A Memory Called Empire

The author of this book is also a historian of the Byzantine Empire and I could sense that expertise underlying the excellent world building in this book. The story centers around an ambassador to a sprawling, powerful empire, looking to defend the interests of her home world and find out why her predecessor was murdered. There’s a lot of interesting investigation of what it is to resist a colonial culture while also being fascinated and seduced by it, and some fun neurotechnology elements as well. It reminded me a bit of Embassytown which I absolutely loved.

In A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine smuggles you into her interstellar diplomatic pouch, and takes you on the most thrilling ride ever. This book has everything I love: identity crises, unlikely romance, complicated politics, and cunning adventurers. Super-fun, and ultra-fascinating.

When I pre-ordered this book a couple months ago, I had it in my head that this was going to be an extremely serious speculative sci-fi novel about an intergalactic empire on the cusp of revolution. And while it was certainly a novel about an intergalactic empire on the cusp of revolution, I’m happy to report that it wasn’t nearly as serious as I anticipated. And that made it all the better.

Right out of the gate, the author brings her biggest strength to the forefront of the story—her world-building skills. The protagonist, Mahit, is forced to leave behind her regular life living on a mining station and become her station’s ambassador to the heart of the massive and aggressively expansionist Teixcalaanli Empire. So from the outset, the reader is dealt an interesting contrast: the simple work-oriented stationer culture versus the grandiose and convoluted literature-oriented Teixcalaanli culture, the latter of which Mahit has spent most of her life trying to grasp through academic study.

Mahit, consequently, has a “fish out of water” storyline, in which she tries her hardest to fit in as a “barbarian” (or so the Teixcalaanli call her) in a world where high culture is viewed as the end all be all. And personally, I think Mahit’s viewpoint is the perfect lens through which to tell this sort of political intrigue story, as we get to view the empire from the point of view of someone who has one foot inside it and foot outside it. Through Mahit, we see the good and the bad, the sensible and the outrageous, and the many other competing cultural aspects of Teixcalaanli society.

Based only on the thoughtfulness that went into the world-building, I would give this book four stars. But there’s more!

The actual plot of the book is fairly strong, with Mahit playing an influential role in the empire’s politics during a time of rising political unrest. The book has generous helpings of action, drama, humor, and political intrigue, all wrapped up in a complex but believable story about the twilight of a emperor’s long and peaceful reign, and the ramifications that naturally emerge from an approaching shift of power.

The pacing of the book was quite fast, the climax explosive, and the conclusion both stunning and fitting when you consider the plot as a whole. I wasn’t bored at any point during this book, as even the slowest moments were saturated with interesting revelations or the introduction of new mysteries to solve.

In terms of characterization, I think the author did a great job with the supporting cast, particularly Mahit’s “sidekicks,” Three Seagrass and Twelve Azalea, who, while both being competent actors that helped drive the plot forward, provided a great deal of necessary comedic relief that kept the book from falling too far toward a “dark and despairing” tone.

Mahit herself was a bit more a mixed bag for me—she spent a little too much time allowing things to happen to her before finally finding her agency, for my taste. But in the end, she too came through as an intelligent and daring character with believable strengths and flaws. And I certainly wouldn’t mind reading another book about her, especially after her development throughout this book.

If there’s one noticeable issue with the book, it’s the number of minor plot threads left hanging or under-explored. Now, while I understand that the author intends to write more books in this universe, I feel that she went a little too far in introducing some of these subplot ideas that weren’t completely relevant to the main plot, because they extended the “run time” of the book without having any payoff at the end.

I would’ve preferred it if those unfinished subplots had been dialed back a bit, mentioned only in passing, and then reintroduced and fully explored in the sequels. Because a lot of those subplot threads were quite intriguing, but this book simply didn’t have the space to accommodate them properly.

Overall, I found A Memory Called Empire to be a refreshing take on the intergalactic empire story, with a solid cast, an exciting plot, and extremely memorable world-building.

A Memory Called Empire…is so frigging good. It’s like a space opera murder mystery combined with all the political parts of Dune.

So, I’m late to the party with this duology. I have read both in the last week and been blown away by them. The world-building is amazing, the character development is fascinating and the way everything pulls against each other…the different cultures, the different expectations…is perfect.

In the first book there is the tension between the Stationer culture and the ever-expanding Teixcalaan empire, which have radically different values and ways of being. They are both human, but the Teixcalaan’s don’t really see non-Teixcallaanim as being real people. In book two, the human cultures are thrown against aliens who are so completely other that the Sationers and the Teixcallaani need to put aside their differences to learn to communicate with them and survive as a species.

Interwoven with the big, space-opera story of both books is a delicate, touching, personal story of the tentative relationship growing between the Stationer ambassador to Teixcalaan and her Teixcallaan translator. They struggle with their feelings and cultural differences against a background of violence, attempted rebellion and political maneuvering.

I found the whole thing completely absorbing and I’ll be going back to them in a few months, as I’m sure there’s stuff I’ve missed. It’s rich, textured and absorbing. Read them. They’re good.

This is the Hugo Award winner for 2020 and totally deserved the win. The construct of the Empire in the future is flawless The characters are engaging, believable and humorous. There are many twists and turns to figuring out the why of the murder mystery. I highly recommend it if you are a Science Fiction aficionado.

Intimate and Sprawling

This was an interesting mixture of alternate history — what would happen if the Aztecs became the predominant culture on Earth and spread to the stars to become a galactic empire — and far future (again, galactic empire…). Most distant future Sci-Fi novels start out with an “Americanized” world expanding into the universe. This was a very different take, including bloody sacrifices, poetry, and export of culture that feels alien. Very well done. I guess I just got lucky that the next book is coming out in just a few days — I look forward to seeing how Arkady Martine deals with something truly alien/non-human.

This book was utterly amazing. Easily one of the funniest books I have ever read, and epic in scope while also deeply personal.

This was a very good story (though perhaps a little too long) about an ambassador trying to prevent a star spanning empire from conquering her tiny corner of the galaxy. I expected it to be a big Space Opera but it turned out to be an entertaining story of Palace Intrigue. The big SF idea – a memory capture and transplant device while not completely new (for example – Star Trek Trills) is handled well. The most original part of the world building was the creation of a culture with such emphasis on literature, especially poetry. Fortunately, at least for me, the author usually takes the time to explain what the poetry is supposed to mean so the reader can appreciate what it going on. It almost reminds of SF where the author explains the fake science behind FTL or force shields or whatever. One difference is that explaining fake science is almost always a waste of everyone’s time and explaining the “poetry” actually provides the reader with guidance. Another difference was the poetry discussions tended to be short and in the service of the story. There were plenty of twists and turns – as one would expect in story of courtly intrigue. And while the story comes to a reasonable conclusion, there is plenty of room and questions for the next story in the series. Recommended.

Beautiful world-building and characterization with universal themes of colonialism, culture, politics, language explored vividly IN this space opera. With its seductive appeal and being an alien in a host country or culture, the concept of Empire is well explored in this book.
Wow! Well done.