The Red Scholar's Wake
Ratings8
Average rating3
When tech scavenger Xích Si is captured and imprisoned by the infamous pirates of the Red Banner, she expects to be tortured or killed. Instead, their leader, Rice Fish, makes Xích Si an utterly incredible proposition: an offer of marriage.
Both have their reasons for this arrangement: Xích Si needs protection; Rice Fish, a sentient spaceship, needs a technical expert to investigate the death of her first wife, the Red Scholar. That’s all there is to it.
But as the interstellar war against piracy rages on and their own investigation reaches a dire conclusion, the two of them discover that their arrangement has evolved into something much less business-focused and more personal...and tender. And maybe the best thing that’s ever happened to either of them—but only if they can find a way to survive together.
A rich space opera and an intensely soft romance from an exceptional SF author.
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DNF/opgegeven na ±30%
En de ontgoocheling in mijn uitgekozen sci-fi boeken blijft duren!
Elke vorm van inleiding, opzet of wereldopbouw ontbrak hier. Veel dingen klonken wel interessant, maar niks werd uitgelegd, waardoor het gewoon heel verwarrend en onduidelijk lezen was. Dit voelde eerder als een tweede boek in een reeks, waarbij we als lezer al vertrouwd zijn met de wereld, dan een alleenstaand verhaal.
“A barrage of images and sounds overwhelmed her – too fast, too confused, too jumbled”
Bovenstaand citaat beschrijft perfect mijn ervaring tijdens het lezen. Daarbij kwam een nogal vreemde reden voor een verstandhuwelijk dat toch alle signalen gaf van instalove, waardoor ik besloot mezelf niet te dwingen verder te lezen.
I was really looking forward to this one, so it's sad that I ended up not liking it. The worldbuilding was interesting, if sometimes confusing, and seeing a far-future high-tech society based on Vietnamese culture was so cool, but this book features...
-A really weird case of insta-love
-One of the main characters insisting over and over (and over and over and over) that her people's evil practices are fair and fine, actually, because they're slightly less evil than the empire's
-A purportedly 6-year-old child who alternates between being a toddler, a marriage counselor, and a professor
-Aspec characters only existing to be villains
-Some words that maybe should have gone untranslated (Characters calling each other ‘big sister' and ‘little sister' during sex just feels wrong to me)
