The Red Scholar's Wake: Shortlisted for the 2023 Arthur C. Clarke Award

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Sworn to secrecy, she learns the reason is connected to her postgraduate studies into ancient religious beliefs about gods on the moon. In her thesis, Ziggy concluded that these “gods” may have been aliens, and a cigar-shaped structure revealed in photographs of a lunar crater could be their spaceship, the “Thunderbolt Vehicle” described in Buddhist writings. She is the Rice Fish, a mindship and leader of a notorious band of space pirates, and she makes the proposal to Xich Si, a young captive, who accepts for the protection her status as wife will afford.

The Red Scholar’s Wake by Aliette de Bodard: Book Review The Red Scholar’s Wake by Aliette de Bodard: Book Review

Xích Si is a scavenger, scraping together a meager living salvaging and selling whatever tech she can. From fairytales onward, the idea of a mysterious forest in which anything can happen has deep-rooted appeal.Much of the story centres on Liff, the first child born on Imir, a witness to the colony’s struggle and decline. What starts as a business arrangement slowly morphs into something more personal and more pleasurable, but can Xích Si face life as a pirate, and can Rice Fish keep her promise of protection when the forces conspiring against her are more powerful and closer than she had imagined?

The Red Scholar’s Wake: A Xuya Universe Romance (Xuya

A ship and a human, the founders of the Red Banner pirate alliance that plagued the Twin Streams, the two asteroid groups stretching in the shadow of the Fire Palace, the red-hot mass that was long-dead civilization’s destroyed homeland. Once inside, their phones and GPS units fail, and they are soon hopelessly lost, seeing the landscape change before their eyes and feeling an invisible, malevolent presence at their backs. There were defiant firecrackers; noisy, screaming processions of mourners; drunken meals which degenerated into fights; all the while, Xích Si, leaning against a wall in the darkness of the hold where the pirates had imprisoned her, prayed to her long-dead ancestors to be forgotten. Prepared for the worst, she is surprised by not only who her captor is, but also by what she proposes.A traditional structure and simple yet elegant style add to the impression that these modern tales could be timeless classics. If you are a fan of space opera, excited by pirates, or intrigued by sentient ships, then you should read this. This is a refreshing change from the usual macho adventure story, one more about inner than outer space.