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The Red Scholar's Wake

Shortlisted for the 2023 Arthur C. Clarke Award

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The Red Scholar's Wake

By: Aliette de Bodard
Narrated by: Aoife Hinds
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About this listen

 'A great sapphic sci-fi'
SAMANTHA SHANNON

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, shortlisted for the 2023 Arthur C. Clarke Award.

'Confident, sexy, and touching'
MAX GLADSTONE

'An exhilarating dive into space piracy'
EVERINA MAXWELL

'A fizzingly inventive space opera'
ALASTAIR REYNOLDS

'The most glittery and delicious candy-shell'
FREYA MARSKE

'A "read-in-one-sitting" novel'
KATE ELLIOTT

'An epic tale of piracy and romance'
GARETH L. POWELL

'It took my breath away!'
STEPHANIE BURGIS

'LESBIAN SPACE PIRATES. Enough said'
KATEE ROBERT Fiction Romance Science Fiction Space Opera Marriage Pirate

Critic reviews

A "read-in-one-sitting" novel with a beautifully-realized setting amid a complex examination of power and consequences, all intertwined with an intense and gripping romance. (Kate Elliott, author of Unconquerable Sun)
De Bodard's novel, with its rich overlay of Vietnamese culture, is a sumptuous, romantic experience
A 'read-in-one-sitting' novel with a beautifully-realized setting amid a
complex examination of power and consequences, all intertwined with an
intense and gripping romance.
Thrillingly exciting and achingly romantic, The Red Scholar's Wake is rich with political intrigue and piratical adventure. It took my breath away!
Space battles! Arranged marriage! Politics and pirates! Aliette de Bodard has a knack for concocting the most glittery and delicious candy-shell of space opera, and then filling it with a bittersweet romance between two fractured people trying to hold on to their ideals. Every new book of hers instantly becomes my favourite book of hers, and this was no exception
All stars
Most relevant
A slow paced love and mystery story where a woman who is captured by space pirates marries a ship mind and finds who killed her previous wife.

Quite enjoyed it, not much action but well plotted and the ending was satisfying.

Sedate

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This is an audiobook that I needed to work to understand. I think if more of the infrastructure of this world had been explained instead of implied, I would of been less confused in parts. This is of earth but not as we know it , a sad, violent place. I would like to have had the 'sentient ships' explained and how/why a ship and a human could have a relationship (of any sort)! I stuck with it because I enjoyed it, despite the aforementioned 'issues'. The narration was good and this always lifts an audiobook. I suspended belief and wanted a HEA despite the story stopping just shy of that. I will listen again at some point and it may become clearer, picking up things I missed the first time around. This was still worth the credit.

'The Red Scholars Wake'

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