characters grow both together and separately.
Also so excited because just realized that this is the same author who did Red Scholars Wake and I cannot wait to check it out now!

A Fire Born of Exile is a sapphic Count of Monte Cristo inspired story in space set in the Xuya Universe. This Universe is one in which Asian culture is dominate, scholars administrate different planets, and sentient spaceships have families. A Fire Born of Exile came out in October 2023 but I received a review copy from Netgalley and I'm currently catching up on things that I meant to post earlier.

The story focuses on Quynh an Alchemist who wants revenge for events in her past and Minh the daughter of the ruler of the Scattered Peral Belt who wants to escape her mothers plans for her. I feel like I would have enjoyed this more if I better knew the story of the Count of Monte Cristo but I still enjoyed this book. I love how different the Xuya Universe is to most of the science fiction that I've read and I want to read more set in this universe.

The Xuya Universe is Aliette de Bodard's long-running set of stories about an space-based Empire based on Vietnamese and Chinese cultures. In it, she posits that Asia became dominant in this part of space, and set up colonies and habitats on planets and space stations.

The Dai Viet Empire is a place of incredible beauty, great injustice, complex societies built on intricate rules, conventions and laws, sudden and sometimes seemingly arbitrary violence, corruption, and a variety of technologies, including sentient ships, known as mindships.

We are in the the Scattered Pearls belt, and the lives of three women intersect because of a several years ago charges of treason, and revenge.

Quỳnh, as scholar, was betrayed years earlier during the Ten Thousand Flags Uprising, and sentenced to death by an interrogator known for her cruelty, and thrown out an airlock. A mindship, Guts of Sea, also on the sentenced to death, rescues Quỳnh, and the two spend years plotting an intricate revenge against the the woman who sentenced them to death, who also happens to now be the Prefect of a station, and the mother of Minh.

Minh is a teenager who desperately wants to make her own choices in her life, but her mother is set on Minh becoming a scholar for her own political reasons.
Minh is helping her best friend Fruit of Heart’s Sorrow, a mindship, effect repairs on another mindship, who is also Minh's great aunt, Flowers at the Gates of the Lords, and head of the family. Minh's great aunt was injured during the uprising, and Minh's mother has been acting head of family in her place for years.

Hoà lives on the same station as Minh, and along with her younger sister, whose health is failing, runs a technology repair business. The sisters' elder sister was sympathetic to Quỳnh years earlier, and was torn apart by a mob for her support. Hoà has been trying to keep as low a profile as possible since her elder sister's death. Hoà gets roped into helping Heart's Sorrow with the repairs of Flowers at the Gate. This brings her to the notice of Minh, the Prefect, and Quỳnh, who has arrived on the station with an assumed identity, intent on revenge against the Prefect.

All three women's lives become entwined while Quỳnh and Guts' plot kicks off, and the possibility of swift and sudden violence hangs over every interaction. And there are poisonings, deep corruption, political ambitions, injustices, censorship, and murders exposed, as the story progresses. There is also tentative, romantic feelings between Hoà and Quỳnh, with several stops and starts as the situation on the station gets increasingly tense and culminates in a terrifying display of power and anger near the end.

de Bodard does such a wonderful job with the delicate emotions of the three women, and the struggles they go through to learn to trust themselves and each other. There is some truly lovely prose in these moments. The worldbuilding is fantastic, as the author's Xuya universe continues to grow in depth and complexity. I thoroughly enjoyed this romantic space opera.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Independent Publishers Group for this ARC in exchange for my review.

DNF cause I ran out of time to read this. I love the writing!! I got confused with some of the characters though, will be rereading it one day

Thank you IAG who provided me an ARC of this novel via NetGalley.

In general, I enjoy the Xuya Universe, and in general, I enjoyed A Fire Born of Exile. However, and although I understand why this wouldn't have worked the same if it hadn't been a Romance book, I straight up did not like the Romance in this book. I didn't get the underlying reasoning for why the two halves of this pairing even had or felt an emotional connection that was romantic in nature from pretty much the very beginning.

Even as the story progressed, I still didn't get what fueled the romance for either of them. After years of planning a revenge Quyhn just suddenly threatens it all for the sister of someone she used to know, especially after having only known Hoa for a few days - maybe a week? (I didn't get a sense of exactly how many days/weeks/months the story was supposed to have spanned, it was all quite vague but it didn't seem like a lot of time passed between the beginning and ending of the book.) Not only did she risk her revenge, she risked her child's life just so Hoa could meet her.

Am I missing something or not suspending my belief enough? Possibly. I doubt it would change how I feel about this pairing though.

Romance aside, I liked the rest of the book and characters. Though I do think more could have been done with the plotting and political intrigue. We saw some of it, but not enough for it to be compared to Monte Cristo, I think. (I haven't read the book and don't plan to, but I've seen a few adaptations and know there's far more on screen/page politics than this book had.) As far as political games and suspense, Red Scholar's Wake did a much better job.

In terms of the characters, as I said I generally liked them (or liked to not like them) but they aren't characters I'm interested in reading more about, except maybe Hearts Sorrow and Guts of the sea. All of the humans are characters who's stories took them on a path I couldn't fully connect with. There was characterization that was somewhat more told than seen, and even though what was seen lent credence to the told, it wasn't enough to really make me feel like I was supposed to, probably.

There were also choices made by characters that I couldn't understand the reasoning behind. Minh's decision at the end to have a child - a mindship even - baffled me, because she just got out from being under her mother's abuse and instead of taking the time to find out who she is and can be away from that, let alone deconstruct all the ways in which her mother and attempted murderer of a step-mother fucked her up, she ties herself to motherhood. Is it supposed to be some kind of amazing show of perseverance and strength?

This review took me way too long to actually put into words, because for how excited I was to read it, it’s definitely ended up my least favourite Xuya story, and putting into words why that was, ended up being a bit more difficult than expected.

"A Fire Born of Exile"'s trip through the Scattered Pearls Belt, a decadent culture on the margins of a massive galactic empire, is captivating. This Sino-Vietnamese Xuya Universe science fiction romance by Aliette de Bodard is a gripping story of retribution, love, and the past.

In the narrative, Quỳnh, a deceived scholar, seeks retribution as the mysterious Alchemist of Streams and Hills. As she meets Minh, an enemy's determined daughter, and Hoà, a near-poverty engineer, the Belt's delicate political balance is threatened.

The protagonists struggle with trust, hope, and their interwoven existence in a cosmos dominated by corrupt military political forces and sentient mind-ships. Heart's Sorrow and Guts of Sea, de Bodard's amazing sentient ships, provide depth to the story.

The book starts slowly, but as the complex connections develop, it becomes a moving examination of love and devotion. This romantic story between Hoà and Quỳnh brilliantly depicts the transformational power of trust and understanding.

Despite early character-building, the story becomes a captivating mix of intrigue and romance. Though slow to start, de Bodard's text is a beautiful, introspective story that begs readers to persevere and enjoy the beauty.

This author is amazing. I’ve now read this and Red Scholars Wake by them and I cannot wait to read their entire backlist. Mostly female cast, exciting story. What more could I ask for?

I was so excited to see a full length novel set in the Xuya universe. I loved the slow burn romance between Hoa and Quynh and the elements of revenge. Aliette's prose is lovely as always, but might seem a bit slow to readers who are unfamiliar with her work.

a Fire Born of Exile stands to be one of my favorite sapphic fantasies. The plot was engaging and the romance balanced well with in it. I thought the world building was entirely its own and definitely will be eagerly waiting to read more from this author.

Genre: science fiction
Xuya Universe

Set in a Sino-Vietnamese Universe, with corrupt military political powers ruling starbases, ships, and planets and with sentient mind-ships. Minh, daughter of a prefect whose standards she will never reach, wants to carve her own path, not as a Scholar as her mother has intended. Alchemist Quỳnh comes bearing promise in Minh’s eyes, but also a darker history. Hoà, an engineer, grabs Quỳnh’s eye, and is willing to trust and love her, despite the things she learns. A Fire Born of Exile features sentient ships, plots to poison enemies, revenge, romance, and above all trust and hope.

This is a little longer than the other books by de Bodard that I’ve read in the past. She deliberately begins building characters, introducing us to Minh (and her terrible mother), Quỳnh, and Hoà, as well as the fabulous sentient ships Heart’s Sorrow and Guts of Sea. Around a third into the book, the tenor shifts to relationship building, and the intricacies of how each of the characters are connected to one another. And then they all start poisoning each other, as the intrigue unfolds.

The romance between Hoà and Quỳnh was really beautiful. Quỳnh is fearful of commitment, believing she is not worthy of trust or a future. “‘Love is an emotion with a future. A sharing of life. What future do we have?’” But then, as she melts - even as her plans unfold - she realizes “Hoà made Quỳnh feel at home - made her feel, for the first time, that there was space for her.” And what is love if not allowing for mutual space.

Aliette de Bodard’s pacing feels slow if you aren’t used to her style. If you pick this up and start to struggle, push past the first third because it’s really lovely, poignant, and reflective.

Thank you to JAB Books and NetGalley for an eARC for review. A Fire Born of Exile is out now, and is the sapphic space opera you didn’t know you needed!

It is wonderful to have a novel-length story in the Xuya universe. We follow three characters and go deeply into each of them. Note for romance readers, though this has a romantic relationship, it isn't a mainline romance. This is a book of politics, cruelty, and revenge in the aftermath of a war. It is also a book about mercy and hope.

I'm not sure this should be the first book you read in the Xuya universe, I'd read [book:The Tea Master and the Detective|36686547] or [book:Seven of Infinities|52645662] first to learn more about mind ships.

I received this title as an ARC via NetGalley.

This is the latest title in the Xuya universe, described as "sapphic Count of Monte Cristo in space."

I've never read the Count of Monte Cristo, so I can't comment on the similarities. This novel is all about love, family, the difference between revenge and justice, self-determination in a system that utterly abhors it, and the struggle to choose to be kind when the system is designed to encourage everyone with power to be as cruel as possible, and for those without power to be invisible. With Mindships.

The central relationship between Hoa and Quynh is a glorious slow burn, where you see Quynh struggle with whether she *deserves* love because of her own past, and her current choices to exact revenge on the Empire (and its designees) who destroyed her life and her family.

As always, Aliette's prose is impactful, and the relationships and emotional arcs of the characters are doubly so.

Highly recommended.

A Fire Born of Exile is another long novel set in Aliette de Bodard's Universe of Xuya, a collection of various stories set in the same universe. This book reminded me a lot of The Red Scholar's Wake from last year but in the end I think this book is much more approachable to a wider audience.

This book is said to be sapphic the count monte christo in space. I'm not that familiar with the count monte christo so I can't quite judge that but it is a great sapphic story in space. While I'm not usually drawn to revenge stories this one I really felt.

We meet Minh, daughter of the ruling prefect, sneaking out to the festival with her best friend. An unfortunate attempt at kidnapping puts her in the path of Quynh who has some ulterior motives for 'befriending' the young girl.

Like I said, this is a story of revenge, Quynh's story of revenge. So much was taken from her in her previous life, just to make an example. She has decided to take revenge on those that wronged her. And she will do it by any means nessecary.

But this story questions if one must keep going with that revenge. If it is really worth it when other paths open up to you? When perhaps you could have a life again. And is by any means nessecary something one truly wishes to lose their soul over?

I wasn't immediately a fan of Quynh. She's guarded but as she slowly opens up to the possibility of others, of happiness we see her for who she is.

I also loved that we got multiple sides to the story, like Minh who feels incredibly trapped and sees Quynh as her ticket out of under her mothers thumbs. It was interesting to see how others saw her. Because while she doesn't have a great life she also has a lot of priviledge compared to those in the lower parts of the belt. It kept balancing everything out.

I had a lot of fun with this!

All I remembered of Count of Monte Cristo was that he spent a long time in jail, broke out, came back much later for revenge, and had some kind of happy ending. I think I was expecting that whole arc on page, but it started with the “returns for revenge” part. Once things got rolling I was fascinated about what was going to happen next.

The relationships between the different characters were this intricate web of connections, and they were all built so well and believably. Every interaction just seemed like, YES, this is the way the characters would act.

There is a happy ending, like in the original story, which I was glad about. The pivot from crisis to happy end happened quickly, which some readers may not like, but I don’t think that dragging it out would have added to the tale.

I think my favorite part was the bitter, not-mentally-healthy mindship, who had been sabotaged and non-functional for years. When things get all trippy outside the ballroom….whew!
And then among all this story and character excellence, every so often there’s an absolutely gorgeous sentence.

I had an arc from the publisher via netgalley. Opinions are my own.

DNF but technically by force? I got busy with school and couldn't read it fast enough, but from what I did read it was really interesting! There were some confusing parts, but that could just be because I haven't read anything else by this author. One day I would like to come back to it and read more from this universe though, it does seem really interesting and the author writes well!

I struggled to get into this book and ended up DNFing. I felt a little too confused by so many made-up terms being used that had no real explanation of what they were. But I don’t think there was anything wrong with it. I think that was on me. I really enjoy the author’s other work, so I don’t think it was their fault at all. I might give it another try in the future!

As a reader who comes into this expecting Nirvana in Fire and knows nothing about the Xuya universe prior to this, I enjoyed the book alright. It exceeds my expectation in certain aspects and doesn't quite meet it in others, so I'll go through them one by one.

Exceed expectation:
- Worldbuilding: the story has a very complex worldbuilding, with intricate politics, fleshed out technology, and vibrant culture. It's very detailed, which makes it hard to get into in the beginning. But once you are used to the terminology and the aesthetic, it's really enjoyable. Maybe readers who have read other books in the same universe before would likely not have the same problem getting into it as I did.
- Quynh: I enjoy her character the most in this story. She's multi-dimensional and is somehow mysterious
even though we get the story from her POV (alternating with 2 other POVs). For NiF fans, if you come into this expecting Mei Changsu, she's not exactly like him, but she certainly has similar complexity and subtlety in her revenge plan.
- Plot: specifically, in the logical sense. The revenge plot is nicely done, although it will also take a while before you figure out what exactly it going on. It goes a bit slow in the beginning but becomes very compelling towards the end.

Doesn't quite meet expectation:
- Romance: I didn't get the romance. Didn't understand how or why they fell for each other. Didn't quite get a grasp of their dynamics either. This may have to do with how I feel uninterested in Hoa's character overall, too. Not that she's a bad character. I just wasn't invested in her, and therefore I wasn't that invested in the romance.
- Plot: specifically, in the emotional sense. Although there is a lot of feelings in this book - the characters are always describing their feelings in great details, all 3 POVs - it doesn't make me feel much at all. I acknowledge the character's pain, frustration, love, and growth in a very detached way. I feel like it could be due to the worldbuilding, which distracts me when I'm about to get invested into some characters. The prose, in general, also feels a bit stiff. Anyhow, I wanted to feel a lot more from this book and I didn't quite get it.

I have enjoyed everything I have read by Aliette de Bodard, but this is my favorite thus far. Something about the characters grabbed me immediately and held my interest for the entire book. They felt incredibly real and believable and I cared deeply about all of them.

Her writing style is very dense, so her books take me longer to read than most others, but I always enjoy the journey. Sometimes it's nice to be forced to slow down and linger over a story rather than speed through it.

The characters and their motivations are complicated. Revenge and fear and hate and greed and love and justice. They're all very powerful emotions and the book itself feels very powerful. It's a grand struggle and epic battles that play out in subtle manipulations and power plays and scholars crafting the perfect response alluding to classic texts.

I love how expansive and complicated this universe is, with the mindships and bots and the avatars and overlays and perception filters, as well as the Vietnamese names and culture that feels deep and consistent. It feels so vast and so physical, and even though I know it's not real, it feels like it is.

I have read a good handful of Xuya universe novels and novellas now so I feel like I have a pretty good handle on the world, where I was confused occasionally even in the previous novel. It's more sci-fi than I normally read, and I love it. It has such a lovely texture.

I also love how queer relationships are treated as normal and unremarkable, and how many examples of them we have in this book (and her others). There is at least one nonbinary character and it is completely normal. The main relationships are all pairs of women. It's so refreshing and validating.

I have not had such a deeply enjoyable and satisfying reading experience in a while and it felt so good. Wading through the dense language that Aliette de Bodard uses felt rewarding and I was swept away by the strong emotions and convictions of the characters. I am sad to leave this world and eagerly await the next Xuya universe novel.

(It should be noted that I am in the process of moving so the only time I have had to read in the past few weeks is when I wake up in the middle of the night and can't sleep. So I read most of this between the hours of 3 and 6am. And I still adored it and happily spent days wading through its complexity. That's how good it is.)

*Thanks to NetGalley and JAB Books for providing an early copy for review.