★★★★☆ Beauty and the Mechanical Beast

The Red Scholar's Wake

Aliette de Bodard

The two main characters of Aliette de Bodard's The Red Scholar's Wake are the pirate ship The Rice Fish, Resting and the scavenger Xich Si. Both are widows. Xich Si's partner Diệu Ngà was killed in a pirate raid, the same one in which Xich Si was captured. Rice Fish was married to the Red Scholar Huân, who died in the battle. "Red Scholar" is a title. Rice Fish and Huân belonged to a pirate alliance. The alliance is composed of five banners -- the Red Banner, the Green, Purple, White and Black. "Red Scholar" is the title of the leader of the Red Banner, a position currently open, although Rice Fish is for the moment the de facto leader.

Rice Fish is a Xuya Universe mindship. If you have read other Xuya Universe stories (if you have not, don't begin with this one), you are familiar with mindships. They are human-machine hybrids capable of faster-than-light travel.

Rice Fish believes that Huân was killed through treachery by one of the other banners. Having noted Xich Si's skills as a bot-wrangler and investigator, she proposes an alliance with Xich Si to find evidence of the treachery. In fact, she proposes much more than this: she proposes marriage. This marriage is to be purely a contract of convenience to give Xich Si the privileges and access she will need to do what Rice Fish asks.

As I began The Red Scholar's Wake, the story felt familiar. I realized pretty soon that it reminded me of Beauty and the Beast. I am not saying it's a B&TB retelling, or that de Bodard had any conscious intent of echoing B&TB. But, you know, that can happen without conscious intent. The old stories are fundamental and get told over and over again. Indeed, as I continued, The Red Scholar's Wake, I felt the bones of the classic story more and more clearly through de Bodard's story, There is a lot more to it than that, but B&TB is (possibly in my mind only) the skeleton supporting the muscle and skin.

I think this is the best of the Xuya Universe stories I have yet read. However, that may be only because I am learning to read Xuya Universe stories. De Bodard is a writer who demands attention, thought, and intelligence of her readers. She won't tell you everything -- she relies on you to figure things out.

For those interested in getting into the Xuya Universe, I recommend the short story collection Of Wars, and Memories, and Starlight as the best starting point, followed by The Tea Master and the Detective.

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