And it’s back to “The Universe of Xuya” for another detective story.

Originally published in Interzone, then printed in The Year’s Best Science Fiction and then re-printed at International Speculative Fiction where you can read it for free.

Once again we’re in the heart of Xuya, and Xuyan society, but instead of an American detective we are now given a Mexica magistrate.   Once again, cultural tensions are played out as the Mexica people who are now living in Xuya are mostly refugees who fled Mexica during the civil war; and just like in real life, where we find immigrant communities we find a wide spectrum between the culturally conservative groups on one side, who do everything possible to maintain their old ways in the new land, and, on the other side, those who chose to leave their past completely behind and adopt the new land’s ways completely as their own: i think, for me at least, the exploration of this spectrum is what this story does best.

Our Mexica magistrate, the first non-Xuyan magistrate in Xuya, has been given a Mexica woman’s death to investigate and is forced to confront her own past, people and culture within this new land, a land in which she, and others, have tried to leave the past behind.

So as much as this story is another piece in Aliette’s alternative history of the world, it’s also a thought provoking look into the lives of those who have had to leave their homes and cultures behind and find a new future in a new and foreign land.

Once again, great writing, interesting characters, good pacing.

And straight into Starsong — yeah, i’m becoming an addict.

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Another novella that continues on from the previous two in building “The Universe of Xuya”.

You can read this at Aliette’s website.

This time we are taken into the heart of Xuya, and Xuyan society, where a young women has disappeared and her wealthy mother — who doesn’t want to get the Xuyan authorities involved — employs an American detective to find her.

So what we end up with is a rather good detective story that also gives the reader their first glimpse into the heart of Xuya and the cultural tensions between Xuya, America, Greater Mexica and their peoples.

I’m really enjoying Aliette’s style in how she is slowly building this alternative history of the world.   Not the usual, tedious, info dumps of some sci-fi writers, but each a delightful short story/novella each giving us a view of this history from a totally different perspective.

Once again, great writing, interesting characters, good pacing.   I’m also liking that this is not a series that you can just buy all the parts easily from Amazon, i’m very much liking that they’re scattered all around the internet and have to be found one at a time, it’s like a big puzzle.

Our next Xuya book will be Butterfly, Falling at Dawn

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And, so, further goes my journey into “The Universe of Xuya”.

The only place i could find this novella was at Space and Time magazine, where it made its appearance in the June 2010 edition.   For $2.99 you get the whole magazine in PDF format which worked very well on my Fire HD tablet.   I’ve no idea what the rest of the magazine is like as i haven’t read any of it, but its there for a future perusal should i find a few spare moments.

Anyways, onto the story.   We’re back in Greater Mexica, 4 years after the events in The Jaguar House, in Shadow.   This time we have a young couple who are being hunted by the Revered Speaker’s regime and we begin to learn more and more about Greater Mexica and Xuya as their attempt to escape to Xuya unfolds.

One thing i have to say about the few Xuya stories that i’ve read so far, is that Aliette doesn’t give the reader any respite at all.   Once you start reading you just get pulled along with the non-stop action and shenanigans, totally captured.   Great writing, great characters, great world/universe building going on.   The more i read the more i want to read.

The next story from the series is The Lost Xuyan Bride.

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I liked the cover, i liked the title, i liked the synopsis, i liked that it was 99p, and …

… i rather liked the story as well.

The “Tea Master” is actually a mindship, which isn’t really explained fully in the story, but you kind of get the idea that some sentient being has been implanted into the heart of some kind of space ship.   There’s a real enigmatic element flowing through this story, and i think a lot of it is because this is a standalone from a much wider story line, that of Xuya, and i’m fairly sure if i go and read lots of stories from the Xuya Universe i’ll soon find out all about mindships and such like.

But for this book, not being fully up to speed on the hard facts of everything really doesn’t detract.   In fact, i quite like the brushing over of the science and just getting down to the real bones of the story: that of a damaged mindship turned tea maker because they can’t face deep space any more, and that of a detective, who also comes across as fairly damaged herself.   The two have to somehow get over their issues and investigate the death of a child and hopefully prevent more deaths.

Nebula Award winner and Hugo Award finalist for best novella, a sci-fi book doesn’t come with much better credentials.

After reading this i just had to go and read more from The Universe of Xuya, and so i gave this book a second reading when it was due in the series.   It’s much better read with the full Xuya background, and you can find that second review to The Tea Master and the Detective by clicking on it.

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