Navigation Entanglements
Aliette de Bodard
I am not good enough
A monster is loose, lost. The navigator who should have kept it confined screwed up somehow. Navigators are assembling a team of delegates from their respective clans to deal with it. The delegates are to join the imperial envoy, Ly Châu (Dog clan). The delegates are Việt Nhi (Rooster clan), Hạc Cúc (Snake clan), Lành (Ox clan), Bảo Duy (Rat clan). I don't feel I can say any more about the plot without spoiling.
But this, I think, is what the story is about -- this feeling:
I am not good enough.
I failed.
People were depending on me, and I let them down.
There is no way to fix this.
It will happen again.
I will let them down again.
If you're a human more than twelve years old, you have felt this, or some part of this constellation of doubt. It is one of the worst parts of being human. Although it is something we all share, feeling completely alone is part of the experience.
Nhi, Hạc Cúc, Lành, and Bảo Duy are all juniors of their clans. The first thing that will strike you when you meet them is that each of them is, in her own way, broken and isolated. Bảo Duy says, "We’re all weird."
Aliette de Bodard is a challenging writer. Her plots are tangled and twisty and require the reader to follow the follow the devious plots of multiple actors with conflicting motivations. Navigational Entanglements is, if anything, rather simpler than typical for de Bodard, although that only becomes clear towards the end.
I picked up Navigational Entanglements because I am a de Bodard admirer, but also because it is a finalist for the 2025 Best Novella Hugo. It is definitely a contender for my vote. Often I read a Hugo finalist and say, "Why is this up for an award?" Not this time. Navigational Entanglements deserves an award. Indeed, of the four novella finalists I have read, it's at the top, even against some very strong novellas.
It's good. Read it!