The Tea Master and the Detective
Aliette de Bodard
Subterranean
Fiction, Mystery/Sci-Fi
Themes: Cross-Genre, Diversity, Girl Power, Religious Themes, Space Stories, Weirdness
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Description
Among the floating habitats of the Scattered Pearls, the mindship The Shadow's Child struggles to get by, brewing specialized teas that enable humans to function in the depths of space. She used to be a military ship, but a traumatic accident destroyed her crew and left her physically and mentally scarred; now, the very thought of descending into the unreality of deep spaces - one of the primary functions of mindships - paralyzes her. Then the strange woman arrives with an unusual and dangerous request: to retrieve a body from the deep. The Shadow's Child agrees to work with the abrasive lady... and finds herself pulled into a most unusual investigation, even as she's forced to confront her greatest fears.
Review
This story takes a very original, if somewhat surreal, setting, then forces it into a mold carved by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; yes, Long Chau is essentially Sherlock, and the mindship The Shadow's Child is a massive metal Watson, down to her inability to ever be a step ahead of the infallible (and often cold) detective. The result is a jerky, uneven story that perpetually had me convinced I'd missed a prologue or previous book. The mindships needed more exploration, as did the deep spaces, a form a hyperspace where reality itself - inside a vessel and out - melts and warps, where bodies twist in impossible ways and are transformed into jewel-like stones, and only the drugs of the "teas" enable anything resembling normal mental functioning at all. The world of the Scattered Pearls, with its Asian roots and the ubiquitous miniature bots and other trappings, never quite came into focus as more than a confusing blur, if a confusing blur with bright colors and intriguing shapes. The mystery, therefore, is difficult to care about, let alone solve, with a culture I could barely penetrate and possibilities and motives that seem opaque from the outside. Forcing a Sherlockian framework did not help, and in fact distracted me when I was trying to figure out the unique aspects of de Bodard's invented world. I never got a sense of the chemistry that existed between Holmes and Watson, either, making the partnership awkward and lopsided (even moreso than Doyle's characters.) Eventually, things wrap up and the expected hint of a sequel or series is left dangling at the end. If there are more books, though, I won't be reading on. Despite the intriguing ideas at play, I never developed any real interest in the characters, and their world never felt remotely welcoming. In the end, this is another case of "not a bad story, but not my cup of cocoa."