The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard - Book Review #286

I have a soft spot for AI’s and especially the one’s the occupy spaceships.  There is something familiar and yet alien about them.  Because I love ships of all kinds, ocean-going or space, I feel protective to them.

The Shadow’s Child was a military transport that suffered a catastrophic ambush in a past war and is currently working from a space station, taking on occasional passengers and brewing drugs to help humans cope and function during FTL flights.

I was taken by the acceptance of the AI as a being with rights and responsibilities.  Perhaps this is because the intelligence itself was first created by human parents before being transferred to the ship’s systems.

I was also taken by the culture, so much of SF seems to be an extension of Western military life but here the culture is overwhelmingly Asian in influence.  I found this refreshing.  So much world-building calls for authors to invent systems that fit their stories but why not use ones that are part of our world today?  If humanity is to expand into space it’s logical that we will take our cultures with us.

The story a pastiche as the two main characters, Long Chau is much like Sherlock Holmes and The Shadow’s Child as Watson.  The characters were engaging and the mystery cloaked in family history.

It was a delight of a book.  Plus, it won the Nebula Award for best Novella in 2018.

Aliette de Boddard’s Website - https://aliettedebodard.com/

Aliette de Bodard