In the Vanishers' Palace
Written by Aliette de Bodard
Narrated by Nancy Wu
4/5
()
About this audiobook
In a ruined, devastated world, where the earth is poisoned and beings of nightmares roam the land . . .
A woman, betrayed, terrified, sold into indenture to pay her village's debts and struggling to survive in a spirit world.
A dragon, among the last of her kind, cold and aloof but desperately trying to make a difference.
When failed scholar Yên is sold to Vu Côn, one of the last dragons walking the earth, she expects to be tortured or killed for Vu Côn's amusement.
But Vu Côn, it turns out, has a use for Yên: she needs a scholar to tutor her two unruly children. She takes Yên back to her home, a vast, vertiginous palace-prison where every door can lead to death. Vu Côn seems stern and unbending, but as the days pass Yên comes to see her kinder and caring side. She finds herself dangerously attracted to the dragon who is her master and jailer. In the end, Yên will have to decide where her own happiness lies-and whether it will survive the revelation of Vu Côn's dark, unspeakable secrets . . .
Contains mature themes.
Aliette de Bodard
Aliette de Bodard writes speculative fiction: she has won three Nebula Awards, an Ignyte Award, a Locus Award and six British Science Fiction Association Awards. She is the author of A Fire Born of Exile, a sapphic Count of Monte Cristo in space (Gollancz/JABberwocky Literary Agency, Inc., 2023), and of Of Charms, Ghosts and Grievances (JABberwocky Literary Agency, Inc, 2022 BSFA Award winner), a fantasy of manners and murders set in an alternate 19th Century Vietnamese court. She lives in Paris.
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Reviews for In the Vanishers' Palace
101 ratings10 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The novella In the Vanishers’ palace feels like it is trying on all the genre labels. It’s coming-of-age YA, for one, a little more so than I am used to from de Bodard. It is also is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast (particularly the animated Disney film, including a Library Scene), uses both sfnal tropes (a post-apocalyptic world abandoned by malevolent Aliens) and fantasy tropes (magic spells and dragons), against a setting that borrows from Vietnamese folklore. And it’s also a queer romance, specifically one of the paranormal and interspecies kind. Plenty of labels, forms of address, and pronouns to go around. And it works, on most levels -- so many, in fact, that not all of them have to come into play to enjoy this novella. The parallels with the Disney movie, for one, are obvious, but only once you start looking for them; it can be read largely as a paranormal romance that happens to be queer, or vice versa. But it’s never less than at least three genres simultaneously, and it works out very nicely, mainly because de Bodard keeps the whole thing firmly grounded emotionally and psychologically. Ambitious, but solid.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5It started out really well. The world was interesting, but we weren’t given any more. Then the MC started suffering from Stockholm syndrome, but it was not presented as such, just an inexplicable and unexplained lust. Then the captor got into the act. There was a lot of pearl clasping and drama, but no depth, just the same basic expression of desire over and over. It got old quite quickly. There was a brief reprieve when the MC entered the Vanisher’s library with the twins, but again, only questions were thrown out and no answers.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The only bad thing about Aliette de Bodard's book is that they have to finish. I really this fantasy story and sapphic romance. The world building is outstanding and fascinating.
The narratot is also fantastic! - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wonderful sapphic sff novel set in post apocalyptic world and inspired Vietnamese culture. The narration by Nancy Wu is great as always.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A different Beauty and the Beast meets Alien Invasion set in a non-western setting. I would have liked a little more build up of romance in the story but was enchanted by it all and truly drawn in. There was an alien invasion and with them they brought what became diseases, which were meant to change people to make them more useful to the invaders. This is now a hard world with very limited resources and really everyone has to justify their existence. Life can be nasty brutish and short and Vu Con sometimes helps but their price can be harsh. Yen is the price, she is willing to save her mother to be the price as she can see that there isn't really a place for her and she can see that soon she might be judged as not useful and choice may be taken from her.It's interesting and the world is one I'd like to see more of and learn more of.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Start with a well-written fantasy. Combine Vietnamese characters and traditions with Beauty and the Beast. Add a dash of science fiction. Shake it up and add a dollop of philosophical and ethical musing. You end up with the book In the Vanishers' Palace. Oh, and a dragon!This book made me think about questions such as "How do we define usefulness?" and "How do we grow into the 'best' us?" and "How do we love someone who isn't like 'us'?". All those lead to the deeper questions of how we define "we" and "us." I fell in love with this book because it told a good story and challenged me to expand my horizons. I like that magic was comprised of words, that words held power in so many ways. I loved the idea that Beauty was a tutor to the wards of the Beast -- that made so much sense to me. And did I mention a dragon?This book is not your traditional fantasy. If that is what you are looking for, perhaps a different book is for you. Nor is it a conventional "Beauty and the Beast." If you want to spread your wings and try a unique fantasy, then this book might well suit you.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Odd short novel. A blend of bucolic village life - if somewhat hard on the less useful villagers - with post alien invasion mutant dragons and plague viruses. The world-building is not explained clearly, but the basic premise seems to be that aliens came, conducted genetic experiments, and left. In their wake are a few technologies, mutant viruses mostly lethal but occasionally imbuing the victim with strange powers and the aliens former slaves, who retain some access to more technology than the villagers know.Yen is just assisting her mother as a healer, the headvillager's daughter needs every succour possible, and so she uses her most potent words, summoning YeCon the Water dragon. However every healing has a price and the village sees the assistant as less valuable than the Mother and offers Yen instead. Yen having always wanted to flee the village finds herself in a very strange place instead.It doesn't really go anywhere in terms of plot, but perhaps the moral is no more than trust others as you'd want to be trusted yourself.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This is a Beauty and the Beast retelling set in an alternate world that uses Vietnamese culture to tell the story and has a science fictional feel to it. A dragon that also use science and gene therapy to cure the virus damage done by the Vanishers plays the part of the beast. Yên is traded to Vu Côn to pay the debt her healer mother incurred by calling on the dragon to heal someone important from the village. Yên is convinced that she will be eaten or killed for entertainment, but it turns out she is tasked with teaching the children of the dragon. Of course the palace she is in could also kill her since it is the former home of the Vanishers. There are secrets in the palace and a growing attraction between the two. Overall this was an interesting retelling and I would certainly read more in this setting.
Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/54 stars for In the Vanishers’ Palace by Aliette de Bodard. This is true Aliette de Bodard, meaning it's lush, emotional, and absolutely lovely. It's a story of survival and love set in a post-war world, and about the secrets that can affect both. #InTheVanishersPalace #NetGalley
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5From the author’s website: ’In the Vanishers Palace is a dark retelling of Beauty and the Beast, where they are both women and the Beast is a dragon. Set in a ruined universe inspired by Vietnamese folklore, where scholar-magicians and spirits walk the earth…’Aliette de Bodard is rapidly becoming one of my favourite authors of short fiction - In the Vanishers' Palace is her latest release and it's a retelling of Beauty and the Beast inspired by Vietnamese folklore and dragons. It's set in a post-apocalyptic fantasy world which has been partially ruined by a mysterious group of creatures called the Vanishers who have now vanished and left the people of world to try to pick up the pieces. It's fantasy (because dragons and magic) but also felt science-fictional in places (post-apocalyptic and I kept feeling like the Vanishers might be aliens). Adding in the romance element and it's a testimony to de Bodard as a writer that such a short work can successfully manage all these elements. The prose was beautiful as I've come to expect from de Bodard and the story was poignant. Plus there's an awesome description of the beast's library :-)