Le Silence de la cité by Élisabeth Vonarburg

For France, a look at the recent winners of Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire would give you dozens of good reading suggestions from Pierre Bordage’s large space opera Guerriers du Silence ( Warriors of Silence) to Alain Damasio’s surprising La Horde du Contrevent ( The Horde Against the Wind). From Vietnam, Linh Dinh’s Night, Again is an anthology of 20th-Century short stories from Vietnam, several of which have genre elements (ghosts, river spirits, …): my particular favorite is Tran Ngoc Tuan’s “The River’s Curse”, a Gothic horror story with a great sense of atmosphere and a sting in its tale–taking a jaundiced look at human good intentions and what they come to.įor non-translated works, I could cite dozens that people are missing out on, given the poor translation rate from other languages into English. (Elisabeth’s non-translated works, particularly the Queen of Memory series which looks at French colonialism and its effects in an alternate history, are also well worth checking out, as are her short stories.

It probably loses somewhat in translation (I read it in the original French), since part of its appeal is the play on gendered words in French, but it’s still a very intelligent and compassionate look at the kind of relationships that would develop between women, and a gentle, nuanced portrayal of a society that makes it feel lived even as it acknowledges its limits. I have a particular fondness for Elisabeth Vonarburg’s The Maerland Chronicles, which is a masterful look at a devastated future where women control society–seen through the lens of one woman’s life and personal quest. Aliette de Bodard is the author of novels including Harbinger of the Storm and award-winning short fiction in venues such as Interzone and Asimov’s.

Le Silence de la cité by Élisabeth Vonarburg