I say this pretty much every time I read Aliette de Bodard’s work: the prose is gorgeous, evoking situations of such emotional heft and scenes full of colour and deep danger.

The Red Scholar is a pirate and her consort “Rice Fish” is a mind ship. Shortly before this story’s open, the. Red Scholar was killed during a confrontation between the pirates and the navy of a bordering empire.

After a small ship is captured by one of Rice Fish’s bannerpeople, Xich Si, the ship’s only survivor, is brought to Rice Fish, who makes her an unexpected business proposition: investigate how the Red Scholar was ambushed and murdered. And, cement their business arrangement, and Xich Si’s safety, through marriage, which will grant access to Rice Fish’s bannerpeople.

What begins as a very difficult, terrifying and emotionally wrenching situation for Xich Si (she has a young daughter whom she can no longer see, even if she were returned home by Rice Fish) becomes something very different eventually. She and Rice Fish begin a romantic relationship that was just so lovely, while Xich Si applies her engineering and analytical know how to solving Red Scholar’s murder.

And of course there are obstacles to the happiness of both women. There is a deeply personal threat to Xich Si, as well as conspiracies within the pirate Citadel and an empire bordering pirate space. And Rice Fish is unable to see how some of her ideas about how the pirate society works actually are causing her her influence and power amounts the pirates.

The start was slow, but once Xich Si seemed to move a little past her fear of Rice Fish, and her banner people, the action began picking up and I was eager to get to the story’s resolution. I loved all the tension de Bodard created as Rice Fish is alone and trying to save her life and command, and how the two women began finally trusting each other by story’s end.

And the descriptions! I loved them! Rice Fish’s hair, in which nebulae can be seen, as well as her way of moving, all contributed to the atmosphere to this lovely book. I so want more story about Rice Fish and Xich Si!

Thank you to Netgalley and to Independent Publisher’s Group for this ARC in exchange for my review.

I enjoyed how beautiful the descriptions were of space. However the romance which is the reason i requested this book felt very Insta lovey and ultimately didn’t keep me interested.

Genre: science fiction, space opera, sapphic romance

The death of the Red Scholar, Huan, sends waves through the Red Banner, those pirates beneath her rule. Her widow, Rice Fish, a sentient space ship, now faces the double burden of grief and mistrust in her leadership. Xich Si, scavenger, bot maker, and mother, is captured by the fleet, but instead of facing her death she faces a proposal: a contract for an arranged marriage with Rice Fish. Guaranteeing Xich Si’s safety with their agreement, Rice Fish requests that Xich Si investigate the cause behind Huan’s death. While Xich Si falls for Rice Fish, the ship guards her heart, protecting herself from old hurts.

This was my first book by Aliette de Bodard, and whenever I enter the text of a new SFF author, I’m first drawn to their worldbuilding. De Bodard’s style here is unique: she builds by throwing you in the middle of the action, and introducing you to characters and their roles rather than describing surroundings. She uses language, specifically relationship/familial words to create hierarchies (lil sis, big sis, aunt, etc.) playing with concepts of translation, even as she writes the book in English despite it not being her native language.

The political marriage of convenience between Rice Fish and Xich Si is perhaps a favorite trope of mine. In this setting, I had a hard time buying into the romance though, not because Rice Fish is a sentient ship (she manifests with a human avatar), but because the *moment* where they realize they are in love just wasn’t quite there for me. That said, the explorations of their relationship is fascinating, and Rice Fish’s grief over Huan’s death is poignant.

Motherhood is a critical theme of the story. Xich Si has a young daughter, Khanh, who is captured and sold under a different banner until Xich Si intercedes. Rice Fish also has a son, Ho, who leads Green Banner, and with whom she has a very fraught relationship. Khanh stole the show for me - it’s hard to write children well, especially young ones who may lean towards overly cute, and yet de Bodard does so elegantly and insightfully. Xich Si’s relationship with Ho may have been one of my favorite’s to see develop, since they hold diametrically opposed values, and an uneven power balance between the two.

Thanks to Independent Publishers Group, JABberwocky Literary Agency, Inc and #netgalley for an eARC for review. This publishes 11/24/22.

This was an exciting read, action packed yet thoughtful and sensitive, romantic and moving. I hadn't read anything from the Xuya universe before (although I'll definitely be reading more in the future), but I had adored Aliette de Bodard's Dominion of the Fallen series, and this novel followed those with an excellent job of looking at the themes of power, ethics, ruling and control of discussing how you should and could fight and support your community.

The romance here was lushly drawn, with the effects of previous relationships shown clearly, especiallyfor Rice Fish,, and some of the most gorgeously swooning love scenes! I would have liked a bit more pining and build up I think, it felt a little quick for me I think to get to the depth of their feelings, but overall this was a beautifully rich and thoughtful romance.

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free ARC*

I kept seeing this book get rec'd on Twitter, so when the arc became available, I jumped on the chance to see what it was all about. I loved this book, it had so many facets of space operas and science fiction that I adore- interesting worldbuilding, a unique setting that sets it apart from others in the genre, and Spaceships That Are People, among other things. The premise is simple, Xich Si, a scavenger, knows her life is over the moment her ship is captured by a Banner pirate fleet (the nebulous Empire's stance on piracy is so harsh that even though she's innocent, her brief stay in their holds is enough to get her the death penalty). So, imagine Xich Si's surprise when Rice Fish, the ship at the head of the fleet and current leader of the Banner group, asks Xich Si to marry her. It's a power play, and a marriage of convenience: Rice Fish's wife the Red Scholar was killed in action, and now Rice Fish needs to consolidate her power. And she'll need Xich Si's expertise to find the evidence she needs to prove there's a traitor in the pirate fleet. The story was good, fast-paced and engaging. I also liked the relationship between Xich Si and Rice Fish, though I felt that it moved a bit too fast, especially given Xich Si's hesitance and general fear of pirates and the situation she's in. I wish there had been more substance in the characters, a lot of them felt flat, and I wish that the narration was more showing rather than telling. But, this was a great book, and I plan to read everything else from this author now.

Set in Vietnamese space, The Red Scholar's Wake follows Xích Si, a scavenger captured by raiding pirates and Rice Fish, the pirate queen she is forced to marry for political reasons. Together, and sometimes separately, they navigate the murky waters of pirate politics, personal scars left by trauma, familial drama, and perhaps love.

I loved the world of Rice Fish and Xích Si - the techy space ships and avatars that feel like virtual reality games designed by artists and fashion icons; the magic/tech of overlay foods and teas, the ships that are also people. Not to mention, the ancient Vietnamese-inspired space - I loved that detail! Vietnam has such a rich history and the fantasy and sci-fi genres naturally play to its looooooong history of resistance to foreign oppressors. Plus I just love to see SFF stories from underrepresented cultures. I also enjoyed the politics of these pirates who operate between empires, preying on trade and the philosophical debate of moral superiority between one type of cruelty or another.

However, for me, there was a lot left to be desired - the tendency to tell, rather than show, the intricacies of interpersonal relationships, world-specific politics, character backgrounds, etc, was my main complaint. Then, also, the connection between the two main characters... wasn't exactly instalove but it was pretty fast and I wasn't really ever given a reason to believe in a romantic connection between a captive and her kidnapper. In fact, until about 50% I wasn't invested in their relationship at all. <spoiler> And then we kind of jumped into a sex scene where there was orbs of flesh impaled on antlers? like... what? I'm good with little robots executing sexual acts but I draw the line at a brain made of flesh orbs being rubbed to orgasm. </spoiler> Perhaps that could have been closed-door lmao. And finally, I have to say the constant use of "big sis" and "li'l sis" was very grating. I understand it was an attempt to anglicize the honorifics used in Vietnamese but it did not come off well at all. PLEASE I BEG, next time just introduce the words 'chi' and 'em' (or whatever honorifics were in mind) and use those throughout the text. The constant use of "big sis" and "li'l sis" was nauseating for two reasons - one, because nobody except children says those titles in english so it makes the characters sound childish, and two, because it's not sexy and these two are supposed to be romantically and sexually connected. In fact, this is a great opportunity to just slide in another Vietnamese cultural touchpoint like the food and the names. PLEASE.

This was a 3.5 for me but I'm rounding up.

The Red Scholar's Wake is the latest work from one of my favorite authors, Aliette de Bodard, known best for her Dominion of the Fallen series (and its spin-off Dragon and Blades) as well as her Xuya universe in which she has set a number of short stories and novellas. This book is the first full length Xuya novel, and is also a project which de Bodard has teased on twitter, her newsletter, and her Patreon (yes I follow all three) for some time: the space pirate lesbian book inspired by the real life pirates in the South China Sea who were supported by Vietnam in taking ships belonging to the then Chinese Empire. It's a book that I've been looking forward to for some time, so I pre-ordered it the moment it became available in North America and then requested an e-ARC the moment it showed up on NetGalley...and then read it the next day despite having way too long of a TBR already.

And The Red Scholar's Wake delivers largely as I'd hoped - with an excellent Lesbian romance between Space Pirate/Spaceship Rice Fish and engineer Xich Si that develops both characters really well, along with a bunch of side characters in this clearly inspired by the real world universe. And the romance is - as you should expect from de Bodard - accompanied by a story that deals with the unjustness of various systems of society, drawing a parallel between the indentures allowed by the lawful government and the taking and selling of prisoners by pirates, as well as the other ways each system can be unjust despite the good people trying to make either system better - and these themes of justice and whatnot work really well. There's even, to add to it all naturally, themes of grief and of what turns out to be unintentionally neglectful parenting amidst a relationship in which one party is not getting exactly what she needs or wants. All together it's pretty damn good and I really recommend it if you like space opera romance.

More after the jump:

--------------------------------------------------Plot Summary----------------------------------------------------
Xich Si had nothing left, other than her beloved six year old daughter Khanh, when her small poor ship was attacked and taken by pirates, leaving her imprisoned and alone. Her precious bots, built by her own hand, lie charred and ruined and without means, she expects the pirates not to bother with a futile attempt at ransoming her. Instead, the best Xich Si expects she can hope for is to be taken as a bondsperson, forced into service of the pirates, and to hope that this "service" doesn't involve anything too violating. What she certainly doesn't expect is to be approached by the mindship Rice Fish, the wife of the Red Scholar, the recently deceased leader of the Red Banner Pirates, and asked to be her wife.

Rice Fish has no romantic intentions towards Xich Si - her marriage to the Red Scholar was entirely a business transaction, for the benefit of all parties, even if she might've wanted it to be more. So she offers marriage to Xich Si solely as a contractual affair: an offer of protection in exchange for Xich Si using her engineering skills to figure out how her hated rival pirate, the Green Scholar Kim Thông (USE O HAT) had betrayed the Red Scholar to the Censor of the An O Empire...and caused her beloved Red Scholar's death. And if the marriage might reassure those who pirate under the Red Banner, and allow her to maintain control even as her rival is insisting that the Pirates break all the laws and moral imperatives that make them worthwhile, well all the better.

But what Xich Si and Rice Fish could never imagine is that there might be mutual attraction between them, and that they each might want more. And so as things begin falling apart around them - with Xich Si's daughter in peril and Rice Fish's ideals for the Pirates, ideals of a more just system, being in utter jeopardy - the two find that the only way they may be able to survive...and may want to survive...will be to come together more closely than they could ever have expected....

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The Red Scholar's Wake is a novel with a bunch of familiar touches from de Bodard. Obviously there's the Xuya Universe, a universe in which the cultures at play are based off Vietnamese and Chinese cultures (in this case quite directly as the two warring Empires are future takes on the Chinese and Viet Empires from the late 1700s-early 1800s), and in which humans travel inside mindships - ships whose minds/brains are born from human wombs, who can have relationships with humans via projections and bots that translate the touch of projections into actual feeling, allowing for physical and sexual touching between humans and mindships. There's also the way the narrative follows the two protagonists' points of view, two protagonists who have very different perspectives and histories despite coming together, ala de Bodard's Seven of Infinities, and there's some consent issues that the characters are distinctly aware of, like in her "In the Vanisher's Palace".

This is not a fault of this work - this universe and style of writing works in those other stories, and it works really well here to tell a fascinating romance that also features some real strong themes of justice, systems, and love. So we have Xich Si as our new face to this universe, who is able to directly contrast the justice of the An O Empire's governed space - where people aren't subject to taking and forced indenture.....but parents and guardians may still do things like sell children and those in poverty are also forced into desperate measures - to that of the Pirates, where they do seizing and well...pirating but some groups like the Red Banner will not act cruelly towards their captives and will instead provide them with a means to work into a position among them, and will make sure that the children among them grow up in happiness without starving...and certainly without the possiblity of indenture. But Xich Si isn't just some point of view for us to examine this word, but a recognizable character in her own right, a woman who loves deeply those close to her like her daughter or the one she lost a few years ago, and whose wanting towards Rice Fish is passionate and strong once she sees how much Rice Fish cares about making the pirates and this universe a better place. She's also a woman who, despite her initial fear, learns to hold her own and take brave decisive action, taking risks and making statements when necessary to do what she sees as right....and who can recognize when others are holding back feelings or are ignoring past hurts...like Rice Fish.

Rice Fish by contrast is a woman (well mindship) who has a strong sense of justice and is desperate to preserve the justice and moral codes of pirating that her beloved now deceased spouse, the Red Scholar Huân, worked to build. She cares deeply for them and for making the pirates a better group, certainly a better group than the Imperial places that they pirate from. Yet she also burns at time with romantic passion, passion that her former wife refused to share, making her not able to understand that such passion could work alongside a more practical arrangement in a relationship. And it's also ruined her parenting of her child, who has grown up to become the head of a different pirate banner (the Purple Banner), who needed tender caring from his parents, and a loving relationship between them, and only found coldness. And so she needs Xich Si to point out some of these things....but as things fall apart around her, it's hard for her to hear them, leading to her making some desperate drastic choices.

The result, and I don't want to spoil anything, is really well done, with the romance between the two main characters being excellent (including a very Xuya-esque sex scene that works very well), the themes of justice in various systems being explored incredibly well between the Pirates, the Empires, and the Censor who serves as an antagonist who isn't actually evil but is just trying to make a better universe as well, as well as the themes of romance, relationships, and parenthood. It's a story with depth, and de Bodard does an excellent job avoiding the potential thorny issues of consent and ignorance of real problems in the setting (Pirates DO Kill people) that other writers might overlook. Definitely another novel to watch out for and pick up, as usual from de Bedard.

I tentatively asked for an ARC because Katee Robert gave a blurb, and De Bodard's plot blurbs always sound good. But then when I get reading, and something has been lacking in the writing in the first several of this author's works I've read. Everything kind of comes across stilted and doesn't flow.

In this one, there's pacing issues and weird dialogue, like in the opening scene where we're thrown into action confusedly, only to grind to a halt as a conversation that could've been brief seemed to drag on. I found myself extremely bored for most of the book.

A lot of people had issue with the sentient ship concept, but as someone who watched Andromeda growing up, I immediately latched on to the familiarity of a anthro ship avatar. How it behaved was another matter entirely.

I'm fairly familiar with Asian honorifics after years consuming media like this, and wasn't startled when Rice Fish (whose name perhaps should've been left untranslated, this just sounds awkward) would say little sister/li'l sis and the like to Xích Si, although outright calling her new wife "child" was quite patronizing and squicky. Even "little one" or something might've been better.

I wish I had better things to say but this one wasn't for me.

A sapphic space opera with a big dollop of longing and unreciprocated feelings which are in fact reciprocated as should be in any decent romance.

Bodard has the knack of description, long hair that turns into nebulas, cabins filled with art and stars. I'd love her characters and plots to gather more depth. Some things definitely deserve more showing rather than telling.

Has there been a more lurid, less appealing, and more inelegant cover teaser than, “ LESBIAN SPACE PIRATES. Enough said.’? Aliette de Bodard’s lyrical and complex novel does, indeed, feature space pirate protagonists who become spouses and lovers (in that order), but that hardly captures the book. This is a story of power politics, of family relations, of fear overcome, and of love - between partners, parents and children, and friends. The author considers the evils of piracy, contrasted to the evils of established society, and paints a world of varying shades of gray, much like the real world, wherein lesser evils may offer better choices. Read this for the complex world building, the interpersonal and inter-generational conflict, and the introspective narrative and dialogue. Well done, indeed.

Hacía mucho tiempo que estábamos esperando una novela situada en el universo de Xuya, pero la espera ha merecido la pena. Aliette de Bodard nos ofrece con su última obra otra muestra más de su calidad como autora, utilizando elementos que ya se están volviendo habituales en su repertorio mezclados con esa madurez que está alcanzando como escritora.


Me gustaría hablar en primer lugar de las protagonistas, ya que la autora franco-vietnamita dedica mucho tiempo a la definición de estos dos personajes. Se va notando cierta tendencia en su obra respecto al uso de la dualidad entre humano y mindship como dueto que lleva la voz cantante, algo que ya pudimos ver en The Tea Master and the Detective o Seven of Infinities. Es una apuesta ganadora, ya que se presta mucho a contrastes entre las experiencias de las longevas naves y la inocencia de las jóvenes humanas. Sin embargo, la escritora no vuelve utilizar el recurso del retelling, aunque sí que se nota la influencia de la documentación sobre las piratas chinas del siglo XIX y prefiere contar una historia más romántica.

El apartado romántico es quizá el más destacado del libro, con una relación que comienza con un matrimonio de conveniencia para devenir en algo más. Sin embargo, a mí personalmente me ha gustado más la intriga política, la organización de un conjunto de flotas piratas con un código de honor capaz tanto de proteger a los más pequeños como de vender esclavos para su beneficio. Esta flagrante contradicción, es el germen de los problemas de fondo de una estructura de poder que se tambalea ante la amenaza del Imperio, atraído precisamente por las victorias de los piratas. Y es que se puede perfectamente morir de éxito si se consigue llamar la atención de los más poderosos.

Otros temas que forman ya parte del arsenal de Aliette de Bodard, como las relaciones con los hijos, el respeto a las tradiciones o el maridaje de culturas tienen aquí su aparición, con mayor o menor importancia en la trama.

The Red Scholar’s Wake es una deliciosa novela que hará las delicias de los seguidores de la escritora, que son legión. Además, como bonus añadido, en la edición a la que yo he tenido acceso viene el adelanto de la siguiente novela, A Fire Born of Exile, de la que yo no tenía conocimiento y que ha llegado para alegrarme el final de la lectura.

Xich Si’s captured by a fleet of pirate ships run by newly widowed Rice Fish, a sentient ship. Rice Fish proposes a marriage of convenience between the two to find out who murdered Rice Fish’s previous wife.

Like a lot of people, lesbian space pirates piqued my interest. I’ve also been interested in reading a work by Aliette de Bodard. However, there are certain problems with this book. The beginning’s rushed. The book takes place in Xuya Universe, a series of short stories and books that have already taken place here. Maybe if I’d already read those, I wouldn’t feel so rushed with understanding the rules and politics.

The romance was at times sweet but overall felt rushed. It was odd how quickly Rice Fish got over her wife, and Rice Fish had unreciprocated feelings for her wife that caused her years of pain and anguish. Xich Si has an understandable aversion to pirates after watching her friend getting brutally murdered in front. Yet they quickly get together.

This review is based on an advanced reader copy provided through Netgalley for an honest review.

Well, this was certainly something different. Vietnamese lesbian space pirates are definitely not a topic I read much about, but the blurb did sound fun. And the book started out right in the middle of some nice action, so very promising.
Sadly, that's basically all the action we get until the end. For a book about space pirates, we really don't get that much space or that much pirating. The greatest aspect by far is the romance and we've also got quite a bit of space-pirate-politics that I really didn't care about, tbh.
I can tell you that it is very confusing to read a book with a main character called Rice Fish. I can also tell you, that it's slightly weird to read a book with a space ship that's basically a human. And most of all, I can tell you that it's weird as hell to read a romance between a human being and a space ship. What?! I mean, whatever floats your boat (pun intended), but I'm not really into space ships. Like, not at all. Especially not space ships called Rice Fish. How am I supposed to emphasize with a woman falling in love with a space ship called Rice Fish? I don'T care that the space ships are beings of their own, I don't care what anyone else says, I can't get over that. Sorry.
Even if I had managed to look past that, the romance wasn't for me. It started out very sweet, but turned weird. It also irritated me that Rice Fish called Xích Si things like "child" and "li'l sis". That's not romantic, that's creepy! I don't know if it's a Vietnamese culture thing, but in that context it really didn't sound right.
Rice fish was also condescending, petty and immature. Definitely not how I would've expected a pirate ship to behave. On a side note, I could barely believe that Xích Si was the mother of a six year old child. She behaved like a teenager 99% of the time! I would've guessed her age to be something like 17.
I'm really sorry, but this book wasn't for me. The idea sounded pretty fun, but the result was strange as hell.

Thank you NetGalley and JABberwocky Literary Agency, Inc for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

2 stars
DNF @ 70%
They let me, a clout-less fool, read the sapphic space pirates book!! And it turned out to be basic af. I'd heard a lot about this on twitter, so I was very excited when Netgalley approved my request for an ARC. My main issue with this book is that it lacks substance. The characters and the plot is flimsy and plain, there wasn't a single character that I liked, they all seemed tropey and flat. I was interested in the world building but there was barely any information provided, the villains were just cartoonishly evil. There was no subtle foreshadowing, everything was rather obvious in terms of how the plot would go. The one reason why I wanted to read this book was because of the sapphic pirates, and I was immediately let down by how insta-love the romance was. I'm sorry but I can never connect with the characters or the romance when they want to bang each other from the moment they meet. Might just be me, but it feels rather superficial.
Thank you to Gollancz and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I had enjoyed the previous works in the Xuya Universe series, it was a great scifi series going on and I really enjoyed what was happening in the romance department. The characters were what I was hoping for and were well-written. I look forward to reading more from the author and this series.

"She was going to need some kind of amplifier; this far out in the asteroid field, with the sentinels’ relays taken out, she could only send the barest of position acknowledgements. Maybe if she bounced a message off the invading ships themselves? That was a dangerous undertaking…"