Aliette de Bodard

Award-winning author Aliette de Bodard returns with Fireheart Tiger, a fantasy novella that reads like The Goblin Emperor meets Howl's Moving Castle set in a world inspired by precolonial Vietnam...

Fireheart Tiger

Kiran Aftab

I probably would have liked this more in a longer format

britt

it was just fine. i did enjoy the cultural elements that were added into it.

Kelsey Munson

So many great things happening in this story, I just wish it were longer (this is a novella) and more fleshed out.

maride

I'm going to be honest... I really thought this was a Five-stars read... but something ...maybe in the way that is written difficult me read the story... when I was in page 30 after more or less a moth since I start the book I found myself frustrated because : yes I was full for college but u thought that I would end this book in a week or 2 weeks but one month later I ended the story. 

I found myself wanted to scream to Thanh, to say to her that all the decision she made or that others makes her made was wrong, the her lover (her colonizer)  do not see her like a same person but as a barbarian as a less person. 

I can see why everybody loved this book, myself (my story , ect) can relate to Thanh, i loved her, i wanted the best for her but maybe the author needed more pages to explore the profundities in all the relationships... maybe if we could see more deep in the story would be a Five star story for me ...

Lia Yuliana

3.5 / 5 stars , will elaborate my thoughts soon :)

Update 13/12/2020


  “You matter.”



  ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.


An old flame that ran away with a princess escaping a burning castle. A dazzling short fantasy story that leaves faint kisses upon your mind; as they linger, burning a memory reclaiming one’s true identity. Fireheart Tiger is the newest novella by Aliette de Bodard, a story about a powerless princess named Thanh. Set in a pre-colonial Vietnamese inspired world, Thanh learns to break free from her trauma and prove herself to her demanding mother, the Empress.

Fireheart Tiger is a soon to be released (9th February 2021) sapphic novella by Aliette de Bodard, an award winning writer that have garnered a reputation with her multiple award winning short stories and series. I was lucky enough to receive an ARC (Advance Readers Copy) through NetGalley from the publishers and I am very much grateful as the pitch for this short story is quite interesting, as below from Tordotcom.

Award-winning author Aliette de Bodard returns with a powerful romantic fantasy that reads like The Goblin Emperor meets Howl’s Moving Castle in a pre-colonial Vietnamese-esque world. (link)

With the mention of Howl’s Moving Castle and Vietnamese being in mentioned in one sentence, I immediately picked up Fireheart Tiger. Upon reading the first few parts I am thrown into the empire of Bin Hai that is in the midst of preparing for a big negotiation with Ephteria that has long been in alliance with Bin Hai. This negotiation is especially important as the tensions are high between the two countries. In the center of the negotiations is Thanh, the youngest princess of Bin Hai and negotiator representing the Empress. Thanh is chosen by her mother specifically because of her knowledge of the Ephteria. Fireheart Tiger offers political intrigue in the dance between Thanh and the representatives of Bin Hai. Besides the already high tension of negotiations, in the midst of it all is a blossoming romance. For two years Thanh is offered as a bargaining chip by her mother to live in Yosolis castle in Ephteria. During those two years Thanh and Eldris, the princess of Ephteria, falls in love and has full on love affair. This love affair distracts Thanh as she still yearns for Eldris and is reminded constantly of their short love affair in Yosolis castle.


  She slowly, deliberately sips her tea, trying not to look at Eldris-not to think of Eldris and the way that her heart still misses a beat whenever Eldris’s gaze rest on her. The liquor is green and luminous and faintly tastes of the sea.


Characters are a big part in how I enjoy a story. Thanh is a very timid and insecure character. There are many moments when she doubts herself constantly. Thanh sees herself as invaluable because of how cold her mother treats her and her mother can easily send her away. Thanh is clearly traumatized from the past incidents during her stay in Yosolis. The author did a great job in writing about her trauma and her struggles to fit into her many roles. The only way Thanh copes with her trauma is by remembering the servant girl named Giang that she met in Yosolis. Not to mention any spoilers, relationships plays a big part in pushing Thanh to break free from her shell. Personally, Thanh as a character isn’t very noteworthy as I hoped for her to be. She didn’t leave a strong impression for me to care about her. Many of her inner thoughts are repetitive because everything keeps circling back to the that specific incident when it could be explored from different angles. For side characters, one character that stood out to me most is Thanh’s mother. I grew up in an Asian household so I know how high the expectations Asian parents have for their children. And the Empress definitely reminds me a lot of the tiger moms from back when I was in elementary school.


  She would have let you burn.


The romance of Fireheart Tiger is the core of plot together with the political drama. I will not mention anything about it because it might lead to spoilers. But I would like to mention that insta love is one of those tropes that I dislike if it isn’t done well. In Fireheart Tiger, the new found romance didn’t translate well to me as a reader. The relationship felt forced and it was hard for me to believe in the relationship. The stronger points about the romance is the writing. Aliette knows how to pull on your heartstrings by showing vulnerability in Thanh. The writer shows Thanh’s vulnerability in a very human and raw way. I wish the story could be longer because Thanh’s development could be fully realized and less rushed if this book got 200 pages more.

There are underlying themes in the story that stood out for me as a reader. To name a few; there are themes about abusive relationships, parental expectations, self discovery, and so much more. In this book the setting description is very prominent in the first few parts but it just slows down because everything happens mostly in a few condensed places. I had high expectations for this story. The internal debate about my stance with Fireheart Tiger is never ending. I love the charm of incomplete and open ended endings but the characters didn’t anchor me to the story. My thoughts kept floating to the surface when I hoped for it to sink deeper. I still recommend this book for anyone that is interested in a short sapphic novella with hints of magic mixed into a character driven plot definitely pick this book up. Fireheart Tiger is a story that I hoped to hit me with a wholesome sapphic romance. I am sad that this book didn’t hit me as hard as I wanted it to. But! No matter! I am planning on reading Aliette’s other notable works, especially her award winning short stories.

Thank you for reading!


  The quotes in this review were taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.

Alexia Beatrice Guglielmi

2.5 stars? maaaaaybe 3?


  Read this if you like: poc&lgbtq+ rep, anti-imperialist stories, super quick reads.
Don't read this if you don't like: underdeveloped worlds, underdeveloped characters, underdeveloped romances, insta-love, and (not sure if this counts as a spoiler so marked it just in case) (view spoiler)[love triangles (hide spoiler)].

Unfortunately I didn't enjoy this as much as I hoped I would. Yes, it's a novella, so of course it's going to be short, but I just don't think this story was given all the space it needed to be fully developed. The romance wasn't believable in the slightest (view spoiler)[both of them. Yeah, Eldris has history with Thanh, but there was no chemistry between them. And Thanh and Giang? Oh boy, the insta-love was so? upsetting. It could have been so great if the romance had been developed properly (hide spoiler)] though I did enjoy how it added conflict to the narrative, and I really wanted to learn more about the world de Bodard had created. I mean, there were allusions to wars on their borders, to having been a colonial nation in the past, and to supernatural beings? And we got almost none of that???

I loved (the foundations of) the setting, the themes of empire and colonialism, and the story itself was really good...it just should have been longer. As in, fully-fledged-novel type of long. Because I'm pretty confident that extra space would have solved all its pitfalls for me.

Sahi K

When I first saw the announcement of this novella, I didn’t even need to know the premise before adding it to my tbr. And when I saw that stunning cover, my excitement only doubled. I had so much confidence that the author would wow me in just a few pages, and I’m so happy to report that I was right. 

I find the novella format very fascinating - the less number of pages should realistically not give us enough time to feel invested in the characters or the stakes, but what I’ve realized through reading quite a bit of short fiction in 2020 is that the authors who frequently write in this format are masters at their craft, skillfully able to make us emotionally engaged in the story right from the get go. And that’s exactly what happened here. 

Thanh is a very sympathetic character and I instantly liked her, started worrying for her and just wanted her to be safe. I can’t go into details about the other characters without revealing spoilers but every one of them was fully realized, and it was fascinating to me that I was able to glean most of their motivations despite everything being so subtle. The world building is also seamlessly integrated without any infodumps, giving us the right amount of information so that we can follow along with the political intrigue and the diplomatic negotiations. The pacing is perfect, never feeling rushed but also fast enough that’s it’s easy to forget everything else while reading it. And I just can’t say enough about the prose - it was absolutely beautiful and poetic and so very full of feeling. 

But the most surprising part of the book was how delicately the author handled some of the themes. The primary one is a critique of colonialism, showing us how arrogant the imperial powers are about their inherent righteousness, calling the others “savages” and subtly threatening to occupy them. We also see how this arrogance manifests in personal relationships, a sense of entitlement that makes them feel that they have the right to love and can’t be denied, manipulating and gaslighting to get their way. The author never tells us any of this though, she makes us feel and understand all of it just through normal seeming character interactions, and I thought it was brilliantly executed. 

In the end, all I can say is that if you love short fiction, you can’t miss this. If you love Asian sapphic fantasy stories like I do, then this is absolutely perfect for you. And I would definitely recommend this to anyone who loves a flawless blend of cutthroat politics, diplomatic maneuvering and a pining romance, set in a lush and beautiful fantasy world.

Toni Turner

** spoiler alert **
           I loved these vibes and the politics but why did i have to be hit with the super toxic romance?? Grooming?? I fucking hope not. We never really got a real answer about that idk how much older she was. But also! EW to the fact that they referred to each other as sister even after they realized they were falling in love?? Maybe the specific terminology of big sis and li’l sis don’t strictly mean siblings in other cultures but in my little brain that really threw me off. I liked the concept of the ending a lot. And the mc’s growth throughout the book, but it all happened so fast towards the last third when the pacing had been really good I thought for how short it was.

Jennifer

I was a bit hesitant of reading Fireheart Tiger as I had a pretty mixed experience with Aliette de Bodard last month. But when I was going through the new book releases today, the premise of this novella piqued my interest. I've been looking out for diverse reads and I was intrigued that the premise said Fireheart Tiger is set in a pre-colonial Vietnamese-inspired world.

In this highly character-driven novella, a few things stood out to me: the exotic fictional world, the fire symbolism representing human sentiments, and the fascinating love triangle. It has the recipes for a solid novel. In particular, the fire symbolism: the warmth, the rage, and the affection - was done really well. I really liked how the symbolism is related to the personality of the three major characters in the novella. 

On the other hand, since this is a novella there is simply not enough pages to sufficiently flesh out everything. While the characterisation is good (thanks to the wonderful fire metaphors), it still feels incomplete. Like, I didn't feel that Thanh's relationship with Eldris was properly justified (it's a bit rushed and stiff) - so I basically just sat there and wasn't surprised of how things played out in the end. Similarly, the worldbuilding suffered due to the length of the novella. While de Bodard managed to condense the political tension pretty succinctly within the pages, there were a lot of things that I still didn't know about this world.

Nevertheless, I found Fireheart Tiger a pretty interesting read. It packed politics, complicated feelings, and magic in an exotic world. If you're into character-driven fantasy reads in a diverse setting, this is definitely something to check out!

N.B. Fireheart Tiger contains following triggers: emotional blackmail, toxic relationships, and trauma

Nikki K

I can’t express my devastation enough!! One of my most anticipated books of 2021 let me down, hard. 

This is pitched as The Goblin Emperor meets Howl's Moving Castle, but I don't think these comparisons do the book any favours. It promises a lot more than it is able to deliver.

I think all the problems I had with this book boil down to one thing – it was too short. 
I love novellas, and they can be very successful. But this story tried to do too much in less than 100 pages. 

The story was unique and interesting, set in a world I wanted to know more about and the characters had the potential to be complex. But this book left itself no room to unpack any of this in enough depth. Novellas are successful if they isolate a single part of the story and focus on it alone. This novella tried to explore political negotiations, a (sapphic!!) love triangle, discussion about race, and a fantasy element, leaving none of them space enough to breathe. 

None of the characters are developed enough for the reader to feel strongly about them, making it hard to root for them. The romance between Thanh and Eldris is built on no foundation, the only mention of their history given in a few sentences. Had the author built up the romance between them in longer flashbacks to their past I might have felt more strongly about them. Although points for the several mentions of Eldris' sword bouncing against her leg, sapphics love a sword-wielding woman. 

I can see what the author was going for, and I just desperately wish she had allowed herself a bigger word count. The book should have started 2 years earlier and been at least 200 pages longer. There is a strong premise and an interesting story hidden in this book, but unfortunately too much of this is left to the reader to imagine themselves.

 tw: domestic/physical abuse 

 ARC provided by Macmillan-Tor/Forge via Netgalley

Melea Mullican

4.57 on CAWPILE

First let me say I can see where a lot of people would love this book. Second let me say, I don't particularly ever enjoy novellas. This story had a lot going for it: politics, sapphic romance, diverse culture, and fire elementals. Unfortunately, nothing was ever fleshed out enough for me to really care or understand any of it. You're thrown into all these politics and a romance with no context or really back story, nor do you ever really get one. It is insta-romance at it's finest because of the length. I also just didn't jive with the writing style.

Overall, it just wasn't the book for me. If you like short stories, I think you should 100% give this one a try. This particular story just didn't work well for me in that short of a format.

Hayley 📖🌈💜🌸

This was- weird? I don’t know how I feel.

cee 

Savannah Lowe

Naomi J.

Award-winning author Aliette de Bodard returns with Fireheart Tiger, a powerful romantic fantasy that reads like The Goblin Emperor meets Howl's Moving Castle in a pre-colonial Vietnamese-esque world Fire burns bright and has a long memory.... Quiet, thoughtful princess Thanh was sent away as a hostage to the powerful faraway country of Ephteria as a child. Now she’s returned to her mother's imperial court, haunted not only by memories of her first romance, but by worrying magical echoes of a fire that devastated Ephteria’s royal palace. Thanh's new role as a diplomat places her once again in the path of her first love, the powerful and magnetic Eldris of Ephteria, who knows exactly what she wants: romance from Thanh and much more from Thanh’s home. Eldris won't take no for an answer, on either front. But the fire that burned down one palace is tempting Thanh with the possibility of making her own dangerous decisions. Can Thanh find the freedom to shape her country’s fate—and her own? At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Fireheart Tiger

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