#navigationalentanglements — Public Fediverse posts

NAVIGATIONAL ENTANGLEMENTS, by Aliette de Bodard, is a space-opera story. Four navigator clans (the Ox, Rat, Snake, and Dog clans) are responsible for steering spacecraft into and out of hyperspace, here called the Hollows. Navigators handle the transition into the Hollows and keep craft safe from the creatures inhabiting it, such as the mind-destroying tanglers. Now a tangler has escaped into normal space, which would be a huge disaster, and taking care of the problem has been entrusted to a misfit crew: the neurodiverse Việt Nhi, the blunt assassin Hạc Cúc, the brittle Lanh who's been suspiciously close to tanglers and survived, and the heedless scientist Bao Duy. Of course, there will be complications such as a murder, and a budding romance between Nhi and Hạc Cúc.

I run hot and cold on de Bodard's work but enjoyed this one. Both the romance element and the mystery felt a little by-the-numbers, but I liked our crew of misfits, each with a different quirk or problem, and the unwrapping of the secret of the tangler's escape.

(5/6)

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Queer Romance Club June selection — Navigational Entanglements by Aliette de Bodard

Since we had a tie (what a surprise 😊), I’ve deployed my tie-breaker for go for the f/f SF as the official pick (feel free to let us know what you think of any of the others, though!)

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Teaser blurb:

Jockeying navigator clans guide spaceships through the Hollows: an area of space populated by the mysterious but deadly creatures known as Tanglers. When a Tangler escapes the Hollows for the first time in living memory, each clan must send a representative to help capture it—but the mission may be doomed and the hearts of two clan juniors may be in danger too.

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QRC is open to all, read at your own pace over the month and post about it under the #QueerRomanceClub and @queerromanceclub tags.

No rules: let’s hear reactions, theories, reviews, favourite quotes etc, any time throughout the month or indeed whenever you happen to read it 😊 CW for spoilers appreciated.

More about the club here:

https://mastodon.au/@wendypalmer/113144943004145104

#bookstodon #Bookclub #ScienceFiction #LGBTQRomance #NavigationalEntanglements

I just finished reading
Navigational Entanglements by Aliette de Bodard and really enjoyed it! ^_^

Her books are always so well-written, thoughtful, clever, insightful, and warm.

"Jockeying navigator clans guide spaceships through the Hollows: an area of space populated by the mysterious but deadly creatures known as Tanglers. When a Tangler escapes the Hollows for the first time in living memory, each clan must send a representative to help capture it—but the mission may be doomed and the hearts of two clan juniors may be in danger too.

Việt Nhi is not good with people. Or politics. Which is a problem when the Rooster clan sends her on the mission against her will, forcing her to work with an ill-matched group of squabbling teammates from rival clans, including one who she can’t avoid, and maybe doesn’t want to.

Hạc Cúc of the Snake clan has always been better at poisoning and stabbing than at making friends, but she’s drawn to Nhi’s perceptiveness and obliviousness to social conventions—including the ones that really should make Nhi think twice about spending time with her.

But when their imperial envoy and nominal leader is poisoned, this crew of expendable apprentices will have to learn to work together—fast—before the invisible Tangler can wreak havoc on a civilian city and destroy the fragile reputation of the clans. Along the way, Nhi and Hạc Cúc will have to learn the hardest lesson of all: to see past their own misconceptions and learn to trust their growing feelings for each other."

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#AlietteDeBodard

#ScienceFiction

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