Aliette de Bodard’s novella IN THE VANISHERS’ PALACE turns the devastating aftermath of colonialism into a wave that warps & crashes into the singularity of a distant future, inadvertently springing old myth to new life, rebooting stories erased, inspiring new beings to stand against its tide. I loved it, and can attest that it’s as gorgeously written and evoked as its beautiful cover art (by Kelsey Liggett), recognizing that language is magic that codes the many worlds in our heads, deciding how they align with and affect the one we live in. It’s also a beautiful and sensuous queer romance that’s carried along powerfully on the phantasmagoric currents of the novella’s psychedelic far-future setting and imagery, taking the queasy politics of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and subverting them in spectacular yet subtle fashion.
