Fireheart Tiger

By: Aliette de Bodard

Narrated by: Jennifer Aquino

Award-winning author Aliette de Bodard returns with Fireheart Tiger, a powerful romantic fantasy that feels like The Goblin Emperor meets Howl's Moving Castle in a pre-colonial Vietnamese-esque world.

A British Science Fiction Award winner! A finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and Ignyte Awards!

A Most Anticipated Pick for Buzzfeed, Mary Sue, Nerd Daily, and FanFi Addict.

Fire burns bright and has a long memory . . .

Quiet, thoughtful princess Thanh was sent away as a hostage to the powerful faraway country of Ephteria as a child. Now she's returned to her mother's imperial court, haunted not only by memories of her first romance, but by worrying magical echoes of a fire that devastated Ephteria's royal palace.

Thanh's new role as a diplomat places her once again in the path of her first love, the powerful and magnetic Eldris of Ephteria, who knows exactly what she wants: romance from Thanh and much more from Thanh's home. Eldris won't take no for an answer, on either front. But the fire that burned down one palace is tempting Thanh with the possibility of making her own dangerous decisions.

Can Thanh find the freedom to shape her country's fate—and her own?

©2021 Aliette de Bodard (P)2023 Tantor

Decent writing, performance is somewhat lacking

It's a good story, enjoyable but somewhat short. I found myself wanting more worldbuilding, slightly more detail, and a but more buildup, but it's fine. The style of the writing and dialogue is slightly difficult to follow as audio and I wound up reading a good chunk of the story instead of listening because of that.

The audio performance itself I didn't really like. It felt quite flat and emotionless, almost monotone at times, and I felt that sometimes she rushed on to the next paragraph after finishing the previous one. That all could work for another story, but not this one. It just seemed like there was constant tension between the author's voice and the narrator's, with the latter trying to cage and restrain the former. The narrator also changes the occasional word from the text, not enough to affect the story but enough to be odd