Review
On a Red Station, Drifting
2012
Immersion Press
Review by Peter Young in Big Sky #1 (2013).
A refugee magistrate from a destroyed world arrives on a Viet space station occupied by some distant yet unwelcoming family. With honour and familial ties seemingly determining everything she is able to do, can she ease her passage by solving a mystery regarding some ancestral memory implants, and at the same time re-assert her status to her lasting benefit? Set in the expansive ‘Universe of Xuya’ this is a bridging novella set in a remote corner of that universe, and connects de Bodard’s ‘space station’ stories to the rest of the series. Some awareness of earlier ‘Xuya’ episodes might be in order, and in structure this reminded me of the earlier 20th Century ‘Xuya’ murder mystery ‘Butterfly, Falling at Dawn’. This is a closed microcosm of colourful Asian society set against the blackness of space; the story’s unfolding is well-paced, with the detail supporting the plot admirably. It’s no wonder I always look forward to new additions to this series.
