As someone way smarter than me once said, “Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is.” It’s why getting from one planet to the next can be tricky. In some science fiction stories, traversing the vastness of space takes faster-than-light travel. In others, cryogenic sleep is involved. And in still others, it takes a willingness for some people to start the journey knowing that their ancestors will finish it.
Then there’s Aliette de Bodard’s science fiction space opera novella Navigational Entanglements (hardcover, Kindle), in which traveling through space involves eldritch monsters and…y’know, we’ll just let her explain it in the following email interview, as what as everything else you need to know about this character-focused sci-fi story.
Photo Credit: Chloe Vollmer-Lo
To start, what is Navigational Entanglements about, and when and where is it set?
Navigational Entanglements is set in a universe where there is fast space travel…if you’re willing to take the risk. That travel happens through a parallel dimension called the Hollows, where there are dangerous eldritch monsters (the Tanglers), which is why people need a trained navigator in order to get where they’re going without being eaten by the Tanglers.
Nhi is one such navigator, but she’s very junior, which means she gets all the worst jobs. In this case, the job involves an investigation into a very large disaster where a Tangler escaped through what looks like negligence. It’s dangerous and thankless; and it would be bad enough, but then her minder gets mysteriously murdered and things go worse.
Hạc Cúc is also a junior navigator, and her job involves a lot of murdering people who haven’t been following the rules. She isn’t thrilled to be stuck on the same mission as Nhi, but as the investigation goes on, she gradually falls for Nhi…
It sounds like Navigational Entanglements is a sci-fi space opera story, but one that’s more like Firefly / Serenity than, say, Star Trek, and has some cosmic horror elements as well. How do you describe it, genre-wise, and why that way?
I say it’s a character-focused space opera, which I think gets across the way it has a sweeping background but is really tightly focused on the characters and their relationships with themselves, each other and the environment.
Navigational Entanglements is not your first novel; are there any writers, or specific stories, that had a big influence on Navigational Entanglements, but not on anything else you’ve written?
Well, it was inspired a lot by xianxia (and some wuxia), which means novels by Priest, Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, Jin Yong, Shelley Parker-Chan…
But really it’s hard to say whether these were specific influences on this novel, because I tend to read things and then they influences my writing; it’s hardly a conscious process.
How about such non-literary influences as movies, TV shows, or games? Did any of those things have a big influence on Navigational Entanglements?
Well, the TV shows are very often made from the books, plus there were a few others I really liked, so Word Of Honor, The Untamed, Legend Of Exorcism, Heaven’s Official Blessing, Legend Of Fei, Anh Hung (Hero), Hotel del Luna, Mystic Pop-Up Bar… Not an exhaustive list, just the ones I really liked.
Now, the press release for Navigational Entanglements says, “…it’s perfect for fans of de Bodard’s Hugo Award-winning Xuya Universe series while also offering a self-contained entry point for readers new to her work.” Does that mean it’s part of the Xuya Universe series but a stand-alone story or that it’s not part of that series but is in the same vein as those books?
It’s not in the series. It’s definitely in the same vein as these books, in the sense that it’s inspired by Vietnamese culture, centers queer characters and generally reads and feels very much like a Bodard story.
I asked earlier if Navigational Entanglements was influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games. But to flip things around, do you think Navigational Entanglements could work as a movie, show, or game?
I think it would work great as a TV series, the main issue I see is it’d be a fairly short run as the plot is very short, and most TV series I’m thinking of are the Asian ones which are 50+ episodes. Or possibly as a donghua or anime, I’ve always wanted to have my work made into one of these.
And if someone wanted to make Navigational Entanglements into a TV show, animated or otherwise, who would you want them to cast as Việt Nhi and Hạc Cúc, and why them?
I’m honestly less about actors in particular than I am about presence. It doesn’t matter to me that the actors don’t quite look like their descriptions in the book, though I would want them to be of Southeast Asian descent and of Vietnamese descent if at all possible.
For Hạc Cúc, I’d want someone with an edge: young-looking, pretty, but the moment she moves you know that she can and will stab you, that she’s dangerous.
And for Việt Nhi I’d want someone who can get across that mix of being quiet, approachable and generally not someone you’d be wary of…until she gets going and you see that inner core of steel.
Finally, if someone enjoys Navigational Entanglements, and it’s the first book of yours they’ve read, which of your books would you suggest they check out next?
I would suggest they check out A Fire Born Of Exile, which is sapphic Nirvana In Fire in space. It’s got some of the same-feel politics, and a sapphic romance. [Editor’s Note: Nirvana In Fire is a Chinese historical drama / political thriller TV show based on the book Lang Ya Bang by Hai Yan.)
