I thoroughly enjoyed this read and the depth to the world building for a novella. I found The Shadow’s Child to be a refreshing choice of a protagonist and her interactions with Long Chau were delightful. While the bones of the Sherlock Watson concept can be seen in the two, de Bodard breathes such charming life into these two characters that I was only too sad when this ended and would love to see more of this world in future novellas hopefully.

The Tea Master and the Detective is very intelligently written, set in a wonderful new-to-me world with fascinating characters and a minimum of world building or explanation. Although it was short, it really took a lot of my attention and had me thinking.

At first, I felt like I was missing some information that I would have gotten had I read other, longer books set in this world. That does not change that this is a pretty engrossing read, just that perhaps it would be better to read others first and then re-read this afterwards.

The Tea Master and the Detective is a short, complex, and engaging sci-fi mystery modeled on the archetype of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Our protagonist is the Watson character, here a mindship (sentient spaceship) named The Shadow's Child, who becomes equal parts frustrated by and fascinated with an enigmatic woman who calls herself Long Chau, as the two pair up to solve the problem of a dead body that isn't what it appears to be.

I am a relative newcomer to the short fiction of Aliette de Bodard's Xuya Universe, which centers around a space civilization inspired by Vietnamese and Chinese traditions, and is apparently based in an alternate history timeline. It is a world of bizarre technology and complex social structure, but despite the incredible amount of worldbuilding that must have gone into this loose series by now, each story seems to stand on its own. For example, I'm sure there is something in this series I could read that would give me a better technical understanding of what the mindships are and how they function, but for the purposes of this story, it is enough to simply understand The Shadow's Child as a character whose physical self is housed in a spaceship, but who can project an avatar of herself to interact in human spaces.

The Shadow's Child is the tea master of the title, earning a meager living by brewing personalized blends of mind-altering drugs, another seemingly prevalent feature of this world, and one that suits a Sherlock Holmes character like Long Chau well. It may seem like an unusual profession for a spaceship, but The Shadow's Child is traumatized from a wartime accident where she lost her entire crew, and can no longer stand the idea of working as a transport vessel in deep spaces. But Long Chau approaches her for a blend that will allow her to remain functional in deep spaces, and perhaps uncharacteristically, The Shadow's Child offers to transport her on her mission.

It a way, what ensues is a double mystery. There's the obvious mystery that Long Chau takes on, and then there's the mystery of Long Chau herself, which The Shadow's Child spends much of the book puzzling over as she worries about just how far to throw her lot in with this perplexing detective. Who is Long Chau, what are her motivations, and what dark secret is she hiding? The result is a wonderfully character-driven story, and one that eventually hits some heartwarming, feel-good notes. I'm sure I'm not the only one hoping to see this duo again in future stories!

AI ships are some of my favorite characters and a ship that can brew tea is gets extra points. Well, tea is not really what The Shadows’s Child is brewing, but the term Tea Master has certain connotations, so I was drawn to this book. In truth, what the ship brews is drugs. Not tea at all. I had been hoping for eloquent descriptions of brewing and partaking of hot English Breakfast tea. So a bit disappointing there. Still, the disappointment was soon replaced with a mystery. The Shadow’s Child’s latest client is a detective after a body, a mystery, and answers. I enjoyed the sticky relationship between the ship and Long Chau. Sticky eventually evolves into curious and then even slightly friendly. The ship and the detective made a reluctant, yet effective, team, chasing down clues.

This book takes place in Aliette de Bodard’s Xuya universe! You do not need to have read her other books to enjoy this standalone novellla.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher, through NetGalley, so that I could bring you this honest review.

The concept of human immortality achieved through combining man and machine has always fascinated me, so when I saw The Tea Master and the Detective, I was eager to read it. The tale of a thinking ship and a young woman solving a crime in outer space, this unique story challenges the perception that a long life comes with wisdom and an ability to solve all problems. While touted as a standalone novel, I stopped reading The Tea Master and the Detective after twenty pages to double check fantasticfiction.com to see what I was missing. It was clear the book was part of a series, even though it wasn’t listed as one on NetGalley, Amazon or FF. After a bit of sleuthing I determined that the book was a part of the Universe of Xuya. I read book one of that saga and found this novel much easier to understand afterwards.

The Shadow’s Child, once a transport ship, was deeply damaged during the rebellion. She was discharged from the military after a traumatic injury left her crew dead and herself unable to tolerate the rigors of deep space anymore. Forced to make a living to pay for necessities, she brews teas which contain mind-altering drugs that enable people to think in the unreality of the deep space she herself can no longer travel in.

When the caustic Long Chau enters her shop, looking for a brew, The Shadow’s Child makes it for her. When Long Chau offers her money to take her off planet to find a corpse damaged by space for academic inquiries, The Shadow’s Child reluctantly agrees. The rent is due, and she doesn’t have another paying customer. But Long Chau is not satisfied with tea and transport and probes into The Shadow’s Child deepest secrets. Feeling that turn about is fair play, The Shadow’s Child uses her considerable abilities to unearth secrets from Long Chau’s past. What she finds deeply disturbs her – especially since the corpse they brought back for Long Chau’s research appears to have been murdered and The Shadow’s Child now finds herself involved in an investigation which may very well force her to confront her deepest fears.

The idea of biological brains running space ships is not a concept unique to this series. Anne McCaffrey used it in one of her sagas back in the late 60s and David Weber included one in his Dahak books back in the early 2000s. In this particular set of books, the mind ships are grown in a womb but implanted into an electronic ‘heart’, a being which then becomes much more than just the sum of its part. In the oriental empire in which this series takes place, these minds run the space ships and space stations. They work with their own biological families, serving as an Honored Ancestor, leading, transporting, sheltering and guiding their relatives through infinite generations. They can also use a system of bots and projections to exist outside the ship or station which serves as their home, enabling them to interact with society. That is the case with The Shadow’s Child. She rents rooms on a station in the Scattered Pearls Belt, where a portion of her brews teas and connects with her customers.

When she first meets Long Chau, The Shadow’s Child is still recovering from what happened to her long ago. She is barely functional, her family is gone and she is forced to do something that is nearly unprecedented: make a living for herself using the weakest skill she has. She finds Long Chau rude and arrogant but also fascinating. While The Shadow’s Child doesn’t appreciate being forced to confront her past or work through her fears, she finds what Long Chau does intellectually challenging. And she hasn’t experienced such a challenge in a while.

Long Chau is reminiscent of other characters by this author. She is clever and strong-willed, and chafes under the restrictions imposed upon her by a system that evokes the shadow of ancient Asian empires. That was a real problem for me. This style of government unilaterally failed in that part of the world, proving insufficient to run a country, so it would be unlikely to fair better at running a multi-planet empire. That said, if you overlook the unlikeliness of governmental success, the culture is fascinating and makes an interesting backdrop for a space opera-style novel.

This is a short story and the gist of the tale is the unlikely friendship between the damaged and fragile The Shadow’s Child and the strong, enigmatic Long Chau. The author does a good job with that, showing how the two characters form an unlikely bond over shared secrets and a deep intellectual curiosity. In many ways, it is similar to the modern take on the friendship of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson as seen in the TV show Sherlock.

If you are a fan of books with thinking ships, you will definitely want to read The Tea Master and the Detective. It’s an intriguing and unique perspective on that idea. However, I’d suggest reading On a Red Station, Drifting first, since it provides the history you will need to understand it; at least I needed to do that to follow the story. If you aren’t a fan of that sub-genre, I would not recommend this as the place to start. Check out this list on sentient ships and then if you find you like the concept, circle back to this one.

This was such an interesting world and story. I love detective stories and this had the shell of one in terms of plot but went so far beyond your typical hard-boiled detective story. I love reading science fiction where the sci-fi element is so advanced it is almost alien. In this world, ship-minds. which seem to be artificial intelligence ship "minds" but they seem to also have some sort of physicality to them. This novella follows a ship-mind dealing with PTSD and a detective solving a murder but also dealing with their own monsters. I loved the two characters, I felt like I got to know them so well in less than 100 pages. It seems like there are other books set in this universe by this author and I definitely want to check them out.

This is part of a series of novellas and short stories set in the Xuya Universe, a Vietnamese-influenced science fiction series. It’s the first I’ve read, but certainly won’t be the last! It was wildly immersive, well-paced, and ever so much fun!

“The world is chaotic and without sense. But in the smallest of spheres it’s sometimes possible to straighten things out; to make it seem as though everything means something.”


What starts out as an eccentric woman asking a traumatized war vet for help retrieving a corpse from deep space to study for a scientific paper turns into a murder investigation. Sound familiar? Why yes, it’s Sherlock in space! In this universe, traveling at faster than light speeds requires going into deep space, a weird and frightening area of unreality, something that only mindships – ships that are somehow fused with a human – can accomplish. Deep space isn’t particularly friendly to the ships, and even less so to humans, so specialized brews of tea can be customized to help a person cope, by making them braver or more calm or simply doping them up.

“Long Chau was an expanding star, burning loud and bright, mesmerising in her relentlessness, and ultimately one that would swallow you whole.”

The Shadow’s Child is one such mindship and tea-brewer, a war vet who’s barely scraping by selling customized brews for dock workers and other mundane customers. One such not-so-mundane customer is Long Chau, a scholar of sorts. She’s abrasive and blunt, but The Shadow’s Child accepts her commission because she can’t afford to be too picky. But things aren’t quite what they seem, with either the corpse they retrieve or Long Chau, and The Shadow’s Child has to navigate her need for justice – and to possibly save lives – with her traumatic past and jumbled feelings about her. Men, it seems, often get a pass on being harsh and socially tone deaf if they're talented, so it was fascinating to see the roles of both Sherlock and Watson filled by women. A large portion of the story - besides the mystery of the dead woman they find - centers on whether The Shadow's Child can trust Long Chau, and whether her dislike of her stems from her not-so-stellar personality or a gut feeling that something more sinister is going on.

I’ve read a few things by Ms. de Bodard before, and once again, I found myself immersed in her wordlbuilding and writing style. Rather than just pay homage to an Asian-influenced future (*cough* Firefly *cough*), this universe is more steeped in Vietnamese culture, from the names of the ships to cultural traditions. I was fascinated by the idea of mindships, though I didn’t quite understand exactly what they are, as The Shadow’s Child refers to being born and having living people as family. However it works, she reads as human, albeit a severely traumatized one, full of anxiety about money, her past, and whether she can trust Long Chau. Long Chau, for her part, is by turns frustrating and sympathetic, and I, for one, got a laugh out of watching The Shadow’s Child – a ship – trying to soothe the ruffled feathers of the witnesses they’re trying to question. For all her faults, though, it’s Long Chau and her sharp insight that finally forces The Shadow’s Child to deal with her past, and that, for me, was the best part of the novella.

Overall, this was an amazingly fresh and immersive take on a Sherlock-type mystery, and I’m definitely hoping Ms. de Bodard will write more novellas starring this pair!

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

This novella is my first foray into the work of Aliette de Bodard, who I've followed a while on social media because of her love of pen and ink writing and drawing. This was a delightful entrée into her work.

The Tea Master and the Detective is the story of the traumatized brain of a mindship, The Sparrow's Child, and Long Chau, an Asian woman with a shadowy past, and their investigation into the death of a young Vietnamese woman. As the story evolves, it becomes evident that female duo and their investigation of a murder is a clever take on Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. Long Chau is investigating the effects of deep spaces on corpses. The Sparrow's Child, recovering from a devastating deep space event that killed or severely injured her crew, spends her days as a tea master, brewing specialized blends of teas. Each of her blends is tailor-made for an individual. It is in her capacity as tea master that she meets Long Chau, who like Holmes, has... issues with substance use. Over the course of the novella, they each learn to truly see and trust one another, as they investigate the death of a young shipworker.

De Bodard's beautiful writing style was a delight to read. I know she has written quite a few works set in the Xuya Universe. I would love to see more of these two characters, who were intriguing.

An excellent space opera adventure that highlights the strength of Aliette de Bodard's world building skills.

This novella is set in an existing story universe, but you don’t have to be familiar with anything previous in order to enjoy the story. I living ship is trying to make a living after a horrible incident during the war. They have been discharged and they are avoiding going into deep space. Barely making the rent on their docking they are hired by a private detective that wants to do some research. The research develops into something more and as the story goes along you find out more about the ship and the detective. A good story and I know I will read more in this universe.

Very interesting worldbuilding. Reminiscent of the Ancillary Justice series, as it is about a shipmind/AI. Readers who enjoy that series will take to this one quick. The mystery was solved a little too quickly and out of nowhere. I would have liked a little more detective type work so the resolution felt a bit more earned, but overall a diverting read.

There's a lot to love about "The Tea Master and the Detective," not least its central conceit: That crimes still happen in spacefaring societies, and that brilliant, obtuse, and even downright difficult detectives will still be around to recast the Sherlock narrative in delightfully unique, genderbent ways. True to Sherlock retellings, our Watson is our entry point into the story, and this is no passive sidekick waiting around for the detective to unveil a convoluted revelation--The Shadow's Child goes into the universe and does everything possible to do right by herself and others, despite past traumas and present doubts in the trustworthiness of her companions along the way.

At its strongest moments, de Bodard's compact little novella reminds me of Ann Leckie's "Ancillary Justice," where a ship-based artificial intelligence struggles to come to terms with her place in a strange future textured with jade and porcelain, as well as Alastair Reynold's "The Prefect" (and its sequel, "Elysium Fire") with its post-surplus habitat alliance, the Glitter Band, and the bureaucracies in place to protect it. "The Tea Master and the Detective" hints at a similarly expansive universe without being bogged down in the details, and I'm tantalized by the idea of what may be revealed in future installments.

That said, there are unevennesses to this novella which others have already commented upon, at length. The pacing seems to be the primary sticking point, with a desultory first half, set in digitally opulent environs (if only cramped space station compartments in reality) and obsessed with faded glamour and jewel-like bots which regulate human emotions and functions with needles and quite a few elegantly described drops of blood. (No one seems to be willing to comment upon the hazards so many little droplets might pose to a cramped space station's ducts and wiring.) The book takes a brief and jarring leap forward into a climax which doesn't quite feel earned before returning to the drawing-room reflections so typical of a Conan Doyle hat-tip.

At ninety-six pages, de Bodard had room to develop a momentum which worked; that she didn't is unfortunate, but I have high hopes that there will be sequels to follow, with more space crimes to solve and more of this sophisticated universe to unfold.

The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard is a science fictional take on a female Sherlock, with a Watson who is a shipmind [The Shadow's Child], but still a veteran of war and tragedy, who has taken to brewing individualized, specialized teas to help humans tolerate the Deep Spaces through which ships travel. Long Chau needs both a brew and a ship to help her find a corpse floating in space. It's an intriguing and different take on two classic characters.

How to properly explain the bounty of imagination enclosed within the pages of Aliette de Bodard’s latest novella? It is, above all, a detective story inspired by the immortal tales of Sherlock Holmes but with several defining twists. First, the Sherlock character is a woman, as is the Watson-esque partner. Second, both are Asian in a decidedly Asian setting. Third, the entire thing is set in a far future where our Watson is really a shipmind, a ship given sentience by the melding of its technology with a human-born entity bred for this purpose.

As the book opens, The Shadow’s Child is a decommissioned military transport who, after traumatically losing her crew in deep space, is trying to make ends meet by brewing specialty teas for space-going travellers. Long Chau, a rather mysterious scholar, hires The Shadow’s Child to make her a tea for serenity, as she intends to travel into deep space to retrieve a corpse -- any corpse -- for study. The Shadow’s Child is somewhat reluctant given that her scans show that Long Chau is clearly already using a number of drugs, but she doesn’t want to turn away a paying customer. Besides, she’s confident enough in her skills to know that she can most likely brew Long Chau a tea that won’t react badly to all the other drugs coursing through Long Chau’s system, something that not many other brewers might successfully manage.

The downside of all this, though, is that she feels responsible for Long Chau’s continued well-being while on the tea. Her decision to monitor Long Chau’s progress unfortunately commits her to returning to deep space, a place she would rather not go. While Long Chau pays well for the privilege, this dive into the mind-bending realms that allow ships to travel faster than light will raise more questions than it answers when the corpse they recover seems to have been a victim of foul play.

I loved how fresh and extraordinary this take on the Sherlock-Watson dynamic was. Despite Long Chau and The Shadow’s Child being very much their own characters, it was lovely to see that very familiar relationship reinterpreted, with the emphasis put less on Sherlock’s astonishing deductions in the face of confounding dilemmas and more on the interior lives of our protagonists. Not, of course, that there aren’t any elegant solutions presented to us, in the style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as here when Long Chau and The Shadow’s Child are talking about the former’s drug problem, with Long Chau saying:

QUOTE
“It would be neat, wouldn’t it? An easy and sympathetic explanation. Well, I’m sorry to disappoint. I simply need the drugs to function. That’s all there is to it. Life isn’t easy and neat.”

“You make it sound like it is. When you make your deductions from the smallest scraps of evidence.”

“When I deduct things? You’re mistaken. The world is chaotic and without sense. But in the smallest of spheres it’s sometimes possible to straighten things out; to make it seem as though everything means something.”
END QUOTE

I especially enjoyed the emphasis on The Shadow’s Child’s interior life. I’m a huge fan of the BBC’s version of John Watson, which places his war heroism front and center, and makes it clear that Sherlock needs him as much more than just a rhetorical sounding board (though the Elementary TV show is by far my favorite version of any Sherlock retelling to date. But I digress.) The Tea Master And The Detective continues in this vein of having the Watson-character be the strong, emotional center of the story. We learn a lot about The Shadow’s Child’s history and sense of self, particularly in this illuminating passage on the way she chooses to present herself to her clients, in all her intimidating glory:

QUOTE
She could have made herself small and unthreatening. She could have hovered over people’s shoulders like a pet or a children’s toy, as was the fashion amongst the older shipminds. But she’d lived through a war, an uprising and a famine, and she was done with diminishing herself to spare the feelings of others.
END QUOTE

It was also pretty great how she did her own investigating into Long Chau’s life and shadowy past, and how the two methods of investigation -- Long Chau’s through observational deduction, The Shadow’s Child’s through brute force data mining -- both clashed with and complemented one another.

The Tea Master And The Detective is a forward-thinking reimagination of the beloved Sherlock-Watson dynamic that will definitely please lovers of Sherlockiana as much as it will science fiction fans, as well as fans of diversity in fiction. I’m hoping this novella is the first of a series featuring our heroes and their hopefully long and beautiful friendship.

(This review will appear on the website linked below on or around pub date.)

I’m always on the lookout for a good gender-swapped version of Sherlock Holmes, and Aliette de Bodard has achieved that and more with The Tea Master and the Detective. Despite its short length—it’s a novella—De Bodard crafted a compelling book with a fantastic story set in the Xuya Universe with characters that were as mysterious as they were smart. It also had a unique take on space travel that felt fresh and innovative.

I adored this book. It was the perfect combination of science fiction and mystery, with a Sherlock Holmes and Watson-esque relationship between the two main characters, The Shadow’s Child (a mindship) and Long Chau. That’s one thing I love about De Bodard’s writing—she always manages to create such vivid characters. The Shadow’s Child was by far one of my favorite aspects about the book. It was a mindship discharged from the military after a traumatic injury. The character could have gone either way, good or bad. However, the backstory, personality, and how De Bodard portrayed the lingering fears linked to the aforementioned trauma, made for a well-rounded character. The same could be said about Long Chau; although, I much preferred when the two were interacting/investigating.

The Scattered Pearls Belt was an interesting place with excellent world building. There were a number of little details about the society that made it an interesting setting for a mystery to take place. I particularly enjoyed the author’s take on space travel. Specifically, I liked the idea of using something as ordinary and everyday as tea to nullify the effects of traveling into “deep spaces.” And the process behind making these teas—the trial and errors while brewing—were quite fascinating to read about.

So, The Tea Master and the Detective was pretty awesome. I loved everything about it, and I recommend it for readers who have read works by De Bodard before or are looking for a good place to start.

Disclaimer: This copy of the book was provided by Subterranean Press via Netgalley for this review.

The Tea Master And The Detective by Aliette de Bodard a great shorter story. Has a feel of a futuristic sci-fi with Sherlock Holmes and Watson as they were starting out. I enjoyed it and hope to see more like it.

This novella shouldn’t work... but somehow it does!

<I>The Tea Master and the Detective</I> is a wonderfully strange reimagining of Sherlock Holmes — if Watson was a sentient, traumatized spaceship and Holmes was dependent on regular body chemistry modifications to achieve the ultimate mental razor’s edge.

(Also notable, now that I think about it: Not only are Long Chau and <I>The Shadow’s Child</I> gender-flipped versions of Holmes and Watson, but I think that <I>everyone</I> with a speaking role in this novella is implied to be female. I didn’t even notice this while reading the first time, but that’s pretty amazing!)

While the plot in the last third rushed along rather too quickly for my taste, I loved the whole journey there: the little snippets of universe worldbuilding scattered throughout, the easy interaction between the characters, and especially the very end, with its budding friendship and a promise of more to come. I do hope we see these pair again, and hopefully in a longer format.

-----

[Disclaimer: This eARC was provided free by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]

A very interesting take on Sherlock Holmes that is grounded in Vietnamese culture and takes place in space, with female main characters and a twist that reminds me a bit of Anne McCaffrey's Brainships series ("Watson" is a sentient spaceship). This is a novella, not a full-length novel, but it was long enough to get me interested in the world as well as Long Chau (Sherlock) and The Shadow Child (Watson). I'm not a particularly avid fan of Sherlock Holmes adaptations, so I don't know how common it is to foreground these elements from the original, but I thought that both Long Chau's substance dependence and The Shadow Child's PTSD were well-handled. This introduction to the iconic duo leaves the door wide open for further mysteries to solve, and I assume they will be forthcoming.

The traumatized former military transport The Shadow's Child is a Tea Maker who is eeking out a living making blends with pharmacological properties for travelers freaked out by the nebulous deep space that makes star travel possible. When Long Chau--socially off-putting, distressingly perceptive, generally high on drugs, and unable to let a mystery go--shows up to ask the ship's help retrieving a body from a wreck for her studies of decomposition, the body they find isn't what either expected. Soon, The Shadow's Child finds herself dragged into a murder investigation by Long Chau, who must surely be a descendant of the resident of 221 B Baker Street and every bit as annoying.

Aliette de Bodard's new novella in her Xuya universe is a terrific piece of writing, taking the sentient community of ships from Ian Bank's Culture series, the glittering belt of space habitats from Alistair Reynolds Prefect novels, and adding in a compelling pair as the title characters. If I have any complaint, it would be that I'd rather Long Chau hadn't described herself as a consulting detective. I think readers would have figured out what template was in play here on their own, and it would have made the realization all the more fun. Not that reviewers like me wouldn't have given it away regardless.

The story appears to set up a continuing series of tales, though it could easily be the kernel for a novel. Either way, it's a great start and will wet your appetite for things to come.

(Source: SFRevu: http://www.sfrevu.com/php/Review-id.php?id=17634)

Ahoy there me mateys! I received this sci-fi eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. So here be me honest musings . . .

the tea master and the detective (Aliette de Bodard)

Title: the tea master and the detective
Author: Aliette de Bodard
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Publication Date: TODAY!! (hardback/e-book)
ISBN: 978-1596068643
Source: NetGalley

The cover drew me in and three things convinced me to read this book:
1) I previously read some of the author's short stories and loved her writing style;
2) It is a Subterranean Press book and they do great work; and
3) One of the characters is a mindship . . .

This mindship, named The Shadow's Child, is not just any ship. It was previously a military ship who physically survived an ambush and massacre but since retired from active duty and is suffering PTSD and struggling to make ends meet. One of the things the ship does to make money is brew special blends of tea. These teas are made to suit the drinker's specific goals and body chemistry. One day a woman named Long Chau comes in and requests a serenity blend to focus her mind. The ship takes the needed money and finds itself not only involved in a crime investigation but also having to face deep space where the ship swore it would never enter again.

Apparently this book is part of a series of books and stories set in the Universe of Xuya. I had never read anything set in Xuya before. I found the world-building and characterizations to be fascinating. I absolutely loved the neurotic, damaged The Shadow's Child and the story told from the ship's perspective. I didn't really care much about the crime story itself but was more focused on how the ship was dealing with a situation it didn't care for. Long Chau is a purposefully unlikeable character who is trying to do the right thing.

Ultimately while I really enjoyed the story, I think I would like a longer work with more detailing of how the society functions and how the mindships work. But this character-driven piece was a good introduction to a new world that I hope to visit more often. Besides who doesn't love mindships? Arrr!

So lastly . . .
Thank you Subterranean Press!

Netgalley's website has this to say about the novel:

Welcome to the Scattered Pearls Belt, a collection of ring habitats and orbitals ruled by exiled human scholars and powerful families, and held together by living mindships who carry people and freight between the stars. In this fluid society, human and mindship avatars mingle in corridors and in function rooms, and physical and virtual realities overlap, the appareance of environments easily modified and adapted to interlocutors or current mood.

A transport ship discharged from military service after a traumatic injury, The Shadow's Child now ekes out a precarious living as a brewer of mind-altering drugs for the comfort of space-travellers. Meanwhile, abrasive and eccentric scholar Long Chau wants to find a corpse for a scientific study. When Long Chau walks into her office, The Shadow's Child expects an unpleasant but easy assignment. When the corpse turns out to have been murdered, Long Chau feels compelled to investigate, dragging The Shadow's Child with her.

As they dig deep into the victim's past, The Shadow's Child realises that the investigation points to Long Chau's own murky past--and, ultimately, to the dark and unbearable void that lies between the stars...

To visit the author’s website go to:
Aliette de Bodard – Author

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the tea master and the detective - Book

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