Book excerpt: A new edition of the Hugo, Nebula and Locus Awards novella finalist, from the author of the acclaimed Dragons and Blades series, and set in the same universe as the Clarke Award finalist The Red Scholar’s Wake... For generations Prosper Station has thrived under the guidance of its Honoured Ancestress: born of a human womb, the station’s artificial intelligence has offered guidance and protection to its human relatives. But war has come to the Dai Viet Empire. Prosper’s brightest minds have been called away to defend the Emperor; and a flood of disorientated refugees strain the station's resources. As deprivations cause the station’s ordinary life to unravel, uncovering old grudges and tearing apart the decimated family, Station Mistress Quyen and the Honoured Ancestress struggle to keep their relatives united and safe. What Quven does not know is that the Honoured Ancestress herself is faltering, her mind eaten away by a disease that seems to have no cure; and that the future of the station itself might hang in the balance... Praise for On a Red Station, Drifting and Aliette de Bodard: “Riven with tension... emotional and social... I for one rejoice in its difference.” —Liz Bourke, Reactor.com “SF is lucky to have Aliette de Bodard.” —Alastair Reynolds, The Prefect Dreyfus Emergencies