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mauvemouse 's review for:
In the Vanishers' Palace
by Aliette de Bodard
2.5/5 so 3 stars, slight spoilers
World-building 4/5
Characters 4/5
Romance 1/5
I feel like this author tried to squeeze too much of a story into too few pages. I loved the sci-fi mixed with the mythical/cultural elements of Vietnam. The romance aspect was underdeveloped to me and it felt like sometimes pages or even chapters had been plucked out of the story. If de Bodard had added maybe another 50 to 100 pages, maybe the story would have felt more rounded.
The story starts off with a dying friend, and by the end of that novel I felt she could've been replaced with a family pet or a special plant and nothing would've changed significantly. And while the Vanishers weren't the true focus of the story, I wish we had more background of their occupation though we do see what was left behind, but maybe that's the point? We got hints here and there of the horrors they created, but I hoped for more.
The main characters themselves were great and complex, and best of all, they learned from their mistakes or at least tried to. I felt we were more told than shown how these relationships developed, but with limited pages it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. The romance was not great. Very much needed to be focused on more.
Overall, an okay novella. Not bad, not great.
World-building 4/5
Characters 4/5
Romance 1/5
I feel like this author tried to squeeze too much of a story into too few pages. I loved the sci-fi mixed with the mythical/cultural elements of Vietnam. The romance aspect was underdeveloped to me and it felt like sometimes pages or even chapters had been plucked out of the story. If de Bodard had added maybe another 50 to 100 pages, maybe the story would have felt more rounded.
The story starts off with a dying friend, and by the end of that novel I felt she could've been replaced with a family pet or a special plant and nothing would've changed significantly. And while the Vanishers weren't the true focus of the story, I wish we had more background of their occupation though we do see what was left behind, but maybe that's the point? We got hints here and there of the horrors they created, but I hoped for more.
The main characters themselves were great and complex, and best of all, they learned from their mistakes or at least tried to. I felt we were more told than shown how these relationships developed, but with limited pages it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. The romance was not great. Very much needed to be focused on more.
Overall, an okay novella. Not bad, not great.