The Tea Master and the Detective
Welcome to the Scattered Pearls Belt, a collection of ring habitats and orbitals ruled by exiled human scholars and powerful families, and held together by living mindships who carry people and freight between the stars. In this fluid society, human and mindship avatars mingle in corridors and in...
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Welcome to the Scattered Pearls Belt, a collection of ring habitats and orbitals ruled by exiled human scholars and powerful families, and held together by living mindships who carry people and freight between the stars. In this fluid society, human and mindship avatars mingle in corridors and in function rooms, and physical and virtual realities overlap, the appareance of environments easily modified and adapted to interlocutors or current mood.
A transport ship discharged from military service after a traumatic injury, The Shadow's Child now ekes out a precarious living as a brewer of mind-altering drugs for the comfort of space-travellers. Meanwhile, abrasive and eccentric scholar Long Chau wants to find a corpse for a scientific study. When Long Chau walks into her office, The Shadow's Child expects an unpleasant but easy assignment. When the corpse turns out to have been murdered, Long Chau feels compelled to investigate, dragging The Shadow's Child with her.
As they dig deep into the victim's past, The Shadow's Child realises that the investigation points to Long Chau's own murky past--and, ultimately, to the dark and unbearable void that lies between the stars...
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Format: ebook
ISBN:
9781596068650 (1596068655)
Publish date: 2018-03-31
Edition language: English
Series: The Universe of Xuya
I hope Aliette de Bodard has written more in this universe because I wanted more. And a quick search proves that there are more tales in this universe. Good. The story is pretty much self-contained. A mind-ship "The Shadow's Child"(which reminded me of the Ship stories by Anne McCaffrey, reflect...
“When you’re out there, with no one and nothing to stand in your way - when you realise how small you are - you also realise that everything that ever was, that ever will be, is connected to you. That we’re all, in the end, part of the same great thing.”In “The Tea Master and the Detective” by Aliet...
I ordered one of the limited edition hardcovers, even though it was stupid expensive for a novella, and I have no regrets. The book (the actual physical object) is lovely. The material covering the boards is a sort of sparkly antique copper and the end paper is a lovely, textured orange. Together th...
This novella is being touted as being a story with a female Sherlock Holmes with a mindship (starship with bio-engineered human interface at its core) as her Watson. It's not quite that blatant, but the comparison is apt. Long Chau is an arrogant consulting detective who self medicates. The Shadow's...
Welcome to the Scattered Pearls Belt, a collection of ring habitats and orbitals ruled by exiled human scholars and powerful families, and held together by living mindships who carry people and freight between the stars. In this fluid society, human and mindship avatars mingle in corridors and in fu...