The prose in this novella is beautiful (not to mention that cover!!), buuuut the stakes just weren’t there for me. I couldn’t quite connect to Thanh. I didn’t feel invested in her relationships or frustrations—which is SUCH a shame, because this is an incredibly gorgeous world that de Bodard has woven, featuring sapphic characters and a pre-colonial fantasy drawing Vietnamese inspiration. What really took away from my experience with this book was the romance, which overshadowed the lush world-b...

| | blog | tumblr | ko-fi | |2 ½ stars I was intrigued by this novella's premise—The Goblin Emperor meets Howl’s Moving Castle in a Vietnamese inspired setting—by its cover and of course by the promise of sapphic love story. Sadly, I can't say that Fireheart Tiger was a particularly good read. As per usual, if you are thinking of reading this I recommend you read some more positive reviews as my one is not a particularly enthusiastic one. Fireheart Tiger would have probably worked a lot better...

ATTENTION, SAPPHICS!Fireheart Tiger is a sleek and sexy, fierce and fragile spill of a story that unfolds a roving feast of feelings, both beautiful and renewing. Aliette de Bodard deftly mingles subtly cutting court politics with tangled lesbian relationships, and renders both with breathless heat, intense intrigue and a deep, dreadful pang of yearning. “She’ll come back,” Giang says. “To conquer you. To reduce you to a different sort of ashes.” In the small space a novella allows, Aliette

Gorgeously written novella set in a Viet-like queendom (loving the matriarchy, there's barely a man in the entire book and they aren't missed). Thanh is the youngest princess who's returned after a stint as a hostage to the big neighbouring power with colonial takeover ambitions, and as lover to the heir of their throne. When that princess comes to get her as part of a delegation Thanh could go from discarded and unimportant to precious queen's wife. Fairytale. Only that isn't the story.This is

3.5 stars. This fantasy novella is a lushly-told tale set in an ancient Vietnamese type of kingdom that's under the colonizing eye of a northern kingdom. Final review, first posted on FantasyLiterature.com:Princess Thanh was a royal hostage for many years in the northern country of Ephteria before being sent back to her home country of Bình Hải. Two years after her return, she’s a disappointment to her mother, the empress, who hoped that Thanh’s time in Ephteria would give her insights into that...

4.25 Stars. A very good fantasy novella! The story grabbed me instantly and it flew by so fast that I could not believe when it finished. This is a story about a young woman finding her own strength and power, even if it could hurt her relationships with the people around her. The story is clever, the writing is well done, and there are bits of magic and a little sapphic romance to round things out. While the story felt nice and complete, I would love to read more about the main character or jus...

This novella has it all - from magic, betrayal, queer romance to political intrigue. I really enjoyed it!rtcThank you to Macmillan-Tor/Forge and Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

“Life is too short to be ringed by other people’s expectations of proper behavior.” Starting off by saying that the premise of this is absolutely exquisite from the vietnamese-inspired world to the politics and the sapphic romance. I could like in that premise alone but the execution just didn’t hit for me. My favorite aspect was definitely the fact that this was set in a world where the norm is for women to be political, brash, and confident. Which is already different from the usual fantasy

Simply put: Fireheart Tiger was gorgeous. I don't believe I've ever read such a wonderfully contained and satisfying novella before this one. And while the world can leave one wanting for more (*raises hand*), it would not be for lack of resolution of the story told here.At its core, Fireheart is a romance, but the main story is one of self-growth, of breaking out of toxic relationships and realizing your worth, one small step at a time. Codependency is a major theme and is something the protago...

1.5 starsA simplistic self-empowerment, anti-colonialist fantasy novella, featuring a bland, incompetent princess who wants recognition without responsibility: I didn’t think much of this book at all.There will be SPOILERS below!The premise: Thanh, a princess of a quasi-Southeast Asian country, hopes to prove herself to her empress mother in negotiations with an expansionist power, where she spent her adolescence as a negotiated hostage. Things go sideways when her old flame, a princess of said

this book hurt my soul, but also soothed it

Very sweet and lovely...dare I say heartwarming? With so much of the flare for language and world I’ve come to expect from Aliette de Bodard.

When I first saw the announcement of this novella, I didn’t even need to know the premise before adding it to my tbr. And when I saw that stunning cover, my excitement only doubled. I had so much confidence that the author would wow me in just a few pages, and I’m so happy to report that I was right. I find the novella format very fascinating - the less number of pages should realistically not give us enough time to feel invested in the characters or the stakes, but what I’ve realized through re...

On my blog. Rep: Vietnamese coded characters & setting, lesbian mc & lisCWs: implied domestic abuse, sexual assaultGalley provided by publisherI’ve read 5 or 6 books by Aliette de Bodard this year and consistently loved them all, so it was no surprise that I enjoyed Fireheart Tiger as much as I did. It’s on the shorter side for a novella and it so effectively tells the story that it sets out to, you feel at once satisfied with what you have and desperately craving more of the world and charac

☆ 3.5 / 5 ☆ “She’ll come back. To conquer you. To reduce you to a different sort of ashes.” This short story was a wonderful look at imperialism through the lens of a pre-colonial Vietnamese inspired world.Thanh is a princess of Bình Hải, appointed diplomat and returned from Ephteria for a couple of years after she spent most of her life there as a hostage. She was meant to come back an asset, assertive and with political connections, but her quiet demeanor keeps disappointing her mother. Howe...