The Tea Master and the Detective

The Tea Master and the Detective

Title: The Tea Master and the Detective
Author: Aliette De Bodard
Release: 2018-04-02
Kind: ebook
Genre: Science Fiction, Books, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Fiction & Literature, Short Stories
Size: 966903
Winner of the Nebula Award and British Fantasy Award for Best Novella
Finalist for the Hugo Award, Locus Award, and World Fantasy Award for Best Novella


“A window onto a beautifully developed world that widens the meaning of space opera.” —The New York Times

Once, the mindship known as The Shadow's Child was a military transport. Once, she leapt effortlessly between stars and planets, carrying troops and crew for a war that tore the Empire apart. Until an ambush killed her crew and left her wounded and broken.

Now the war is over, and The Shadow's Child, surviving against all odds, has run away. Discharged and struggling to make a living, she has no plans to go back into space. Until the abrasive and arrogant scholar Long Chau comes to see her. Long Chau wants to retrieve a corpse for her scientific studies: a simple enough, well-paid assignment.

But when the corpse they find turns out to have been murdered, the simple assignment becomes a vast and tangled investigation, inexorably leading back to the past--and, once again, to that unbearable void where The Shadow's Child almost lost both sanity and life...

“[The Tea Master and the Detective] is a window onto a beautifully developed world that widens the meaning of space opera, one that centers on Chinese and Vietnamese cultures and customs instead of Western military conventions, and is all the more welcome for it.” —Amal El-Mohtar, The New York Times

“The Tea Master and the Detective is the Sherlock Holmes retelling I always wanted and now I have it. And I want so much more of it.” —Ana Grilo, Kirkus

“The Tea Master is an astonishing Holmesian mystery, in which Holmes is a woman and Watson is a spaceship. It is everything I wanted it to be. Tea, space, and mysteries within mysteries.” —Mary Robinette Kowal

“Ingenious… As a classical blend of far-future SF and traditional murder mystery, The Tea Master and the Detective should satisfy readers unfamiliar with the Xuya universe, but at the same time it’s an intriguing introduction to that universe, much of which seems to lie just outside the borders of this entertaining tale.” —Gary K. Wolfe, Locus

“De Bodard constructs a convincingly gritty setting and a pair of unique characters with provocative histories and compelling motivations. The story works as well as both science fiction and murder mystery, exploring a future where pride, guilt, and mercy are not solely the province of humans.” —Publishers' Weekly

More Books from Aliette De Bodard

Charlie Jane Anders, Nina Allan, Tara Isabella Burton, Monica Byrne, Rebecca Campbell, Aliette De Bodard, P. Djeli Clark, Indrapramit Das, Alix E. Harrow, N. K. Jemisin, Margaret Killjoy, Cixin Liu, Melissa Marr, David Nickle, Laurie Penny, Daniel Polansky, Lettie Prell, Delia Sherman, Angela Slatter, Caighlan Smith, Lavie Tidhar, Rajnar Vajra, Genevieve Valentine, Carrie Vaughn & Alyssa Wong
Annie Bellet, Ken Liu, Elizabeth Bear, Rachel Swirsky, Scott Lynch, T. Kingfisher, Yoon Ha Lee, Tom Crosshill, Sam J. Miller, Rachael K. Jones, Usman T. Malik, Xia Jia, Aliette De Bodard, Ruthanna Emrys, Amal El-Mohtar, Eugie Foster, Max Gladstone, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Carmen Maria Machado & Kai Ashante Wilson
Jonathan Strahan, Elizabeth Bear, Aliette De Bodard & Garth Nix
Aliette De Bodard, Seanan McGuire, Sam J. Miller, Cat Rambo, Lavie Tidhar, Ursula Vernon, Caroline M. Yoachim, P. Djeli Clark, Theodora Goss, Yoon Ha Lee, Ian R. MacLeod, Sarah Pinsker, Jason Sanford, S.B. Divya, Gu Shi, Mary Robinette Kowal, Rebecca Ann Jordan, Cassandra Khaw & Violet Allen
Aliette De Bodard, Amal El-Mohtar, Elizabeth Bear, Usman T. Malik, David D Levine, Martin L. Shoemaker, Nicola Griffith, Ursula Vernon, Megan Grey, Seanan McGuire, Alyssa Wong, Naomi Kritzer, Tamsyn Muir, Rose Lemberg, Ann Leckie, Catherynne M. Valente, Sarah Pinsker & Kai Ashante Wilson
Ellen Oh, Elsie Chapman, Renée Ahdieh, Sona Charaipotra, Preeti Chhibber, Roshani Chokshi, Aliette De Bodard, Melissa de la Cruz, Julie Kagawa, Rahul Kanakia, Lori M. Lee, E. C. Myers, Cindy Pon, Aisha Saeed, Shveta Thakrar & Alyssa Wong
Aliette De Bodard
Jonathan Strahan, Peter F. Hamilton, Yoon Ha Lee & Aliette De Bodard
Aliette De Bodard
Aliette De Bodard
Aliette De Bodard
Aliette De Bodard
Allan Kaster, Damien Broderick, Aliette De Bodard, Yoon Ha Lee, Ian MacLeod, Sean Mcmullen, Hannu Rajaniemi, Robert Reed, Allen Steele, Steve Tem & Peter Watts
Aliette De Bodard
Aliette De Bodard
Aliette De Bodard
Aliette De Bodard, James Patrick Kelly, Yoon Ha Lee, Ian McDonald, E. Lily Yu, Helena Bell, Benjanun Sriduangkaew, David Tallerman, E. Catherine Tobler, Elizabeth Bourne, Mark Bourne, Vajra Chandrasekera & Theodora Goss
Aliette De Bodard
Ken Liu, Naomi Kritzer, Catherynne M. Valente, Kij Johnson, Aliette De Bodard, Jay Lake & Chen Qiufan
Aliette De Bodard
Neil Clarke, Aliette De Bodard, Catherynne M. Valente, Ken Liu, Kij Johnson, Carrie Vaughn, Robert Reed, Tobias S. Buckell, Sofia Samatar & Lavie Tidhar
Neil Clarke, Aliette De Bodard, Tang Fei, Naomi Kritzer, Kij Johnson, Catherynne M. Valente, Jay Lake, Zhang Ran, Damien Broderick & Karl Schroeder
Nibedita Sen, Aliette De Bodard, P. Djeli Clark, Brooke Bolander & Martha Wells
Jane Yolen, Seanan McGuire, Marie Brennan, Aliette De Bodard, Brenda Cooper, Randee Dawn, Irene Radford, Gregory L. Norris, Pat McEwen, Jacey Bedford, Joyce Reynolds-Ward & Nora Saroyan
David Steffen, Meg Elison, Mary Robinette Kowal, John Wiswell, Aliette De Bodard, C.L. Polk, Cat Rambo, Sam J. Miller, A.T. Greenblatt, Elizabeth Bear, Premee Mohamed, Aimee Ogden, Suzan Palumbo, P. Djeli Clark, Marie Vibbert, Kel Coleman, Gautam Bhatia, P H Lee, E. Lily Yu, Han Song, Xueting C. Ni, Lauren Ring & Arula Ratnakar
Aliette De Bodard, Lisa Tuttle, Ian Watson, Elia Barceló, Dave Hutchinson, Rodolfo Martínez, Sofía Rhei, Sarah Singleton, Virginia Pérez de la Puente, Claude Lalumière, Marian Womack & Alberto M. Caliani
Aliette De Bodard, Yoon Ha Lee, Margaret Ronald, Marissa Lingen, Tony Pi & Tom Crosshill
Aliette De Bodard, Helen Marshall, Yoon Ha Lee, Richard Parks, Gemma Files & Scott H. Andrews
Marie Brennan, Richard Parks, Aliette De Bodard, Yoon Ha Lee, Chris Willrich & Holly Phillips
Catherynne M. Valente, K.J. Parker, Yoon Ha Lee, Aliette De Bodard, Seth Dickinson & Mishell Baker
Marie Brennan, Saladin Ahmed, Aliette De Bodard, Yoon Ha Lee, Rachel Swirsky & Margaret Ronald
K.J. Parker, Carrie Vaughn, Yoon Ha Lee, Aliette De Bodard, Richard Parks & Gemma Files
Aliette De Bodard
Aliette De Bodard
Neil Clarke, Aliette De Bodard, Jamie Barras & Ian McDonald
Aliette De Bodard, Emily Bowles, Karen Heuler, Lith Amenti, Anna Ibbotson, Katy Lennon, Sim Bajwa, Jen Downes & Ruth EJ Booth
Aliette De Bodard
Aliette De Bodard & Marco Crosa
Aliette De Bodard, Silvio Sosio & Marco Crosa