Night Shining White is a spaceship, part of a ten-strong fleet of Chinese spaceships on their way to Mars. It is the least important member of the fleet, it being the water carrier for the mission to the Red Planet. It's crew and new Captain, though, intend to carry out their duties to the best of their abilities and with honour.

On this alternate history Earth, Imperial China rose to prominence and is leading the space race. Imperial China is a culture of honour and self-sacrifice, something all too personal for the ship's captain Zheng Yi – as a former member of the Imperial staff he was required to become a eunuch before entering the Royal Household.

All behaviour on the ship is governed by a strict code of conduct enforced by the ship's protocol officer. Position and appearance are everything, the senior officers and lower ranks being forbidden from fraternising, and everyone obeying in case one of their shipmates might be a member of the Secret Police.

However when the ship experiences a reactor failure not only their abilities but also their way of life and honour system are about to be tested.

This might only be a short book but the author has managed to build such a world, in its own way familiar to anyone who has seen a film of ancient China, yet as alien as you could imagine an author could invent.

If you've watched many American sf movies you will have seen various spaceship disasters. Generally in US films the crews react with a fury of activity and flashy heroics. Things here are far more restrained, with quiet debate and sober reflection replacing a more gung-ho approach. In many ways this serves to make things more tense, and the willing sacrifices all the more realistic.

My wife has had the pleasure of reading two of Chris Roberson's novels – they being more fantasy or Edgar Rice Burroughs style sf than my normal taste, and she being the fantasy fan out of the two of us. This time, however, the book was most definitely sf. And, with it being a novella, my preferred length for fiction (my wife enjoying thick epic tomes) it was destined for my reading pile.

All I can say is that in future times I will be fighting to get Chris Roberson books no matter what the length or genre. This was good stuff, indeed!

Synopsis
In an alternate history dominated by Imperial China, the forces of the Dragon Throne control most of the Earth, and now turn their attentions to the heavens. In the tradition of its great fifteenth century admiral, Zheng He, the Chinese Empire constructs a massive Treasure Fleet. But unlike the dragon boats which coursed across terrestrial seas, the ships of this new armada are ceramic and steel, fuelled by nuclear reactors and spun against tethered counterweights to provide a semblance of gravity for their crews. Rather than sailing to open new trade routes to foreign shores, this new fleet sails interplanetary gulfs, to the red planet fourth from the sun, in search of mineral wealth and territorial claims.

The least of the ships of the Treasure Fleet is Night Shining White, one of many water tenders. It will be the last to reach the red planet, and the first to return, its hold emptied of precious water and filled with mineral samples and ores to be milled and studied back on Earth. The ship's captain, a eunuch who has sacrificed much in the service of his emperor, has never ventured beyond the bounds of Earth before, much less in command of a ship and her crew.

Before it reaches its destination, Night Shining White's reactor coolant system fails, and the crew is faced with the prospect of a quick death by runaway nuclear meltdown, or a slow painful demise by radiation poisoning. Their only hope of salvation is the captain, but will his inexperience only ensure their demise?