Navigational Entanglements by Aliette de Bodard 📚
A while ago I read The Red Scholar’s Wake by the same author; both are space opera romances based on Vietnamese culture, part of the Xuya Universe series of connected stories. Each work in the series is largely independent, sharing the same future history where Asian rather than European nations come to dominate the western hemisphere, and in the far future expand to the stars, resulting in a starfaring civilization based on Eastern rather than Western values.
The story is fairly short and action packed, centered on four junior navigators assigned to help track down and deal with a hyperspace squid-creature, each from one of the four clans which are responsible for taking ships safely into and out of said hyperspace. Each has distinctive characteristics, ranging from neurodivergent to traumatized to just too curious for their own good, but the primary viewpoints are Nhi and Hạc Cúc, who gradually discover that despite their differences and cross-clan distrust they are stronger together. Yes, the found family of misfits save the day, overcome institutional obstacles, and find hope for the future.
Recommended.
