The Dragonfly Gambit. by A.D. Sui. 2024

THE DRAGONFLY GAMBIT

RATED GOOD. 4/5

Buy your own copy here.

The Dragonfly Gambit won the 2025 Nebula Award for Best Novella.

This is a tale of personal revenge with empire-destroying consequences. Our protagonist Kato is captured, interrogated, and eventually conscripted to help improve the fighter capabilities of The Rule in their civil war against seceding planets and systems. We learn early in the book that she is plotting to take down The Rule.

Kaya - Kato’s ex-lover and fighter pilot partner - is a hot-shot Ace and hero of The Rule’s forces. Kato holds a grudge. Kaya bailed on Kato in a military exercise. Kato almost died and is scarred for life.

Relationship drama is front-and-center. Kaya is sleeping with Shay (an old friend) while also conducting a covert affair with the Rule’s enigmatic leader, the Third Sister. The result often reads like a queer, Battlestar-Galactica-flavored telenovela: full-throttle space opera with a hearty side of sapphic soap.

A.D. Sui serves up a brisk, dialogue-heavy page-turner; the short, punchy paragraphs read almost like screenplay beats. The relentless banter occasionally glosses over richer texture.

You can practically hear the studio pitch hovering above the pages.

The joy of the novella comes in the fast paced scenes full of plot twists and sharp voice of the first person narrator. It sits firmly on the shoulders of the great scifi authors who came before as very little time and effort is expended to world building or inventive ideas. Think Battlestar Galactica run through a queer lens and distilled to novella length.

I enjoyed the read, but it is a surprising pick for the Nebula Award.