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A review by catevari
Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 78 by Neil Clarke
4.0
Of the Xuya stories that I've read so far (which is far from a complete list) this is the story that bears the least resemblance to the others and feels the least connected, except by the tethers of race and culture and family and how those tethers can also become strangling vines. It also was the story I had the hardest time falling into, for the world to come into focus and for me to understand what the story was even about (I had not read the blurb beforehand).
That being said, once the story solidifies, it's a breathtaking story; about conquest and the history books of the victors, of those who weren't the conquerors, trying to forge a viable future for themselves and for their children and the painful ghosts that come of that, of mothers and daughters. Though de Bodard is not from the U.S. and though these themes are and can be repeated across the planet's face (esp. given the U.S.'s propensity for interfering in world politics whether they're wanted or not), as someone from the U.S., it does speak so specifically and strongly of the world and politics surrounding me that it's like seeing a crime played out before me, one I'm helpless to intervene in or prevent. I can only watch it happen and bear witness.
That being said, once the story solidifies, it's a breathtaking story; about conquest and the history books of the victors, of those who weren't the conquerors, trying to forge a viable future for themselves and for their children and the painful ghosts that come of that, of mothers and daughters. Though de Bodard is not from the U.S. and though these themes are and can be repeated across the planet's face (esp. given the U.S.'s propensity for interfering in world politics whether they're wanted or not), as someone from the U.S., it does speak so specifically and strongly of the world and politics surrounding me that it's like seeing a crime played out before me, one I'm helpless to intervene in or prevent. I can only watch it happen and bear witness.