SciFi Novella Review: In the Shadow of the Ship by Aliette de Bodard

Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on September 30, 2024 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

In the Shadow of the Ship is the latest Xuya novella (a short one, it's almost novelette sized) by Aliette de Bodard. Like her other Xuya novellas, this is a stand alone tale in her distant future universe settled by Vietnamese and occasionally Chinese peoples, featuring humans living along mindships (human minds in ships), an Empire that may or may not be failing (here just surviving after a major war) and tales shaped by Vietnamese culture. It's a fascinating universe, and in this case, de Bodard tells a tale of a woman who escaped from the mindship that was her childhood hope before it ate her up (literally) and comes back upon the death of her grandmother and has to weigh the past, the future, her obligations, and more.


Plot Summary:  

Khuyên never wanted to return to The Nightjar, Thirsting for Water, the mindship where she grew up. She had fled from there as a child, away from the demanding mother, and away most of all from the broken mindship that seemed to disappear the other children that were her friends. And she has forged a life for herself as a magistrate in the service of the Dragon Throne trying to help people after the war that devastated the Empire.

But duty required Khuyên to return upon her grandmother's death. Now, with the help of a mysterious woman who gives the name Thảo, Khuyên will need to deal with the horrors of her past...to ensure that there is a future.

Quick Thoughts:  In the Shadow of the Ship is a short novella, but it packs a very cohesive story into its small pages. The story's heart is its protagonist Khuyên , a woman who is strongly conflicted about her place in the world: she ran away from the horrors of the Nightjar, but always feels guilty about the cousin and friend she left behind on the Nightjar and of course her mother's stern disapproval. She's conditioned to value filial piety, but her mother's emotional abuse misuses that to make her even more miserable...something that has in ways prevented her from moving forward even on the outside of the ship, where she helps an Empire that is struggling after war and hasn't picked up really anything of a personal life.

And so we have a story about Khuyên having to figure out a way to move forward, not just to be escaping from the horrors of the past but to find a way to look to the future - both for herself and for everyone around her. And this the case with personal traumas, like with Khuyên under her mother's emotional abuse, or with more global traumas, like the devastation and the participation in war, as seen from the Nightjar and secondary major character Thảo. It's an effective story, although I do think that the romantic angle between Khuyên and whom Thảo turns out to be is a little less effective than usual in de Bodard's works because of how abrupt it is and how much it depends upon physical attraction. But the story is still worth your time.