Here, Vietnam became a galactic empire, and unlike in that aforementioned short story, there are no allegories for Western colonialism here - in fact, there are no Westerners. Previously I have only read her Hugo-nominated short story The Waiting Stars, set in the same universe. On a Red Station, Drifting is set in her "Xuya" universe, an alt history space operatic setting in which Asian and Aztec cultures became technologically dominant and went into space, instead of the West. Aliette de Bodard is a stylist who seeks to evoke sights and sounds and smells and cultural cues with her prose, and it is very evocative. This is an aspiring piece of sci-fi litfic. 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… 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. Prosper’s brightest minds have been called away to defend the Emperor and a flood of disorientated refugees strain the station’s resources. 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.īut war has come to the Dai Viet Empire.
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