Showing results by author "Aliette de Bodard" in Adventure

The Scattered Pearls Belt is a string of habitats under tight military rule...where the powerful have become all too comfortable in their positions, and their corruption. But change is coming, with the arrival of Quynh: the mysterious and enigmatic Alchemist of Streams and Hills. To Minh, daughter of the ruling prefect of the Belt, Quynh represents a chance for escape. To An, a destitute engineer, Quynh has a mysterious link to her own past...and holds a deeper, more sensual appeal. But Quynh has her own secret history, and a plan for the ruling class of the Belt.

Vân is a poor scholar, eking out a living in the orbitals of the Scattered Pearls Belt as a tutor to a rich family, while hiding the illegal artificial mem-implant she manufactured as a student. Sunless Woods is a mindship-and not just any mindship, but a notorious thief and a master of disguise. She's come to the Belt to retire, but is drawn to Vân's resolute integrity. When a mysterious corpse is found in the quarters of Vân's student, Vân and Sunless Woods find themselves following a trail of greed and murder that will lead them from teahouses and ascetic havens to the wreck of a mindship