Book Review: In A Vanishers' Palace

In the Vanishers’ Palace by Aliette de Bodard

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The issue with speculative fiction (a genre that is essentially science fiction and fantasy together) is that it can be very confusing. I love the idea of really unique stories being told; but when you take out a base premise that is easily understood by your reader then you need to provide some tethers. Aliette de Bodard is missing the points of context that allow a reader to stay engaged in a story and able to process the information. In the Vanishers' Palace is so convoluted at times that it made my head spin.

Most Won't Finish
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that most people likely won't finish this story. While only 145 pages long, it feels like it takes forever to read. For example, this excerpt is a sample of the over-the-top descriptions that de Bodard uses:
"The same kind of odd letters she'd seen glowing in the water ran down the side of the bed she was lying in. As they went farther, they altered and shifted orientation, and the walls of the room turned with them and expanded, the unknown words multiplying, turning and growing until they blurred somewhere in an infinite distance, a vertiginous effect that made Yen clutch the sides of the bed for reassurance-look away, she had to look away lest she be drawn into a chasm that had no end"
Where do you even start? Never mind the run-on sentence; but how about the use of 'vertiginous' (as if anyone knows what that really means) or the disorientation that trying to imagine this room causes. I realize that de Bodard is trying to make us feel like our lead gal Yen, and I suppose my confusion and inability to imagine this room is perhaps what she was going for. However it made me feel uncomfortable and unsettled in the story; never mind that these descriptions are throughout the narrative.

Brilliant Romantic Ending
It's funny that amoungst all of the messy and disorienting prose there is a really beautiful story. One where our characters come to know one another in an intimate and caring way. It leads to a lovely, romantic ending that I just loved. Unfortunately you have to get through 90% of the story first to realize this lovely ending.
I didn't realize or think of this as a beauty and the beast story, but others have pointed out it is. In a way it is; but in other ways it is not. Right from the beginning there is a misunderstanding of what is needed from our lead gal and I never felt the dragon was malicious towards her. So to call the dragon a beast is perhaps too literal as her heart never seems to be beastly to me.

Gender
There is one interesting thing that In the Vanishers' Palace handles and that is gender. Our characters that are not human do not necessarily have a gender. They are instead gender fluid. The dragon seems to be a female; which is why many are calling this a f/f beauty and the beast story; but to me it didn't feel like there was really a relevance to anyone's gender except our lead gal and her mother. It wasn't like the dragon, in dragon form, has breasts or female attributes. In human form the dragon may be obviously female but that didn't really solidify it as a f/f story for me. Especially when the dragon is often showing flashes of both forms.

Overall
There are some interesting ideas here but I would have liked the language to be simplified and more touch points provided that made me feel like I could be a part of the story. It was too alien feeling to me. Maybe I just wasn't prepared for that at the start and it threw me off; but I'd like to think I can adapt easily to any sci-fi/fantasy or speculative fiction thrown at me. Instead this felt very aloof and out of my grasp until the very end.
I also guessed the 'big reveal' long before it happened. It was far too obvious to me and I think will be to almost any reader. That is assuming you even get that far.
I give this three stars, instead of two, only because the ending is beautiful and it's clear that de Bodard is trying to do something different here, it just misses the mark for me.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

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