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3.0 

The Citadel of Weeping Pearls

By Aliette de Bodard
The Citadel of Weeping Pearls by Aliette de Bodard digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

A beautifully written, bittersweet mystery in a wonderfully imaginative space setting” from the award-winning author of the Dominion of the Fallen trilogy (Fantasy Literature).
 
The Citadel of Weeping Pearls was a great wonder; a perfect meld between cutting-edge technology and esoteric sciences—its inhabitants capable of teleporting themselves anywhere, its weapons small and undetectable and deadly.
 
Thirty years ago, threatened by an invading fleet from the Dai Viet Empire, the Citadel disappeared and was never seen again.
 
But now the empire itself is under siege, on the verge of a war against an enemy that turns their own mindships against them; and the Empress, who once gave the order to raze the Citadel, is in desperate need of its weapons. Meanwhile, on a small isolated space station, an engineer obsessed with the past works on a machine that will send her thirty years back, to the height of the Citadel’s power.
 
But the Citadel’s disappearance still extends chains of grief and regret all the way into the fraught atmosphere of the Imperial Court; and this casual summoning of the past might have world-shattering consequences . . .
 
A new book set in the award-winning, critically acclaimed Xuya universe.
 
Praise for Aliette de Bodard
“Startlingly original.” —The Guardian
 
“A writer who deserves attention.” —SF Signal

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41 Reviews

3.0
Thumbs Up“A quick sf novella with fun worldbuilding that features mindships, ghostly AI simulations of ancestors, and a space opera-esque imperial court. Loved that aspect. What I didn't love – as usual when it comes to this author's novellas – was the writing. I think I've finally gotten used to her too long, run-on sentences, though, because they no longer bother me as much. I don't remember the Dominion of the Fallen trilogy being as bad (loved the daylight out of that one). Better editors for full-length novels, perhaps? I think I'm going to continue reading Aliette de Bodard’s works despite their flaws, though. She has a knack for imaginative settings, and the relationships she portrays (here: familial, from various angles) are also quite neat.”

About Aliette de Bodard

Aliette de Bodard lives and works in Paris, where she has a day job as a System Engineer. She studied Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, but moonlights as a writer of speculative fiction. She is the author of the critically acclaimed Obsidian and Blood trilogy of Aztec noir fantasies, as well as numerous short stories, which garnered her two Nebula Awards, a Locus Award and a British Science Fiction Association Award.

Her space opera books include The Tea Master and the Detective, a murder mystery set on a space station in a Vietnamese galactic empire, inspired by the characters of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. Recent works include The House of Shattered Wings (2015 British Science Fiction Association Award), a novel set in a turn-of-the-century Paris devastated by a magical war, and its standalone sequel The House of Binding Thorns. She lives in Paris with her family, in a flat with more computers than warm bodies, and a set of Lovecraftian tentacled plants intent on taking over the place.

Visit her website www.aliettedebodard.com for free fiction, Vietnamese and French recipes and more.

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