The Red Scholar's Wake
(Xuya Universe Romance)
Aliette de Bodard
Release: November 24, 2022
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Xích 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. Xích 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 Xích 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 Xích Si's help to find out who struck against them and why. Marrying Xích Si means Rice Fish can offer Xích Si protection, in exchange for Xích Si's technical fluency: a business arrangement with nothing more to it.
But as the investigation goes on, Rice Fish and Xích 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...
An exciting space opera and a beautiful romance, from an exceptional SF author.
Review:
I've loved Aliette de Bodard's Xuya Universe
series for a while now so I was super excited when she announced she was
writing a romantic sapphic space opera set in it! I was just excited for a new Xuya book but Y'all! She wrote a
book about lesbian space pirates that features a romance between a scavenger bot
engineer and a sentient space ship who also happens to be the leader of a
band of space pirates.
My only complaint is I needed more space battles to go along
with the political intrigue. I loved the Vietnamese-inspired world
building and how beautiful and imaginative de Bodard's writing is. I will say that the world might be a bit confusing at the first if you go into this without having ever read any of this author's other work. One thing I have adored about this world is the sentient space ships and how they are portrayed. I love that they have avatars and bots and can interact with the world! They have feelings and hopes and dreams and I just love them so much!
I
was so excited to see the announcement at the end of the book that
there is going to be a sequel/companion novel for this book and its
going to be another romance set in the Xuya Universe! I hope it comes out this next year because my hands are itching to get a hold of it!
ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley.
Fireheart Tiger by Aliette de Bodard
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