Review: The Red Scholar's Wake, by Aliette de Bodard

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.

"I go with my wife". Aliette de Bodard's The Red Scholar's Wake is a book about sapphic space pirates. It's hard sci-fi, with sentient ships that manifest themselves through human avatars, and Rice Fish is one of such ships; the resulting romance could take some suspension of disbelief, but it's intense in what's at stake. The book reflects over consent, and over neglect in previous relationships, in a sound manner. The relationship between the main characters is a bit instantaneous, and the way it starts isn't auspicious; things happen much too quickly, but in the end the relationship doesn't come without struggles, and I found that believable.

The books shines the most when it explores the main character's relationship with their respective children: Xích Si needs to save her daughter from indentures servitude, while Rice Fish has to face the misunderstandings that came from her first marriage. On that note, Rice Fish's first wife's perceived aromanticism is villanized in some way, but it might be a question of perspective; Rice Fish was, after all, traumatized by her first wife's choice of words - and actions - and so the narrative reflects that.

The use of Vietnames honorifics (little sis, big sis) might confuse some, but it's very clear there's no familiar relationship between the main characters (one's a ship!)

This is part of a bigger narrative universe, and it shows in the lack of explanations for many things, for example the overlays. I don't want to have my hand held (or I wouldn't read speculative fiction), but I'd like some context when it can be provided.

The Red Scholar's Wake is a solid sci-fi adventure with stunning prose.

✨ 3.5 stars

📚📚📚 IF YOU LOVE THIS, YOU MIGHT LIKE:

* A Strange and Stubborn Endurance, by Foz Meadows

for: arranged marriage, previous toxic relationship