James Nicoll Reviews

Aliette de Bodard’s 2024 In the Shadow of the Ship is a stand-alone space opera set in de Bodard’s Xuya universe.

In the four years since Khuyên left the mindship The Nightjar, Thirsting for Water, Khuyên has risen to the rank of magistrate in the Đại Quang district on the Sixty-Fourth Planet. This lofty rank does not release her from the demands of filial piety. Thus, when the clan matriarch dies, Khuyên returns to the ruined starship from which she so prudently fled years earlier.

Nightjar​’s problems began with the war.

Civil war swept the Đại Việt Empire. Planets were depopulated in the name of military expedience. Starships were blown to fragments. 

But Nightjar managed to keep its precious crew — Khuyên’s family — alive, far from the horror of the war-torn Empire.

Nightjar itself was badly damaged in the war. Given conditions in the Empire, there are no shipyards available from that quarter. Since Nightjar minimizes contact with the remnants of the Empire, even if there were repair bays open, the craft would not take advantage of them. Spare parts are in short supply. At least, spare parts of a conventional nature.

The Tribute is a routine aspect of Nightjar life. From time to time, children are summoned by Nightjar. The children never return. Precisely how the Tribute allows Nightjar to keep functioning is unclear. Keenly aware that life on Nightjar is far less precarious than life in the Empire, the crew is unwilling to investigate.

Khuyên is determined to find out exactly what happens to the vanished children. If the answer is as horrifying as she suspects, she will put a stop to it. Or perhaps, Nightjar will silence Khuyên’s inconvenient questions forever.

~oOo~

Not to be confused with Robert Wilfred Franson’s The Shadow of the Ship, which I really did mean to have reviewed by now.

There is a romance subplot, but I am not really in a romance subplot assessment mood. The affair is competently conducted, which is often not the case. Indeed, if the story were about the romance and not exactly what’s happening to the kids, the tale would be much shorter (and a more useful model for successful romance than the usual inarticulate misunderstanding plot).

This is a novella, but it’s not from Tor Dot Com. Some readers may be astonished at this revelation. In fact, it is perfectly legal for other publishers to publish novellas. This particular novella was published by Subterranean.

De Bodard’s setting is one of those plot-rich universes in which I can’t imagine anyone wanting to live. The strongest argument in favor of the Empire seems to be that it gives its citizens slightly better odds of surviving, under a government marginally less horrible than nearby alternatives. In the era in which this story is set, the Empire is not making a strong case that this is true. However, reform does not seem to be on the menu at this place and time¹.

While nobody seems terribly happy that the occasional child has to be sent off to who knows what fate, the system does have one obvious strength. The people on whom the greatest burden falls are not the people making the political decisions. Therefore, the people facilitating the current arrangement may do so knowing that whatever’s happening to those kids, the consequences of maintaining the current cushy lifestyle on Nightjar are someone else’s problem.

All of which is detailed by de Bodard in skillful prose. You may not enjoy reading about the fate that awaits the unlucky children, but you can appreciate this novella for the characters, the pace, and the prose.

In the Shadow of the Ship is available here (Amazon US), here (Amazon Canada), here (Amazon UK), here (Apple Books), here (Barnes & Noble), here (Chapters-Indigo), and here (Words Worth Books).

1: Unless attempted reform is what touched off the civil wars. That would explain the current conservativism of the Empire.