I absolutely *love* the Xuya Universe books, a set of stories in a future world of space stations and ships - some of whom are sentient - and an empire whose culture is Vietnamese-inspired. I've read several of these stories now, and find the world-building absolutely top notch; the exploration of mindships in familial lines and the relationships between ships, their human relatives, and the ancestors who live on as projections within memory implants is utterly fascinating.

In this novella, the Empire is under threat by the Nam Federation. The Nam Federation appears to have hijacked some of the mindships and turned their allegiance. The empire is in need of an advantage, and so is desperate to find the Citadel, a station that disappeared decades previously (along with eldest princess Ngoc Minh). This is one of the stories I've enjoyed most so far that are set in this universe - a nice mix of time travel, mystery, family dynamics, and intergalactic politics.

Content warnings: death, grief, (the immanent possibility of) war