A short and sweet space opera with great action, worldbuilding, and mystery. Space opera and sapphic fans will love this one though I personally was hoping for more out of the xianxia style that was promised.

3.5 rounded up

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I enjoyed the overall story and the characters were interesting. Each one stood out and any of them were a waste of space. The main reason this novella wasn't a 4 star is because the pacing seemed to drag on quite a bit and very slow at times.

Another thing that I liked from this novella was the queer and neurodivergent rep and that these things were normalized in this world.

Thanks to the publisher for inviting me to read this early!

This was super intricate for a novella and I thought it was done in a really cool way—unfortunately I think my brain is a little burnt out on this kind of sci-fi/fantasy so a lot of it did go over my head and I’d probably revisit it later and try to absorb more! It’s short enough though and what I did manage to take in was a lot of fun!

This was a wild and quick ride. I love what we learn in the short period of time of the book about the magic system with the shadows and with the wider world at large. A lot is told in a small amount of space but this keeps the story entertaining throughout. The four main characters, each representing a different clan that uses their shadows to safely transport people across space and protect them from Tanglers that live the unreality that they travel through, are all so unique distinguished and come into this team up with a lot of different preconceptions about each other and the world. I love how this evolves during the book. I would definitely love to see more from this world.

Navigational Entanglements was creative, unique, and at times, a bit confusing. Look, I won't pretend that I fully understood the world; I did not. It seems incredibly ambitious and well thought out, just perhaps not enough pages for the reader to fully grasp it? Which is unfortunate, but also... you do get the gist. So while I was a bit bummed that I wasn't going to understand the complexities, it also didn't really dampen the reading experience too much. Because really, I enjoyed the characters, and they seemed to be more the point, if you will.

We're told most of the story through a third person perspective of Việt Nhi. Nhi is pretty salty that she has to go on this mission that, she feels, does not exactly pull to her strengths. She's got to not only interact with and rely on other people, but people who are not from her clan. But go she must, and the story really jumps into gear when we see the lengths that Nhi and the others will have to go to. Lots of morally ambiguous choices to be made, danger, and figuring out who, if anyone, she can trust all become part of Nhi's adventure. Basically, it is worth it for Nhi's story, even though I think that more pages may have helped this one, it was still a satisfying story.

Bottom Line: Ambitious world building with some great characters made this novella a win, though I think it could have been an even bigger hit as a full length novel.

Four juniors are sent by their clans to serve the imperioral forces, to track down a specific monster found in the faster than light space travel, now loose in normal dimension. Only the head of the mission is poison, and the four must still save the day.

Why I started this book: Requested the ARC from Netgalley because of the colorful cover and description.

Why I finished it: This story swiftly pulled me in, and I found myself reading further to learn more about the world, (loosely based on a futuristic South East Asia culture?) The prose was evocative, and the details interesting but spare. Out of my wheel house but enjoyable.

Everything about this novella sounded spectacular when I requested it.

The reality of it was much different.

The reason I love novellas is because they manage to pack a wallop of a story in a small packet of pages and still do it with style. Ideally, you should never feel like you’re reading a “short book”. It should feel like the book is the exact length it needs to be to fit the story. This means it should accomplish everything a full book should accomplish in its limited page count.

Navigational Entanglements didn’t feel like that to me. It took too long for the inciting incident to occur. There was too much filler. I didn’t feel like the book was trying to engage me or compel me. Mostly, I was bored.

A novella thrives on economy, and there was just too much waste in the pages. If this book had been more intriguing, faster-paced, or intelligent, then I might’ve been more interested. As it stands, it was hard to finish.

I was provided a copy of this title by Netgalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. A two star or below rating means this review will not be appearing on my social media. Thank you.

File Under: LGBTQ Sci-Fi/LGBTQ Romance/Novella/Sapphic Romance/Sci Fi/Space Opera

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Blog post goes live July 26th

**TL;DR**: Sadly, this maybe the most forgettable of Aliette De Bodard’s work for me.
**Source:** NetGalley, thank you to the publisher!

**Plot**: A group of young women are sent to hunt down a monster that has come from the dark reaches of space into inhabited space.
**Characters**: This is probably where the book fell for me. The characters just did not work for me.
**Setting**: I did enjoy the setting, I usually do with Aliette’s books, we had a few different ones but it was well drawn and interesting.
**Science Fiction**: It was pretty light on details even though this was very much a SF.

**Thoughts**:

I’ve read a lot of Aliette De Bodard’s work. They are one of my auto buy authors in the SF sphere, but this one sadly is going to be a skip for me. Navigational Entanglements seems to be setting up a new world and cast of characters that may be kicking off a series? I’m not sure if I’ll continue to be honest, but I might give at least one more in this world a try.

We follow a group of four women who are trying to track down a deep space creature that has appeared in inhabited space. There are a lot of questions early on such as why these four, and how the creature got released. All of these are answered and the story idea itself is great. However the characters were so abrasive that I had a hard time caring. We switch PoVs, so we see two different sides of the story. Our first is a young woman who clearly exhibits some traits from the Autistic spectrum (though never explicitly stated). She was intriguing and I did enjoy her at first! The second is a very gruff and frankly cruel young assassin who is very hard to like. The two eventually have a budding romance, but the story is very messy between the two.

I found a lot of things about this hard to enjoy. The PoV of our Snake character, the cruel young assassin nearly made me put the book down. The ‘I love you’ after knowing each other for a few days, and just the lack of real development through the story for these two. There was some growth at the end, not enough to convince me it’s going to to stick, but some. That will have me give the series, if it is one, at least one more try. But I don’t know if I can recommend this one widely.

2.5 out of 5 Creepy Tentacles

While I wanted to enjoy Navigational Entanglements, it just fell a little short. This novella had some impressive world building and concepts. I was totally here for it even if at the beginning I was so lost. But unfortunately, the world building didn't get a ton clearer. I think part of that is that the scope of what de Bodard is trying to do might be better for a longer form or something which has the space needed to detail all the things I wanted to see. I wanted to know a bit more about the world to make the discoveries ring more deeply.

This was a novella based in space, with technology and worlds far more advanced than our own. Nhi, the main character, shows traits of autism, and so she is often alone and misunderstood. She mostly flies under the radar, except when she's called on for a special mission: to find and capture an escaped creature known as a tangler. She and a crew of a few others set out, not knowing that they're expected to fail. Along the way, Nhi finds herself fascinated and captivated by the clan assassin Hac Cuc, who is feisty and independent and extremely intolerant of BS.

The book was a quick read, and it was frustating at times reading from Nhi's POV because she couldn't convey what she was really thinking/feeling, but I think that's a good representation of how it is to be autistic in the world. The world-building was very complex and detailed, which might've been a small detriment in this case because of the shorter format. Overall, it was a fun, adventurous read, but some of the minor characters I found extremely irritating, and the convoluted relationships among the clans and characters became a little overwhelming at some points.

I think Aliette de Bodard just gets better with every book! This was a beautiful, eerie, and fast-paced sci fi novella that's a combination of murder mystery and found family story with an examination of personal morals versus societal norms. I loved it!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc! Opinions are my own.

This was a trippy science fiction novella that will stick with you. I loved the world building and conflict that de Bodard sets up. Everything makes sense and the backstory is revealed at just the right times to move the conflict along.

This book tells the story of 4 junior representatives of navigator clans trying to find and contain a monster from a dangerous traveling non-normal space that has gotten lost in normal space and will eat people's cognition. Drama! Stakes! Throw in some will they, won't they sapphic romance and we have enough ingredients to have a great time!
What really blew me away though were these neurodivergent characters.  Nhi is a deeply resonant example of an Autistic woman who just can't quite understand the rules for how other people behave - her preference is to avoid people but can't which means thinking carefully about how to act, getting things wrong, experiencing intense sensory overwhelm, and more. Hạc Cúc is an intense perfectionist and adheres to a code of behavior she learned from her mentor. Her perfectionism is a rigid coping strategy for dealing with her own impulsiveness and perceived failings. The relationship between the two captures that sign of relief people have when they find someone who clicks with their unique way of being in the world, and their trials and tribulations read true to people who are outsiders who can't quite trust that feeling. Bảo Duy is so consumed by her special interests she forgets to care about people. Làhn had a traumatic and damaging childhood experience that leaves her an outsider.  I genuinely hope this isn't the last we see of these amazing characters.

3.5 stars rounded up

Navigational Entanglements is a sci-fi novella that is seemingly about a group of junior Navigators assigned to find and take care of a dangerous monster that was wandered into the wrong realm. But in many ways this is more about the interpersonal relationships and internal arcs of the characters. The four women assigned are from different clans and mostly don't get along (even if there is an undercurrent of attraction between two of them) but the mission will test their limits.

At times this felt like it was dragging a bit. The language and pacing are slow, but I like the overall story and characters. We have queer and neurodivergent POV characters and the novella explores elements of how they experience the world. The sci-fi elements are somewhat interesting. Not my favorite book from the author, but I liked it. I received a copy of this book for review, all opinions are my own.

If I could force every sentient being to read one book, it might be this one. The glimpses into Nhi's thought processes, fears and hopes resonated with me on a visceral level (and led me to believe she might be autistic, though this might have been projection and wishful thinking on my part as an autistic queer woman myself). The worldbuilding was explained well enough so that I could jump into the story pretty easily but not so dense that I needed to keep a lexicon or actually understand physics.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tordotcom for letting me read an e-ARC of Navigational Entanglements by Aliette de Bodard! (4.5 stars rounded up to 5 for this review)

Readers are thrown head-first into a world that de Bodard crafts as we meet up with junior Navigators from various clans around the system. They are tasked with guiding ships around the Hollows, which are filled with deadly space monsters called Tanglers. These Navigators have the ability to extend their Shadows (it’s hard to describe, but it’s essentially a magic they wield that seems to manifest internally) to deter and avoid these monsters.

Our main characters, Việt Nhi from the Rooster clan and Hạc Cúc from the Snake clan, along with three other junior navigators, are tasked with capturing an escaped Tangler. One of their number is poisoned shortly after their departure and they struggle to figure out how this was possible, but it leads them to an even bigger discovery: the Tangler they seek is enormous, and they certainly won’t be able to destroy this creature on their own. Seeking advice from their elders, they’re given useless information and they realize the creature is on its way toward an area filled with civilians. The catch? There’s no real way to prevent the ensuing destruction.

Nhi refuses to accept defeat, and the entire crew must band together to protect the innocent and, if possible, avoid more damage. Can they solve this problem peacefully and without more loss of life?

Aliette de Bodard knows how to write space operas, even in shorter formats. While I struggled feeling completely immersed in the beginning, I was hooked by 50% and sped through the second half. I was a little turned off by the romance plot between our main characters in the beginning (it felt predictable and immediate attraction isn’t something I love in books), but they grew on me and I was pleased with the ending. If you enjoy sci-fi that doesn’t explain the little details, keeps you on your toes, and leaves a lot of world-building to your wildest imagination, you might enjoy this one! It won’t be my last book by this author.

The story was interesting enough, but everything felt scattered. Maybe there is a prequel I’m missing? The world building was non-existent, so I’m not sure if the characters were human or non-human. The description of Shadow was… minimal and repetitive. I the main character (Nhi?) was almost prescient yet naive. Trying to figure out the politics of the clans versus the empire was impossible. The characters were all deeply flawed and likely each had multiple mental health diagnoses. The romance felt forced and childish.

I may try another of the author’s books in the future. But this one was a bit of a let down.

My thanks to NetGalley for making an eARC of this book available to me.

A very nice short novel. Interesting characters, decent plot. I did get the names mixed up, but that is likely because of an unfamiliarity with the asian cultures. I do hope that we see more books with these characters.

I liked this book, but I didn’t really know what was going on for most of it. The character development kept me reading, and I got the gist of the plot, but the world building lacked enough description to be fully immersed.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC, in exchange for an honest review!

DNF

Unfortunately, I DNF’d this book. As soon as I started, it felt like I was plunged in the middle of a series. I did some research and found that it took place in the same world as the author’s other works. I tried to work through it, but there wasn’t enough world building for me to grasp what was going on. This is a flaw with me rather than the book, so I would like to come back to this if I read the author’s other works in the future. I’m sure it will make a lot more sense to me then!