Review: In the Vanishers’ Palace

In the Vanishers’ Palace by Aliette de Bodard
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

4.75 Stars

Imagine a post-apocalyptic Vietnamese f/f retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" with a dragon-lady Beast and you'd find yourself in the world of In the Vanisher's Palace. Yên, a young woman who has failed her university entrance exams, lives in a world ravaged by cruel colonizers called the Vanishers, who broke and despoiled the Earth and then abandoned it. Poisons and viruses sweep the Earth. Healers, who use what weak magic they possess, try in vain to heal. Yên's mother, Kim Ngoc, desperately tries to save a young woman, Oanh, by summoning a dragon healer from the spirit realm. The dragon, Vu Côn, takes the form of a cold and proud woman. She heals Oanh but claims Yên as her price for being summoned. Yên is drawn with her into the spirit world of the Vanisher's Palace, meeting Vu Côn's children Thông (genderless) and Liên (female), and rather than being devoured, as she had expected to be, finds herself a governess to these two strange children. Increasingly attracted to one another, Vu Côn and Yên struggle with the boundaries of their relationship. Among the interesting subjects tackled in this novella is the issue of consent. As Vu Côn points out to her children, can a slave or servant ever truly grant consent? Even if freed, is sex given out of gratitude or obligation or out of genuine affection? Though a romantic relationship evolves between these two women, Vu Côn's secrets threaten to sabotage Yên's trust. Additionally, Vu Côn's high-handed decision-making infuriates Yên, who is evidently clever enough to be tutoring Vu Côn's children but not enough so to be informed of major choices being made about her own life, family, and health. Yên is not without her own flaws, however, and is too bound by her own prejudices. Both will have to change in order to achieve the sense of equality needed in a true relationship.

This is another fascinating Aliette de Bodard story, with strong female characters and interesting perspectives on consent, colonialism, and racism. I just wish we had had a bit more background on the Vanishers.


I received a Digital Review Copy of this book from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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