The Red Scholar's Wake

Shortlisted for the 2023 BSFA Award for Best Novel, shortlisted for the 2023 Arthur C. Clarke Award!

Xich 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. Xich 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 Xich 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 Xich Si's help to find out who struck against them and why. Marrying Xich Si means Rice Fish can offer Xich Si protection, in exchange for Xich Si's technical fluency: a business arrangement with nothing more to it.

But as the investigation goes on, Rice Fish and Xich 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.

“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.”

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 Kate Elliott, author of Unconquerable Sun
De Bodard's novel, with its rich overlay of Vietnamese culture, is a sumptuous, romantic experience The Financial Times

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
Thrillingly exciting and achingly romantic, The Red Scholar's Wake is rich with political intrigue and piratical adventure. It took my breath away! Stephanie Burgis, author of Snowspelled and Scales and Sensibility
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 Freya Marske, author of international bestseller A Marvellous Light
The Red Scholar's Wake is a quiet, intimate novel, its focus on the personal as driving force for the plot. It's a book about love, over and above everything else: familial love, romantic love, and love for a community that doesn't always love you back. And alongside that love, it's also a book about hope. Reads Rainbow

Aliette de Bodard is one of the Writers of the Future, has won two Nebula Awards, a Locus Award and a BSFA Award. She has also been a finalist for the Hugo, Sturgeon, and Tiptree Awards, making her one of our most-lauded contemporary fiction writers. A writer by night, by day she is a qualified engineer, specialising in Applied Mathematics. She lives in Paris, in a flat with more computers than she really needs. You can learn more at or by following b>@aliettedb</b on twitter.

Xich 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. Xich 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 Xich 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 Xich Si's help to find out who struck against them and why. Marrying Xich Si means Rice Fish can offer Xich Si protection, in exchange for Xich Si's technical fluency: a business arrangement with nothing more to it. But as the investigation goes on, Rice Fish and Xich 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.

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