REVIEW: The Red Scholar’s Wake by Aliette de Bodard
From the author of the Xuya universe comes a rich space opera and an intensely soft romance…
When tech scavenger Xích Si is captured and imprisoned by the infamous pirates of the Red Banner, she expects to be tortured or killed. Instead, their leader, Rice Fish, makes Xích Si an utterly incredible proposition: an offer of marriage.
Both have their reasons for this arrangement: Xích Si needs protection; Rice Fish, a sentient spaceship, needs a technical expert to investigate the death of her first wife, the Red Scholar. That’s all there is to it.
But as the interstellar war against piracy rages on and their own investigation reaches a dire conclusion, the two of them discover that their arrangement has evolved into something much less business-focused and more personal…and tender. And maybe the best thing that’s ever happened to either of them—but only if they can find a way to survive together.
Dear Aliette de Bodard,
I was delighted to see a new Xuya Universe offering from you and even happier to be approved for the arc. I enjoyed it but I have a few issues. I love that this is an inclusive science fiction story with strong female characters who are actually in charge. But there’s a lot of politics and after a fast, wrenching start, the novel slows a lot to lay out all the groundwork and relationships. This is not the first story I’ve read set in this Universe and while I know that there’s a lot to it, I think that by this point, I shouldn’t still feel as if I’m floundering around trying to get my feet under me.
Xich Si is a scavenger who lives by trying to keep her head down and going unnoticed. But when the ship she’s on is captured by pirates, her only hope is that they’ll kill her quickly. She saw the remains of a friend who wasn’t allowed to die easily and everyone knows of the deliberate cruelty of these pirates who take joy in inflicting pain. When the door opens on her jail cell, she’s braced but what happens stuns her. After confirming that she is the one who created the technical bots whose scorched bodies are tossed at her, a powerful mindship named Rice Fish offers Xich Si a MOC. In exchange for discovering who betrayed and killed her former wife, Rice Fish offers Xich Si safety and a position far above that of the indentured servant Xich Si would otherwise become. With her former life – including her young daughter – lost to her, Xich Si agrees.
The pirates Rice Fish is a member of are ruthless and think nothing of killing and torturing for fun. Well, some of them. Xich Si is horrified to be there among them, scared every second she’s awake, but aware that things could be so much worse for her. Rice Fish has made it plain that this is a business agreement and that she takes consent very seriously. Since Xich Si is far less powerful than a deep space mindship, Rice Fish will make no overtures of any kind. But as another pirate reminds them, they’ve got to make it look a little real in order to protect Xich Si which, under the terms of the marriage contract, Rice Fish has pledged to do. A kiss to seal the deal and being polite in public gets them started.
Xich Si takes her responsibilities seriously as well and begins to try to untangle what is going on among the pirate brethren and the Empire determined to crush them. There’s a traitor somewhere and Rice Fish knows who it is. She just needs enough hard proof to convince the other pirate leaders. When Xich Si needs to do something though, she unwittingly leaves Rice Fish in a bad negotiating position and herself owing a favor to someone she shouldn’t. When the final battle plays out, who will survive and what will happen to the tentative relationship that Xich Si and Rice Fish have allowed to start?
So yes, it was delightful to be back in this Vietnamese based space opera world again. I noticed the careful attention paid to the familial relationships, the descriptions of the robes worn, the fact that tea and refreshments are always offered to visitors, and explanations of which words are chosen to be used in certain situations. Reading about how the avatars of the mindships look was fascinating. They have nebulas and stars in and on them, meld into the body of their ships, and their emotions can cause ripples and rocking of their ship bodies. The oily feel and taste that Xich Si experiences while touching Rice Fish’s avatar and the slight exhaust smell seems like it would be less appealing.
But yeah, the politics slowed things down a great deal for about the first third of the story. As I mentioned earlier, I still feel slightly adrift – no pun intended – in this world trying to understand it. It takes a lot of attention and slows down my reading even more. At some point I hope I’ll move past this but for now, I still feel that there’s an instruction manual I should have read.
The romance is definitely a slow burn type. The “do you love me” questions aren’t the only thing keeping Rice Fish and Xich Si on different pages. They debate and argue over the differences and similarities between the pirate society and the Imperial one in which Xich Si has scrabbled all her life to survive in. In fundamental ways these are both different and also the same. Neither one is All Good or All Bad. The resolution calls on both to examine what is most important to them. Xich Si also has to decide if she can gather the courage to “go big or go home.” Since emotions often aren’t blazing and worn on the sleeve here, the characters might seem to be a bit flat but careful attention to how Rice Fish’s sensors pick up on bodily changes and the way personal bots react will show a different tale. The stakes are high and often Rice Fish and Xich Si can’t afford to risk showing emotions that could betray them.
The story ends with a HFN, which I think is reasonable, with a growing relationship and positive future. I would have liked to have seen more actual pirating and gotten more comfortable with the details of this world. However there are massive changes afoot there and I do want to see what will happen in the sequel. B
~Jayne
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