Navigational Entanglements

Aliette de Bodard
Completed 6/1/2025, Reviewed 6/2/2025
2 stars

I had a lot of trouble following this novella.  It is written in a style of xianxia martial arts.  Xianxia, according to Wikipedia, is a form of Chinese Fantasy which blends many aspects of Chinese folklore, culture, and philosophy.  There are many films and television programs which are set in a xianxia world.  Unfortunately, I was completely unfamiliar with this genre and struggled to understand what was going on.  I did eventually catch onto the plot, but never fully felt like I was engaged.  This novella was nominated for a 2025 Hugo Award in this category.

Navigators use the power of their Shadows to safely navigate spaceships through a weird dimension populated by dangerous creatures called Tanglers.  One such Tangler escapes its realm and wreaks havoc in our universe.  The competing clans of Navigators put together a rag-tag team of four juniors under the leadership of an imperial commander to find and destroy this Tangler.  Just as the ship leaves, the juniors find their leader murdered and must find a way to find the monster themselves.  Despite their bickering, they contain the Tangler only to find there’s a much more nefarious plan for the monster devised by the clans while they are the expendable pawns.  

There were many things I didn’t enjoy about the book.  Viet Nhi, along with her shipmates from the three other competing clans, bickered most of the way through the story.  Bickering I can tolerate for a while, but this went on too long for the length of this book.  I also found that much of the dialogue was hard to follow, partly because of the bickering, partly because of the prose in between, and partly because I didn’t always know who was speaking.  The third person narration continually jumped from character to character and I couldn’t always tell who was talking or thinking.  The dialogue also often felt disjointed, not flowing naturally, but terse with abrupt changes in direction.

I was also saddened by the fact that I never really understood the Shadow business.  I got that it’s a life force that the navigators project, but its uses never seemed to clearly describe its nature and effect.  Upon doing a little research, I found out the de Bodard has written a plethora of short fiction in this universe.  Called the Xuya universe, this series has 27 short stories, novelettes, and novellas.  Perhaps if I was introduced to this universe with the earlier books, I’d be able to buy into the components of the xianxia genre.  Instead, I just felt confused.

I give this novella two stars out of five.  Perhaps I’d rate it higher if I understood it better.  Instead, I found it terse and dry.  Even the burgeoning relationship between two of the female characters played out disjointedly.  This one is not going to rank high on my Hugo ballot for the novella prize.