In the Vanishers’ Palace

Aliette de Bodard
Save As:
Rate It:

Often recommended for:

beauty and the beast sapphic

Synopsis:

From the award-winning author of the Dominion of the Fallen series comes a dark retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

In a ruined, devastated world, where the earth is poisoned and beings of nightmares roam the land...

A woman, betrayed, terrified, sold into indenture to pay her village's debts and struggling to survive in a spirit world.

A dragon, among the last of her kind, cold and aloof but desperately trying to make a difference.

When failed scholar Yên is sold to Vu Côn, one of the last dragons walking the earth, she expects to be tortured or killed for Vu Côn's amusement.

But Vu Côn, it turns out, has a use for Yên: she needs a scholar to tutor her two unruly children. She takes Yên back to her home, a vast, vertiginous palace-prison where every door can lead to death. Vu Côn seems stern and unbending, but as the days pass Yên comes to see her kinder and caring side. She finds herself dangerously attracted to the dragon who is her master and jailer. In the end, Yên will have to decide where her own happiness lies-and whether it will survive the revelation of Vu Côn's dark, unspeakable secrets...

Advance praise for In the Vanishers' Palace

"Another stellar offering by Bodard. Her signature intensity is on display in this tale of people (and dragons) struggling to survive in the ruins of an alien conquest. Emotionally complex relationships interweave with richly drawn and deftly nuanced world-building." -Kate Elliott, author of the Court of Fives series

"A transformative experience. With dragons." -Fran Wilde, Hugo and Nebula nominated author of The Bone Universe and The Gemworld series

more

Excerpt:

To Yên and Mother, Oanh should have been one patient out of many, another risk of infection and loss. And Heaven knew they lost so many of the sick, in the days after the breaking of the world, when m...

Reader Stats (1):

Want To Read (1)

Reviews:

No Reviews Yet. Please leave a review and help other readers decide

What can you read after
In the Vanishers’ Palace?