Summary:
In a ruined, devastated world, where the earth is poisoned and beings of nightmares roam the land…
A woman, betrayed, terrified, sold into indenture to pay her village’s debts and struggling to survive in a spirit world.
A dragon, among the last of her kind, cold and aloof but desperately trying to make a difference.
When failed scholar Yên is sold to Vu Côn, one of the last dragons walking the earth, she expects to be tortured or killed for Vu Côn’s amusement.
But Vu Côn, it turns out, has a use for Yên: she needs a scholar to tutor her two unruly children. She takes Yên back to her home, a vast, vertiginous palace-prison where every door can lead to death. Vu Côn seems stern and unbending, but as the days pass Yên comes to see her kinder and caring side. She finds herself dangerously attracted to the dragon who is her master and jailer. In the end, Yên will have to decide where her own happiness lies—and whether it will survive the revelation of Vu Côn’s dark, unspeakable secrets…
Thoughts:
I absolutely LOVED In the Vanishes’ Palace. It’s a such a terrific novella, and I feel like it was the perfect length for this story (although I wouldn’t mind spending even more time in this world and learning more about it).
First, there is a dream-like quality about the world itself that is just great. We’re given just enough information to understand, mostly, what’s going on, but everything feels very ephemeral, as if you could forget about it, like a dream upon waking. I think this is one of those things that’s hard to achieve in writing so when I come across it done well, I’m always excited. I think this technique works great for a shorter work like this and also helps enhance the fairy tail tone of the story. This is, after all, a loose retelling of Beauty and the Beast. The downside of this technique is that it can make everything so foggy that some readers may have issues connecting to the work, but I didn’t have that issue myself as I’m a fan of this type of writing.
I really loved Yên’s character–she’s kind and curious, and loves learning things. In a way she’s also a stand in for us, the reader, as we explore this world of the dragon, Vu Côn, and this strange ship that she lives on. Vu Côn is quite interesting too. She’s a power to be reckoned with, but she obviously has a lot of weight on her. She’s carrying the burden of a entire people, as possibly the last of her kind. She definitely feels otherworldly, and yet the vanishers, those unspeakable monsters who tried to wipe out everything in their paths, are even more otherworldly. Even the monsters in this world have nightmares.
This book is short but it explores a lot. One of the main things is colonialism. The Vanishers are colonizers. They came, conquered, took everything they wanted before disappearing and leaving the world behind a wreck of its former self. This isn’t a light tale, although there is light in it.
I really appreciated everything this novella touched on, in such beautifully written prose, with a love story to boot. 5/5 stars.
Way Too Fantasy 
This sounds amazing! Novellas are hard to do right, glad this worked so well😁
Yeah, the shorter length isn’t always enough time to tell a story depending on the story the author is trying to tell. I think it worked really well here and the style was a great fit for me.
That deam quality is very hard to get right, glad to hear it was so well executed
Yes! It really is one of my favorite things.
I LOVED this novella! It’s the first thing of de Bodard’s that I’ve read, and it has definitely made me want to get to her longer works!
I’ve only read The House of Shattered Wings, which I really loved. I need to get back to that series. It sort of reminds me of the anime Haibane Renmei in some ways….it’s really interesting and kind of dark and twisty.
I’m so glad you loved this, it sounds wonderful! I’ve been looking for some new novellas to check out lately.
I’ve really been loving a lot of the novellas Tor.com has been putting out as well. I’m glad novellas seem to be making a come back!
I’ve really gotten into novellas lately (thanks Tor!), i find they are the perfect length. short enough that I can get through the entire thing in about two hours, and also short enough that I’m left wanting more. and isn’t that better than being done with the story long before you’re done with the book?
I’ve enjoyed a bunch of de Bodard’s Xuya stories, so basically looking forward to reading anything she writes!
Yeah, I’ve been loving Tor.com’s novellas, they’ve been putting out some great stuff. I haven’t read any of her Xuya stories but have been curious about them. I do love her style of writing.
This sounds really good. I don’t read a lot of novellas but I do pay attention to the ones with strong favourable reviews.
Lynn 😀
I’m really enjoying novellas these days, kinda glad they’re making a comeback. 🙂
This sounds like such a beautiful book! Definitely want to check it out! Awesome review!
Thanks, hope you get a chance to. The good thing is it’s a novella so it’s a shorter read too. 🙂