Space ship yuri
4 stars
Great
Hardcover, 320 pages
English language
Published Oct. 15, 2022 by Orion Publishing Co.
The Red Scholar's Wake
4 stars
(2 reviews)
Xich Si: bot maker, data analyst, mother, scavenger. But those days are over now-her ship has just been captured by the Red Banner pirate fleet, famous for their double-dealing and cruelty. Xich Si expects to be tortured to death-only for the pirates' enigmatic leader, Rice Fish, to arrive with a different and shocking proposition: an arranged marriage between Xich Si and herself.
Rice Fish: sentient ship, leader of the infamous Red Banner pirate fleet, wife of the Red Scholar. Or at least, she was the latter before her wife died under suspicious circumstances. Now isolated and alone, Rice Fish wants Xich Si's help to find out who struck against them and why. Marrying Xich Si means Rice Fish can offer Xich Si protection, in exchange for Xich Si's technical fluency: a business arrangement with nothing more to it.
But as the investigation goes on, Rice Fish and Xich Si find …
Xich Si: bot maker, data analyst, mother, scavenger. But those days are over now-her ship has just been captured by the Red Banner pirate fleet, famous for their double-dealing and cruelty. Xich Si expects to be tortured to death-only for the pirates' enigmatic leader, Rice Fish, to arrive with a different and shocking proposition: an arranged marriage between Xich Si and herself.
Rice Fish: sentient ship, leader of the infamous Red Banner pirate fleet, wife of the Red Scholar. Or at least, she was the latter before her wife died under suspicious circumstances. Now isolated and alone, Rice Fish wants Xich Si's help to find out who struck against them and why. Marrying Xich Si means Rice Fish can offer Xich Si protection, in exchange for Xich Si's technical fluency: a business arrangement with nothing more to it.
But as the investigation goes on, Rice Fish and Xich Si find themselves falling for each other. As the interstellar war against piracy intensifies and the five fleets start fighting each other, they will have to make a stand-and to decide what kind of future they have together...
Jonas reviewed The Red Scholar's Wake by Aliette de Bodard
Lesbian romance, Vietnamese space opera
4 stars
Aliette de Bodard has been publishing award winning fiction in her universe of Xuya for years. The Red Scholar's Wake is the first full-length novel set in that universe. It's a Vietnamese-inspired space opera about pirates under threats from within and without, but first and foremost it is a sapphic romance about two mothers (one of whom is a sentient space ship). It's entertaining, and I read it quickly. There are minor points that made me give this 4/5 stars: In the second half, the positions and agendas of the major characters would have benefitted if they were presented with more sharpness. As it were, some conversations felt slightly muddy, the conflicts lacking clarity. In a few places, the editing had overlooked minor mistakes (e.g. a repeated sentence, but a word changed, apparently without intention). And, for a first time "visitor" to the Xuya Universe (like myself, since I haven't …
Aliette de Bodard has been publishing award winning fiction in her universe of Xuya for years. The Red Scholar's Wake is the first full-length novel set in that universe. It's a Vietnamese-inspired space opera about pirates under threats from within and without, but first and foremost it is a sapphic romance about two mothers (one of whom is a sentient space ship). It's entertaining, and I read it quickly. There are minor points that made me give this 4/5 stars: In the second half, the positions and agendas of the major characters would have benefitted if they were presented with more sharpness. As it were, some conversations felt slightly muddy, the conflicts lacking clarity. In a few places, the editing had overlooked minor mistakes (e.g. a repeated sentence, but a word changed, apparently without intention). And, for a first time "visitor" to the Xuya Universe (like myself, since I haven't read the previous short fiction and novellas), some of its sci-fi trappings like the bots and the overlays lacked an introduction that would have enabled me to better visualize what I was reading. That said, I enjoyed The Red Scholar's Wake very much, and I assume for readers with a better understanding of Vietnamese culture it is probably even more fun. The setting is creative, the writing good, the story well told.
More info about the book (including ao3 tags and content notes) can be found at www.aliettedebodard.com/bibliography/novels/universe-of-xuya-romances/the-red-scholars-wake/