Monday, September 16, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Anthology Review: Of Wars, and Memories and Starlight by Aliette de Bodard




Of Wars, and Memories, and Starlight is the first anthology of short fiction by French Vietnamese SciFi/Fantasy author, Aliette de Bodard.  de Bodard is a multi-award winning author in the genre, and, more personally, is one of my favorite authors. de Bodard's work is often written in one of her several universes - most notably her Xuya universe based upon a Chinese/Vietnamese-based Empire in space or her Dominions of the Fallen universe featuring a ruined Paris torn apart by fallen angels and Vietnamese dragons - although its nearly always stand alone and pretty much always deep in themes and symbolism. 

This anthology is a pretty good representation of de Bodard's work, with many stories based in her Xuya universe, featuring themes of the impact of colonization, of the meanings and duties towards family, of memories and grief, the horrors of war, and more.  The final two stories are novellettes, one old and one all new, based in the Dominion of the Fallen universe and are a lot more fun to close things out.  Overall, you can't really do wrong with de Bodard's work, and this is a good example of why.




For those new to de Bodard's work, you'll find a pretty good cross section of her interesting concepts here that are based in non-western cultures.  For example, her Xuya universe features as regular concepts that of mindships, which are sentient ships whose minds are born inside human wombs, and are treated as long living family members of the families they are born into.  The universe, being based in not Western but Vietnamese/Chinese cultures, also frequently features familial duty as a major theme, with characters referred to as "aunts" (by number or simply as "elder") or "cousins" respectfully and again, mindships are also referred to in these ways as part of such families.

de Bodard uses these concepts to tell stories with a wide variety of themes, although for much of this collection, the impacts of colonization and of the inability of fighting back colonization to truly restore what once was is probably the biggest recurring theme - shown best by the stories "Memorials" and "The Waiting Stars".  How others imposing their worldviews on others, particularly Westerners on those from Eastern cultures, makes a strong theme in perhaps the anthology's best story, "Immersion."  And themes of grief from lost families, of lost cultures, and losses due to war are rampant throughout the collection, to very dark ends ("The Days of the War, as Red as Blood, as Dark as Bile" is a prime example.")

I'm not summarizing any of these stories because to do so will lose their power, so I'm not even going to try.  You should read them yourself.

There are three stories that are kind of oddballs out.  "The Jaguar House, in Shadow" is the only story in an Aztec-themed SF world (another type of setting de Bodard has written in), but is a very solid story with a twist on the stands and sacrifices one makes for ones people and friends.  And then there's the two Dominion of the Fallen novellas, which are both far more fun than the rest of the collection.  Which isn't to say there aren't themes of class and culture in these stories (especially Children of Thorns, Children of Water, which was a Hugo finalist a few years back and essentially a prequel to The House of Binding Thorns), but both are featuring more fun and enjoyable moments - I'm pretty sure the brand new story, Of Birthdays, and Fungus, and Kindness, featured de Bodard thinking of the worst thing she could do to one of her characters trying to plan a nice simple birthday party and going from there - that will leave you smiling in the end.

Overall, a pretty great collection and good demonstration of why de Bodard is an author you should be reading, and who deserves a lot more mainstream attention.
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