The Dragonfly GambitAD Sui (Neon Hemlock 9781952086793, $13.99, 142 pp., tp) April 2024.

For generations, the Rule expanded their empire by colonizing planets and systems, but in recent decades many of the colonized have rebelled against their overlords. Nez, Shay, and Kaya, three young adults from the Oran system, were drafted into the Imperial Air Force and watched as the Empire destroyed their homeworlds. After a flying accident, Nez was disabled and kicked out of the military. Now Shay and Kaya have fully integrated into the Empire, rising through the ranks while Nez languishes in disgrace. Until the Empire comes calling, and she is forced to help the Rule’s leader, the Third Daughter, find a way to win the war for good. Nez has a few cards up her sleeve, but as she irons out the finer points of her plans, she finds herself in the arms of the ruler she hates. Nez wants the Empire to pay for its crimes against the galaxy and especially against her, but old friendships and new lovers complicate matters.

I’ve been a fan of AD Sui’s short stories for some time, so I was excited to have the opportunity to read her debut novella. The fact that it was published by Neon Hemlock didn’t hurt. I have yet to read a single Neon Hemlock novella that I didn’t immediately and completely love. Many people (including me) have authors they read regularly, and Neon Hemlock is a publisher I read regularly.

The Dragonfly Gambit made for an interesting reading experience. For the first half, I was frustrated and annoyed with Nez. I went into this novella expecting a story about a woman trying to overthrow an empire, and instead got a woman who seemed to give in to the empire’s will at the first provocation. She not only gave in, but took their side, albeit reluctantly. However, being familiar with Sui’s work, I trusted that she knew what she was doing. Nothing in her background as an author or as a person who describes herself as “born in Ukraine, queer, disabled”—or, frankly, in Neon Hemlock’s background, a company that Publisher: once described as “the pinnacle of queer speculative fiction”—would make me seriously consider her writing pro-fascist fiction. I can’t tell you how glad I was that I trusted Sui and stuck with it, because the twist is killer.

Speaking of disabilities, Nez suffers from various disabilities due to a pilot accident several years ago. That incident ended her career, which was all she had left after the Rule destroyed the planetary system she grew up on. It also destroyed her relationship with her only friends, Shay and Kaya. Part of my frustration with the first part of the novella had to do with the disability-hostile language Nez and others use. It felt like the story was checking off the worst disability stereotypes and cliches that all too often end up in science fiction. Without giving too much away, Sui lays out these harmful cliches and then gradually debunks them, one by one. Nez relies on disabled people to make assumptions about their physical and cognitive abilities based on their disabilities, and takes full advantage of them. They could only see the negative aspects of their disabilities and how they marked them as different, not how their disabilities shaped their identities and allowed them to experience the world in their own ways.

Sui doesn’t swing the pendulum too far in the other direction, either. It’s not that Nez’s disabilities are her “superpower” or something that makes her “special,” something I (as a disabled person) often hear from non-disabled people. Disabled people don’t always love our disabilities, but they’re also a part of who we are. I’m less concerned about getting rid of my disability or “fixing” it with futuristic technology than I am about creating a world where accommodation is standard procedure. This space is the one Nez lives in, even if everyone else doesn’t. Nez gets by because she has to. She is who she is, disabilities included. The Dragonfly Gambit feels like a novella written for disabled queer people. It focuses on our experiences and perceptions of the world.

This novella is also about the fight against fascism. To draw a Star Wars comparison, it has strong Andor Vibes. The Dragonfly Gambit is about ordinary people who have nothing left to lose by standing up to the Empire. They may win today or they may never win, but the fight is what matters most. Rebellions may be built on hope, but resistance is fueled by desperation and anger. And Nez is filled with both. She has literally nothing left in the entire universe. She lives in a bleak apartment with no friends, no family, and no future. All that drives her is her seething hatred of the Empire and her hope for its ultimate downfall. She loathes that Shay and Kaya willingly joined the Empire and erased their Oran heritage, and she loathes that she has done the same for so long that she has now forgotten her cultural traditions. Malice can go a long way.

With The Dragonfly GambitAD Sui has proven her skill with longer novels. This is an excellent debut novella full of twists and turns and characters who are too smart for their own good. I’m excited to see what Sui does next.

This review and others like it in the July 2024 issue of Location.

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