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blacksphinx's review
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This puts the "opera" in Space Opera. I feel like on a scale from 1 to 10, none of the character's emotions ever dripped below a 7. Combined with all of the fanciful and unexplained technology it was exhausting but never boring. I disliked how fast the main couple fell in love, and the book was too short to really pull off the mutual pining angle it was aiming for. I really liked the sentence where one of the main characters acknowledges that relationships don't need romance or sex to be valid but she personally needs those things; that was such a lovely touch. There are a lot of good ideas in here and I'd love to read more books in this universe.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Gun violence, Kidnapping, and Grief
Moderate: Trafficking, Slavery, Blood, and Child abuse
Minor: Sexual assault and Alcohol
emberise's review against another edition
emotional
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
2.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Trafficking
Moderate: Child abuse
Minor: Sexual violence
annemaries_shelves's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
While you can never go wrong picking up a book about gay space pirates, there much less pirate-ing going on in this book.
It's split in focus between 1) discussing the morality and violence of the greater societies/competing empires (An O and Dai Viet) vs. that of the pirate society, and 2) the burgeoning sapphic romance between Xích Si (human scavenger turned pirate wife) and Rice Fish (a Mindship - aka sentient spaceship - and soon to be head of the Red Banner pirate ships).
The worldbuilding was so interesting - it's an alternate scifi history based on Vietnamese and Chinese societies rising to dominance. de Bodard's world used a lot of technology to integrate the virtual world (overlays) into the physical world (and everyone has bots too). Given the relatively short length of 291 pages, there wasn't enough world-building to satisfy me, personally. Recognizing this is one entry into the Xuya Universe series, there's more development overall across the series, but I felt this novel lacked some.
Similarly, the romance. Because the whole novel takes place in less than month (really a handful of days when it comes to actual events), our two main characters barely know each other by the time shit really goes down. And that's to their detriment. They claim to love each other, but they don't know the other, don't fully trust the other (especially Rice Fish), and easily miscommunicate. It very much read as insta-love and/or confusion of lust for love. I think we could've benefitted extra pages to facilitate a longer period overall for Xích Si and Rice Fish to really fall in love, or adjust their behaviour and emotions to better reflect reality (wild thing to say with scifi, I know).
In contrast, I really liked the exploration of parent-child relationships with Xích Si and Rice Fish's young and grown children, respectively.
Overall, it's a fun read and I would pick up another book in the series because it's an interesting universe and themes. But I wouldn't go into this expecting an actual scifi romance (unless insta-love is your jam).
Content warnings: grief, indentured servitude, violence, references to child indenturing and general concept that some people would sexually abuse children, death of spouse (offpage/pre-novel), references to rape of bondspeople
It's split in focus between 1) discussing the morality and violence of the greater societies/competing empires (An O and Dai Viet) vs. that of the pirate society, and 2) the burgeoning sapphic romance between Xích Si (human scavenger turned pirate wife) and Rice Fish (a Mindship - aka sentient spaceship - and soon to be head of the Red Banner pirate ships).
The worldbuilding was so interesting - it's an alternate scifi history based on Vietnamese and Chinese societies rising to dominance. de Bodard's world used a lot of technology to integrate the virtual world (overlays) into the physical world (and everyone has bots too). Given the relatively short length of 291 pages, there wasn't enough world-building to satisfy me, personally. Recognizing this is one entry into the Xuya Universe series, there's more development overall across the series, but I felt this novel lacked some.
Similarly, the romance. Because the whole novel takes place in less than month (really a handful of days when it comes to actual events), our two main characters barely know each other by the time shit really goes down. And that's to their detriment. They claim to love each other, but they don't know the other, don't fully trust the other (especially Rice Fish), and easily miscommunicate. It very much read as insta-love and/or confusion of lust for love. I think we could've benefitted extra pages to facilitate a longer period overall for Xích Si and Rice Fish to really fall in love, or adjust their behaviour and emotions to better reflect reality (wild thing to say with scifi, I know).
In contrast, I really liked the exploration of parent-child relationships with Xích Si and Rice Fish's young and grown children, respectively.
Overall, it's a fun read and I would pick up another book in the series because it's an interesting universe and themes. But I wouldn't go into this expecting an actual scifi romance (unless insta-love is your jam).
Content warnings: grief, indentured servitude, violence, references to child indenturing and general concept that some people would sexually abuse children, death of spouse (offpage/pre-novel), references to rape of bondspeople
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery, Grief, and Violence
Minor: Child abuse, Torture, Rape, Death, and Death of parent
displacedcactus's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
It's inevitable that if you conceive of the idea of spaceships with human minds, or human-like intelligence, someone is going to ask "Ok but what if I wanted to fall in love with and have sex with the spaceship?" and that's how you get books like The Red Scholar's Wake, in which a bot-maker and a pirate ship fall in love while also trying to protect the secret pirate base from attack.
This is set in de Bodard's Xuya Universe. I tend to like this setting because it has really lush visuals and interesting world building. I wasn't 100% invested in this relationship because of the uneven power dynamics (Xich Si is a prisoner talked into a marriage of convenience with the ship Rice Fish), and because I didn't find the description of Rice Fish's kisses as tasting like oil, exhaust, and brine to be very sexy... but the yearning is pretty good and there's some nice character growth.
This is set in de Bodard's Xuya Universe. I tend to like this setting because it has really lush visuals and interesting world building. I wasn't 100% invested in this relationship because of the uneven power dynamics (Xich Si is a prisoner talked into a marriage of convenience with the ship Rice Fish), and because I didn't find the description of Rice Fish's kisses as tasting like oil, exhaust, and brine to be very sexy... but the yearning is pretty good and there's some nice character growth.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Child abuse
eh1736's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery and Child abuse
Moderate: Murder
ninjatrombonist's review
dark
emotional
inspiring
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Trafficking
Minor: Physical abuse and Sexual assault
remaininlullaby's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Gaslighting, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, and Slavery
norwegianforestreader's review
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Abandonment, Alcohol, Classism, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Child abuse, Gun violence, Trafficking, Blood, Body horror, Death, Gaslighting, and War
lettuce_read's review against another edition
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Child abuse
jessie_h's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
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.
Y'all. I need Aliette de Bodard to write more space opera romances! The romance in this was a slow burn filled with a lot of will they or won't they and so much sexual tension. I may have squealed when Rice Fish and Xích Si started to get together. Aside from the romance, this book was full of political intrigue, found family, family drama, grief, and lots of queerness. It was also about learning to be brave and how to dream bigger than your circumstances have dictated while finding your place in the universe. It was soft, romantic and I wanted more of this world when I finished.
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 and original review was posted on Goldilox and the Three Weres blog.
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 and original review was posted on Goldilox and the Three Weres blog.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Kidnapping, Trafficking, Violence, Grief, and Child abuse
Moderate: Confinement, Murder, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Death, and Death of parent