Author: Aliette De Bodard
Published: 2021
Target audience: Adults (appropriate ages 14+)
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SIGNIFICANT PLOT SPOILERS
Fate and flames collide in this tale about learning to break free of abusive connections and reclaim yourself. Weaving a parallel between colonialism and unhealthy relationships, French-American author Aliette De Bodard draws on her Vietnamese heritage to present ‘Fireheart Tiger’ - a sapphic novella set in a fantasy world inspired by pre-colonial dynastic Vietnam.
The premise is intriguing. We are introduced to Princess Thanh of Bình Hải as she seeks to prove her worth to her Empress mother by leading diplomatic negotiations with Ephteria, a more powerful neighbouring empire. As a child, Thanh was sent away to be a royal hostage in Ephteria, and eventually had a secret, six-month relationship with Eldris, the Ephterian princess. Now two years after returning to Bình Hải, the last person Thanh expects to see arriving at the trade negotiations is Eldris…
‘Fireheart Tiger’ centres around issues of power dynamics in relationships - familial, political, and romantic. As the two princesses reignite their relationship, there is a promising narrative focus on the unequal balance of power between former hostage Thanh and Eldris, the heir of a far stronger, expansionist empire. Yet for all its potential, the narrative suffers from unengaging characters, pacing problems, and lacklustre romantic elements. The negotiations scenes are also clumsily written and insubstantial, weakening credibility in Thanh’s role as head diplomat. Despite being a novella, there is a lot of unnecessary repetition eating up paragraphs that could have instead been used to actually flesh out the characters and their relationships. In less than 20 pages, Thanh manages to reminisce four times about the palace fire she barely escaped while in Ephteria.
As a romance, ‘Fireheart Tiger’ struggles to develop believable romantic connections or nuanced emotional intimacy for readers to become invested in. Thanh’s individual relationships with Eldris, and later Giang the fire spirit, are presented as having no basis other than them just turning up and seeing if Thanh is interested. Having been sent away in childhood as an unwanted, spare daughter and only to be told upon return as an adult that she came back too soft and pliant, there is an established foundation to Thanh’s desire to be wanted and accepted. However, any compassion fostered by this is undermined by Thanh’s impulsive actions. For example, while leading talks with the Ephterian delegation, Thanh leaves the meeting and instead has sex in the palace gardens with Eldris, all while Ephteria encroaches on Thanh’s home. Such decisions make Thanh seem foolish and do not endear her to readers as a protagonist. Even Thanh thinks that her libido is a problem, acknowledging that she is “making Bình Hải vulnerable because she can’t do a simple a thing as controlling her lust.”
Thanh and Eldris’ relationship is presented as a predominantly physical one, with little emotional or romantic dimension. The catalyst for their relationship (also recounted twice in less than 20 pages) is that Eldris just knocked on Thanh’s bedroom door one night and wordlessly offered a rose with a smile. Readers are given scarcely any other insight into what their past relationship was like, nor why we should care about it being rekindled in the present. When Eldris proposes marriage, it obviously does not come from a place of genuine affection, merely a possessive, entitled desire for physical and political gain. Therefore, when things fall apart between Thanh and Eldris, there no sense of loss or surprise for readers, just bland inevitability.
Thanh and Giang’s relationship has even less development, with Giang’s confession coming as an actual shock when I read it. All their interactions prior to this point had essentially consisted of the fire spirit materialising in Thanh’s room, Giang commenting that humans are weird, and Thanh and Giang calling each other “Big sis” and “L’il sis.” At first I thought these terms of address may be a translation issue, lacking a contextual normalcy housed in the original text, be it perhaps French or Vietnamese. However, in an interview with SF Signal, De Bodard confirms that while her first language is French, she specifically writes her speculative fiction stories in English. Thus, when Thanh and Giang repeatedly refer to each other as sisters and then start making out, this phrasing makes for uncomfortable reading due to incestuous undertones. This is worsened by descriptions of Giang being childlike in mannerisms and ignorant of the world.
‘Fireheart Tiger’ reads like an interesting outline for a full length novel with great potential, yet it’s reality as a published novella is lacking and forgettable. I suggest giving this one a skip.
