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On a Red Station, Drifting
On a Red Station, Drifting | Aliette de Bodard
10 posts | 15 read | 9 to read
The ebook edition of the Hugo, Nebula and Locus Awards novella finalist, from the author of the acclaimed Obsidian and Blood trilogy-- For generations Prosper Station has thrived under the guidance of its Honoured Ancestress: born of a human womb, the station's artificial intelligence has offered guidance and protection to its human relatives.But war has come to the Dai Viet Empire. Prosper's brightest minds have been called away to defend the Emperor; and a flood of disorientated refugees strain the station's resources. As deprivations cause the station's ordinary life to unravel, uncovering old grudges and tearing apart the decimated family, Station Mistress Quyen and the Honoured Ancestress struggle to keep their relatives united and safe. What Quyen does not know is that the Honoured Ancestress herself is faltering, her mind eaten away by a disease that seems to have no cure; and that the future of the station itself might hang in the balance...
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rwmg
On a Red Station, Drifting | Aliette de Bodard
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Pickpick

After her planet is over-run by rebels against the Da Viet Empire ,Magistrate Linh arrives on Prosper space station which is run by her family. Can she adjust to her change in status in the face of hostility from Quyen, the insecure acting Administrator of Prosper, as the Honoured Ancestress, the station's AI, starts to fail?

One of the best from an author who always intrigues me even when I'm not sure I've really understood her.

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lyradora
On a Red Station, Drifting | Aliette de Bodard

So I absolutely loved this book, and now I'm looking for more like it. I would classify it as silkpunk or silk sf (that is, stories based in Asian cultures and traditional technology, as opposed to European/European-derived).

So, can anyone recommend other great silkpunk stories? I'm interested in short stories, novellas, and novels. Thanks!

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eol
On a Red Station, Drifting | Aliette de Bodard
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Pickpick

I have a complicated relationship with this author. I‘m not fond of her style, but she‘s good at worldbuilding, and I‘m a sucker for that, especially when it‘s not based on overdone Western mythologies. Still, this is the first of her works I truly liked—maybe because it‘s not a romance.

And either I‘ve gotten used to it, or the writing is better in this one.

3.75/5

#sf #spaceopera #sfwrittenbyawoman #standalone #novella #smallbooks #onedayread

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effani
On a Red Station, Drifting | Aliette de Bodard
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June was a good reading month for me. Eight books finished, all but one sci-fi/fantasy of some variety (and the main character of that one had psychic flashes, so we can include it under the sff umbrella too if we want). Two didn't really work for me but the rest were good. On the positive side, the two stand-outs were On a Red Station, Drifting and The City We Became. #JuneWrapUp #MonthlyWrapUp

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effani
On a Red Station, Drifting | Aliette de Bodard
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Pickpick

Like The Tea Master and the Detective, this is a sci-fi story that's really about the relationship between two women. Linh and Quyen take an immediate dislike to each other and work at cross purposes through almost all of the book. The writing balances making sure each woman's motivations are understandable and neither one looks like a villain, even as the other absolutely thinks she is.

effani A lot of the story depends on cultural nuances that an average anglophile reader with no particular connection to Vietnamese culture can't be expected to get without help. I'm sure it's a difficult thing to do, to make the book comprehensible to a wide audience without compromising the story. I know I missed some nuance, but I admire de Bodard's skill at walking that line. 4y
effani #ReadHarder2020: I had meant to slot this in as my sff novella under 120 pages. Goodreads says it's 116 pages, but my kindle edition says 140. Trying to decide between:
- just go with it - ebook pages are arbitrary anyway
- switch Tea Master back to the novella slot and call this a retelling of a classic of the canon, since it's apparently inspired by Dream of the Red Chamber - but maybe too loosely to really be a retelling
- find a new retelling
4y
17 likes1 stack add2 comments
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GivenLemons
On a Red Station, Drifting | Aliette de Bodard
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I loved this novella! I devoured it while road tripping to see some somewhat distant relatives and the family in this just really spoke to me. The conflict between duty and one‘s personal goals as well as the misunderstandings everyone had of each other was truly interesting.

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tournevis
On a Red Station, Drifting | Aliette de Bodard
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🥟 Anything by Aliette de Bodard will have a lot of food related content, especially tagged.
🍫 Chocolate!
🍅 Tomatoes.
🎂 All of them. It's food!
🍛 My favourite of all closed a few years ago. A good Ethiopean restaurant is always the best.
#manicmonday. @JoScho

JoScho I have never had Ethiopian food. I love most ethnic foods though so I am sure I would enjoy it. 7y
tournevis @JoScho It is the most amazing and flavourful food there is. Even bad Ethiopean is good. 7y
JoScho Oh I must try it! 7y
39 likes4 comments
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bookwrm526
On a Red Station, Drifting | Aliette de Bodard
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I LOVE a good #outofthisworld novel, but I realized a lot of the books I own that are set in space don't display covers because I downloaded them from storybundle! So this is a selection of space books and books set on worlds that aren't THIS one :) #booktober

RanaElizabeth So much good stuff in this one picture. 8y
bookwrm526 @RanaElizabeth and I've actually read all of these except Game of Thrones!! 8y
RanaElizabeth @bookwrm526 Get on that! So much better (nah, just different) than the show. Plus, you can more easily skip over the characters who bore you (the Greyjoys). 8y
bookwrm526 @RanaElizabeth I haven't watched the show either 😳 my husband has read them and keeps after me, but I just haven't gotten to it yet. 8y
RanaElizabeth @bookwrm526 They are quite a time commitment. 8y
30 likes5 comments
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bookwrm526
On a Red Station, Drifting | Aliette de Bodard
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I put this off until today because I thought I was going to finish one more last night, but I didn't quite make it.

review
bookwrm526
On a Red Station, Drifting | Aliette de Bodard
Pickpick

I'm having a hard time writing a coherent review of this one. A sci-fi novella with familiar tropes, but a very different story, focused on family drama on an isolated station. There's not much world building, but I was intrigued and would love to see more. In a weird way it reminded me of Firefly.