No one can communicate with it, no one can destroy it, and Fleet Captain Nine Hibiscus is running out of options. In A Desolation Called Peace, an alien armada lurks on the edges of Teixcalaanli space. In her debut novel, A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine delivered an unputdownable page-turner that was equal parts space opera and political thriller. Read this book.Martine talks about continuing the spectacular saga of Teixcalaan and Mahit Dzmare in the sequel to her Hugo Award-winning A Memory Called Empire. Arkady Martine has done it again, and made it bigger, bolder, and more beautiful than ever. Overall, it left me breathless with awe, this book that so effortlessly balances being a high-octane, science fiction action thriller, while also simultaneously being a thoughtful, complicated examination of identity, language, personhood, and truth. As a writer, it challenged me to see how seamlessly Martine crafted her world, looking for a place where the stitches showed and finding only smooth fabric in their place. it rocketed me through one of the best science fiction books I’ve read in quite some time.
Plus, there are space kittens, and who doesn’t love a good space kitten?. Swarm, Mallow, and Cure each live in my heart that’s all I’ll say for now, but trust me, you’ll understand once you’ve read. It was such a joy to spend time with these characters again, and fall in love with the new ones, too. Her flair for distinctive characters set in a rich tapestry of a world whose weaves we know mean that she can run wild in building out the already complicated and intriguing cast that we fell in love with from the first book.
Her worldbuilding continues to excel in ways both enthralling and contemplative, even traipsing into some aspects of the Weird, especially in moments where we are given some small insight into the thought process of the alien beings these interludes are some of the richest, most experimental parts of this book, and some of my favorites. Amid these huge questions of identity and empire, Martine continues to shine like a star, her prose as gorgeous and cutting as the edge-shine of a knife. These character beats create some of the best moments of the book: the sheer friction that comes of language and meaning, of want and desire, of basic agreed upon reality between beings before a word is even said, and what can happen when those realities are different. Martine ups the ante by allowing every character, in their own way, to confront and define their own boundaries-the things that make them who they are, and not just cogs in a machine. Martine keeps the reader in efficient, dazzling motion alongside an incredible cast of characters. Martine is a practiced hand at precision storytelling no taut thread ever loses tension, no one character outweighs another, dramatic moments never sap energy from the events before or after it.
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