Aliette de Bodard

Hahhahaa The Red Scholar's Wake is on the sapphiclitbot account on the bird site. My little book has arrived!

Alt text: a post from user @sapphiclitbot that says "As the bots slid downwards, further than Xích Si’s arms could reach, Rice Fish shivered — and laid her hand on Xích Si’s lips, gently pressing with the delicacy of a kiss.

Aliette de Bodard, The Red Scholar's Wake"
#LesbianSpacePirates #theRedScholarsWake

Jan 21, 2023 at 6:15amWeb
Show threadShachihokoJan 21, 2023
@aliettedb It looks like The Red Scholar's Wake is only out in ebook form in the USA. Any idea if there'll be a physical printing of it here, or would I need to look into getting it imported if I'm that serious about a physical copy that will stay on my shelf, no matter what happens to the publisher?
Show threadJaime RobertsonJan 21, 2023
@Shachihoko @aliettedb You can get the UK edition from Book Depository:
https://www.bookdepository.com/search?searchTerm=The%20Red%20Scholar%27s%20Wake&search=Find+book
Results for The Red Scholar's Wake | Book Depository

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Show threadShachihokoJan 21, 2023

@JamesPadraicR @aliettedb I'll look into that, thanks!

(Went ahead and borrowed the e-book from my library for now. If it's as awesome as it looks, I'll happily import the physical copy!)

Show threadElizabeth WadsworthJan 22, 2023
@Shachihoko
Also, there seems to be some weirdness with the ebook - e.g. the name Rice Fish is italicized, and it apparently can't handle Vietnamese letters. I'm thinking I'll have to get a physical copy in order to read it properly.
Show threadShachihokoJan 22, 2023
@lizwadsworth65 Hopefully I can at least get a good enough feel for "is the story good and how well do I like it?" to inform a purchase, then. Mistaking a name for something that *should* be italicized is a weird error. (The Vietnamese text problem may be an issue of the data format used in the ebook release? Still a problem but I can see why it might happen.)
Show threadElizabeth WadsworthJan 23, 2023
@Shachihoko
After reading a bit more, it looks like I was mistaken: ALL the mindships' names are italicized. However, a number of vowels in other words/names are rendered in the ebook as a square - it appears that the program can't handle certain diacritical marks, which makes it a pain to try and decipher. If you can find a dead tree copy, it's likely to be an easier read.
Show threadShachihokoJan 23, 2023
@lizwadsworth65 I remember thinking that made sense - ships' names are usually italicized in English. The missing letters problem is a bigger issue, and a good reason to be wary of the ebook option - I suspect it's more specifically that the font used in the ebook doesn't have all of the accented letters that Vietnamese calls for, and I'd guess nobody went through and checked before the ebook was queued for distribution.