This is the latest entry from de Bodard’s Xuya Universe. For those who are not familiar with it, Xuya is set in the far future where humanity is dominated by two empires, one of Chinese inspiration, the other Vietnamese (de Bodard herself is French-Vietnamese). The assorted novellas and short stories of Xuya do not form a continuous narrative; it’s similar to Discworld in this regard.
There are two things in particular a reader should be aware of before diving into Xuya. One is the concept of “mindships.” These are starships with a sentient core; they are treated as people, with the same rights as any human. They usually have human-appearing avatars made up of some combination of holograms and nanobots, which let them interact freely on the human scale, but they are starships nevertheless. The other thing to know is that these books are very Vietnamese. De Bodard makes no real effort to adjust the story or the way she tells it for Western audiences; she wants to tell a Vietnamese story, and that’s exactly what she does. The main area where this made me stumble a bit was in how characters address each other. They refer to each other as “elder aunt,” “younger aunt,” “big sis,” and “little sis” depending on relative standing and the closeness of the relationship. A child might refer to their mother as “elder aunt” in a formal business meeting, for one example. (And, on one occasion, an adult is referred to as “child” in a deliberate power move.) For two married characters to refer to each other as “big sis” and “little sis” took a little mental adjustment.
The premise of this story is that the scavenger/salvager Xích Si has been captured and enslaved (“indentured”) by pirates. In her home empire, it’s assumed that anyone indentured by pirates will have committed acts of piracy themselves, which carries a death sentence, so she knows she cannot go home. This means abandoning her young daughter, but she takes comfort that she left her daughter in the care of trusted friends.
The story begins when Xích Si is approached by the mindship Rice Fish with an offer of marriage. This would be a transactional marriage of mutual benefit. Rice Fish is recently widowed; she had been married to the Red Scholar, leader of the Red Banner of pirates, who was killed in an ambush by Imperial forces. Rice Fish suspects foul play, and would gain Xích Si’s impressive technical skills in her investigation. Xích Si would gain protection; no pirate would harm the wife of the Red Consort. She agrees.
The story with the intrigues behind the Red Scholar’s death wasn’t that interesting to me. Lots of interplay between assorted pirate factions, lots of subtle social maneuvering. It was perfectly good, but nothing particularly exciting.
Where the book shown was in two areas. First was the relationship between Xích Si and Rice Fish. Unsurprisingly, the two catch feelings for each other. Unsurprisingly (because otherwise the book would be dull) there are reasons that keep them from immediately embarking on a real relationship. Frustratingly *bad* reasons that made me want to lock the two of them in a room together until they figured things out. (I haven’t quite worked out how I would manage this when the one literally lives and has her bedroom inside the other). It’s got a serious romance plot line, in other words, and it was wonderful.
The other area where this book shines is that it seriously addresses the human cost of piracy. Piracy is very romanticized; very few books (SF/F or otherwise) really get into the human cost of piracy. Things like livelihoods and lives lost are glossed over; captured people being sold into slavery is certainly not something that happens in Red Seas Under Red Skies. This book tackles it head-on, and does so very well.
Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot. I expected to, because I’ve been a de Bodard fan for years, but it really worked for me. I don’t necessarily expect it would work for everyone, and I don’t think it’s really the best intro to de Bodard’s style (try In the Vanishers’ Palace or The House of Shattered Wings if you’ve never read her before). But I really enjoyed this.