A review by escapistlit
The Red Scholar's Wake by Aliette de Bodard

Did not finish book. Stopped at 22%.

I really wanted to like this! And am very sad it just was a struggle to get through what I did. A lush Vietnamese inspired world with space pirates, political intrigue, and a sapphic romance! Weird stuff because one of the main characters is a sentient pirate space ship! But for many reasons, it was like pulling teeth to pick this up and read the little bits at a time I managed. My main issues were:

• The insta-lust/love was really awkward, incredibly forced, and very instantaneous. Within pages, Xich Si is hostage/captive and afraid, grieving her lost life, and then she's in full lust and having intense positive emotions towards Rice Fish, her captor? Who was responsible for the brutal death of Xich Si's friend leading up to her capture? The transition and justification of going from hostage to wife-of-convenience was abrupt and forced. This really killed the book for me. I didn't know the characters, didn't care for them, and just found them both very flat and dull. It came across as tropes in place of characters mostly.
• This doesn't read as a standalone. I'm usually fine with not getting exposition for world building, however, this reads like it's part of an existing series with a world that has been developed with relationships and dynamics going on that the reader should already know or be aware of. It seems like it should be rich and complex, it came across flimsy and flat.
• I understand the Lil Sis/Big Sis terms of endearment and know that it is a way romantic partners might refer to one another within some East and Southeast Asian countries. However, this really doesn't work in English. I would personally have much preferred the Vietnamese terms were used directly instead of being anglicized.

*thank you to the publisher for the review copy