Early Review – Navigational Entanglements by Aliette de Bodard (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Length: 176 pages
Publisher: Tordotcom
Release Date: July 30, 2024
ASIN: B0CGRZ21MN
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eGalley for Review from NetGalley
Rating: 4/5 stars
“Việt Nhi is not good with people. Or politics. Which is a problem when the Rooster clan sends her on the mission against her will, forcing her to work with an ill-matched group of squabbling teammates from rival clans, including one who she can’t avoid, and maybe doesn’t want to.
Hạc Cúc of the Snake clan has always been better at poisoning and stabbing than at making friends, but she’s drawn to Nhi’s perceptiveness and obliviousness to social conventions—including the ones that really should make Nhi think twice about spending time with her.
But when their imperial envoy and nominal leader is poisoned, this crew of expendable apprentices will have to learn to work together—fast—before the invisible Tangler can wreak havoc on a civilian city and destroy the fragile reputation of the clans. Along the way, Nhi and Hạc Cúc will have to learn the hardest lesson of all: to see past their own misconceptions and learn to trust their growing feelings for each other.”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got a copy of this on ebook from NetGalley to review.
Thoughts: This was a bit different from what I was expecting…if I am being honest I wasn’t really sure what to expect since I hadn’t read this author before. I ended up liking this although in the beginning I found it a bit confusing.
This follows a couple different characters, both Navigators of different clans who are assigned to hunt down a tangler (a huge beast that can take out who cities across the universe). Viet Nhi and Hac Cuc are from different clans but are assigned to the same team. As they work through personality issues on the team and face impossible challenges, they realize that there are more politics going on behind the scenes than they were originally led to believe.
The beginning of this is a bit of an info-dump and a bit confusing. As with a lot of sci-fi, you have a lot of terms thrown at you that are new and not very well explained. Fortunately, it is pretty easy to get this sorted out after the first couple chapters. Although, I still never really understood what exactly made the Navigator clans different (yes they have Shadows and can open gates but how did they get different from other human factions?). The other thing I struggled with were the names. You’ll have to pardon my American ignorance here, but I believe these are Vietnamese inspired names? I had to re-read all the character names a lot and really put in effort to make sure I kept them straight throughout the story. By the mid-point, I felt more comfortable with them.
This starts out as a sort of hunt/space battle but then changes into something else as politics get involved. While the premise of betrayal and rebellion that the story follows wasn’t all that unique, I did enjoy the characters and the setting. This ends up being more of a romance than anything else. There is also a theme of conflicting personalities learning to work together towards the same goal. Our characters are split in to clans and initially there is quite a bit about the characteristics unique to those clans. However, the longer the characters are together, the more you see that everyone has the same goals but different strengths and weaknesses.
There is a lot packed into this short novella. I found it interesting and entertaining despite some of the initial struggles I mentioned above. The story was different from what I was expecting but not in a bad way. This was a nice break from all the historical fantasy I have been reading. I did struggle with the flow of the writing a bit at points, but it wasn’t enough to detract from the story.
My Summary (4/5): Overall I liked this and found it entertaining. I did struggle a bit with all the sci-fi terms thrown at the reader initially, and I also struggled to keep names straight because they were so foreign to me. I enjoyed the world-building and characters here and was surprised at how much story was packed in to this novella. I ended up enjoying this, although I was a bit surprised by how much romance was in here. I did enjoy the theme of a team of misfits learning to work together. This was a creative and intriguing read. I think I might seek out more stories by Bodard if I am in the mood for a different sort of sci-fi story.
