Arkady Martine

A Desolation Called Peace is a follow-up novel to the earlier work A Memory Called Empire. This book again revolves around the characters Mahit Dzmare and Three Seagrass, but this time it throws them into the middle of a war with an alien species who no one can understand (linguistically or otherwise) in the role of negotiators. While the aliens themselves are pretty alien and we mostly don't get their point of view, there is a lot of political maneuvering within the factions on the human side, with each having their own preferred outcome of the war--reconciliation, genocide, never-ending war, conveniently eliminating people loyal to a certain regime, etc. I did enjoy the interplay of sympathetic characters working at cross-purposes, and especially the adventures of Imperial heir Eight Antidote (who is the best-written character in the book). However, it is still a step below the first book, which set a very high bar.… (more)

This feels like a pretty clear cut 4-star. The book (audiobook for me) had a lot of issues which bothered me a bit while reading:

1. The narrator said “lag range point” instead of “lagrange point”. Alright, this is petty, but it was jarring every time.
2. The characters were a bit.. simple? I felt like I knew who most of them were at the very beginning, and no one ever surprised much. Most of the “villains” were non-PoV characters, making it relatively clear who was intentionally being kept shady. Somehow, everything seems to revolve oddly around the POV characters as well, despite their relative unimportance amidst the vast scope of the story.
3. The internal dialogues you spend most of your time listening to are pretty basic.
4. The previous two things made the book feel very YA. Maybe it is, and I’m just over YA SF.
5. Apparently neurosurgery with totally unknown technology just works?
6. Nothing really concluded at the end.

Beyond that, some new interesting ideas, good names and terms (ezuazacat was a favorite of mine), and an interesting enough story. Probably more like a 3.5, but it accompanied me on enough runs so I feel a bit generous.… (more)

A Memory Called Empire tells the story of Mahit Dzmare, the ambassador from a small asteroid-mining nation to the expansive space empire known as Teixcalaan. She arrives following the mysterious demise of the previous ambassador, and has to move quickly to avoid becoming a political football in a court where she is completely unaware of her predecessor's schemes. Following the intelligent and likable Mahit as she works to unravel the political intrigues of the court and her predecessor's place in them is a joy. However, I would be remiss not to mention the excellent world-building--Teixcalaan has a very inwardly-focused society that's reminiscient of the Roman Empire, but at the same time it's a society that attaches a great deal of prestige to the literary arts and poetry. Put together, this is one of the better books that I've read in a while.… (more)