I know I usually complain about a book not being pace-y or not having enough description-to-plot ratio for my liking, but occasionally even I think we need to take the plot a little more slow. That was definitely the case with The Red Scholar’s Wake, which felt like it just wanted to get to the main story as soon as possible. But I think it then made it a bit unbelievable (in a developing relationship way, given that it’s sci-fi), as the two main characters go from strangers to being in love incredibly fast.

Anyway, the plot is about Rice Fish who is a mindship and Xich Si, a scavenger who is captured by the pirates and given a choice to marry Rich Fish (or become an indentured slave). The mindship was previously married but their wife was murdered by another pirate (but is so far unproven), she needs Xich Si’s skills with bots to find the evidence. Lots of things ensue, very quickly, to the point where it felt a bit ridiculous. At least I had an introduction to the universe through the other novels by the author, and it would be a pretty rough introduction to that series of books.

The characters and the story itself were okay, but I think more could have been done with the intrigue rather than just be told about it from the start. There were definitely lots of places where it could have been more subtle, or drew out the story a bit more slowly. I’m really trying to find something good about it, but in comparison to the other novels it was a bit of a let down. It’s hard to describe anything that happens without ruining the plot as it’s a) basically telegraphed from the beginning b) there’s very little else other than plot, plot, plot.

Oh well, you win some, you lose some.