A
liette de Bodard was born November 10, 1982 in New York City to a Vietnamese mother and a French father. At age one she moved with her family to Paris, France, where she has lived ever since, apart from two years in London as a teenager. She attended the École Polytechnique, graduating in 2002 with a degree in applied mathematics, electronics, and computer science. She speaks both French and English fluently, and knows some Vietnamese, but writes her fiction in English.
De Bodard began publishing short fiction in 2006, and has since published many stories in publications including Clarkesworld
, Asimov’s
,
The Year’s Best Science Fiction, and numerous other magazines and anthologies. “Obsidian Shards” was a quarterly winner in the Writers of the Future competition (2007). “The Jaguar House, in Shadow” (2010) and novella
Iâm So Sorry! Romance Novels, Bad Behavior and Forgiveness
Credit.Christy Lundy
March 10, 2021
A romanceâs happy ending requires that neither of the lead characters do anything unforgivable. But everyoneâs definition of unforgivable is different â so if a character does something a reader considers wildly out of bounds, or if a characterâs remorse is not finely calibrated enough for the readerâs taste, it can call the authorâs whole definition of happiness into question.
So Iâm happy to have read Suleikha Snyderâs BIG BAD WOLF (Sourcebooks Casablanca, 305 pp., paper, $8.99), because this may be the first time Iâve ever seen a heroine in a romance novel specifically and emphatically say that forgiving the hero for his past sins was not her job.
7 More Swoon-Worthy Fantasy Romances tor.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from tor.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
I’m a confirmed fan of Aliette de Bodard’s work. Quite aside from her novels,
In the Vanishers’ Palace is perhaps my favourite fantasy novella in a field bursting with excellent novellas, and her Xuya science fiction includes the award-winning
The Tea Master and the Detective – so I’m not alone in valuing her work highly.
Fireheart Tiger is a new novella set in a fantasy world inspired by pre-colonial Vietnam. It is a quiet, powerful story of power and resistance, of control and affection, and of the nature of constraint and alliance in both politics and personal relationships.
The last time I wrote about the swooniest fantasy romances, I said that fantasy romance is like a box of chocolates. And at the risk of sounding like Forrest Gump, it just gets truer with time: While all of these titles are collected in the same place, each has its own flavor and core. You’ve got your historical fantasy bound by slow-burn contracts; your paranormal romance pitting heart against mind and uniting them with desire; your Regency romance and Shakespearean sequels amplified by magic. You can devour a standalone novella whole or nibble at a long-running epic series.
Best of all, this is yet another sampling of a subgenre that grows every month. May you find your heart’s desire in these pages.