The Red Scholar's Wake

A Xuya Universe Romance

By: Aliette de Bodard

Narrated by: Aoife Hinds

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.

A rich space opera and an intensely soft romance from an exceptional SF author.

©2022 Aliette de Bodard (P)2023 Podium Audio

Critic reviews

“The Red Scholar’s Wake is a fizzingly inventive space opera, quite unlike anything I’ve encountered before, and told with style, grace, and a big dose of heart. SF is lucky to have Aliette de Bodard.” —Alastair Reynolds, Sunday Times bestselling author

“The Red Scholar’s Wake takes you on an exhilarating dive into space piracy with passion, politics, dazzling settings, and—even better—a profound core of love transcending hopelessness that rings throughout the story.” —Everina Maxwell, author of Winter’s Orbit

“LESBIAN SPACE PIRATES. Enough said.” —Katee Robert, New York Times bestselling author of Neon Gods

Original but obtuse

I really had to power through about half of this before I started to get connected to what was going on, to the nature of the world and the story. It was Bert relationship driven, with a certain amount of political intrigue and conflict and a minimal amount of military conflict (pirates!), but frankly I had trouble understanding any real motivation or rationale that held water behind character actions or behind political or military maneuvers.

I felt the most interesting element was the integration of bots as extensions of human bodies and the interaction with sentient ships as if they were pretty much human, mediated to a degree by the commonality of not extensions of the body. The work and technology are never really explained, which can be great, but left me feeling like I’d need to read this twice for the first half of the book to make any sense.

I can understand why this is highly rated as something that would appeal to well read sci-fi fans that want something original and different, but it wasn’t the enjoyable read I was hoping for and I didn’t feel that most of the plot, technology, or politics held up to the mildest scrutiny. It just went the way the author wanted the story to go.