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books2019-04-05 01:21 am
archangelbeth) wrote in books2019-04-05 01:21 am
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
I might as well cross-post the review around...
In short? I really like this book, which has Politics, Ultratech, Poetry, and a beautiful (and snobby) Empire. It is a book that is *especially* "in conversation with," as the fancy term goes...
• C.J. Cherryh's Foreigner series.
• Ancillary Justice and sequels.
• The Goblin Emperor.
• Aliette de Bodard's Universe of Xuya stories.
It was not quite the book I was expecting, but the book I was expecting was a lot lighter on the witty quips and outright funny bits that I read to my spouse and offspring from time to time, so this one is very good for those bits. (And also there were two places where I cried. *sniffle*)
Anyway, if you like any of the above books -- and especially if your tastes include all of them -- then you'll probably like this one as well.
Edit:
Perhaps that is a little too cryptic. Minor spoilers ahead.
There is a large empire. There is a fairly small space colony. The colony doesn't want to be fully and formally absorbed into the empire, but has no way to resist its might -- except, well, diplomacy.
Fangirl-of-the-Teixcalaanli-Empire Mahit is the second Ambassador from the space colony. Their first Ambassador? Well, he's apparently not the one they want, since they bade the colony produce a second one. ASAP.
Is it a spoiler to note that the first Ambassador is non-functional? Probably not much of one. Worse, the shock of the discovery detaches Mahit from her newly-installed imago -- the 15-years-out-of-date-but-better-than-nothing memories of the prior Ambassador. ...Ta-da, now that's only barely better-than-nothing, providing occasional flashes of emotional charge or brief flashbacks at inopportune times. Oh, and it's not like she can pop into a local hospital and get it checked over; imagos are only known at her colony, are kind of top-secret technology, and the Imperial citizens are all creeped out by the idea of neurotech at all.
Great. Now she has to figure out if the first Ambassador met with foul play, and by whose hand, and WHY. The Who and Why are the most important, since she'd kind of like to stay wandering around in this beautiful, snobby, poetical Empire with Three Seagrass, her liaison whose citizenship and "cloudhook" into the computer system allow Mahit to wander around and, y'know, buy food, get doors to open, and read her lightly encrypted mail.
(Oh, did I forget to mention there's about to be a succession crisis? Because of course there is. Three contenders for the throne (two of whom are supposed to be co-regents ahahahahahhaa would you like to buy a bridge somewhere?), one underage heir, an ancient emperor, and somehow Mahit's predecessor was all in the middle of this before he died.)
Now, with this set-up, I was thinking it would tend to be grim, and tense, and paranoid -- but the very next day after Mahit has arrived and recovered a little, she and Three Seagrass are bonding over snark, shared appalled emotions at the choice of names of someone who married into the Empire (I won't spoil that; it's great), and shared xenophilia. Which is good, because Mahit needs to save her colony from annexation, save herself from getting killed, and possibly save the Empire's peace while she's at it...
In short? I really like this book, which has Politics, Ultratech, Poetry, and a beautiful (and snobby) Empire. It is a book that is *especially* "in conversation with," as the fancy term goes...
• C.J. Cherryh's Foreigner series.
• Ancillary Justice and sequels.
• The Goblin Emperor.
• Aliette de Bodard's Universe of Xuya stories.
It was not quite the book I was expecting, but the book I was expecting was a lot lighter on the witty quips and outright funny bits that I read to my spouse and offspring from time to time, so this one is very good for those bits. (And also there were two places where I cried. *sniffle*)
Anyway, if you like any of the above books -- and especially if your tastes include all of them -- then you'll probably like this one as well.
Edit:
Perhaps that is a little too cryptic. Minor spoilers ahead.
There is a large empire. There is a fairly small space colony. The colony doesn't want to be fully and formally absorbed into the empire, but has no way to resist its might -- except, well, diplomacy.
Fangirl-of-the-Teixcalaanli-Empire Mahit is the second Ambassador from the space colony. Their first Ambassador? Well, he's apparently not the one they want, since they bade the colony produce a second one. ASAP.
Is it a spoiler to note that the first Ambassador is non-functional? Probably not much of one. Worse, the shock of the discovery detaches Mahit from her newly-installed imago -- the 15-years-out-of-date-but-better-than-nothing memories of the prior Ambassador. ...Ta-da, now that's only barely better-than-nothing, providing occasional flashes of emotional charge or brief flashbacks at inopportune times. Oh, and it's not like she can pop into a local hospital and get it checked over; imagos are only known at her colony, are kind of top-secret technology, and the Imperial citizens are all creeped out by the idea of neurotech at all.
Great. Now she has to figure out if the first Ambassador met with foul play, and by whose hand, and WHY. The Who and Why are the most important, since she'd kind of like to stay wandering around in this beautiful, snobby, poetical Empire with Three Seagrass, her liaison whose citizenship and "cloudhook" into the computer system allow Mahit to wander around and, y'know, buy food, get doors to open, and read her lightly encrypted mail.
(Oh, did I forget to mention there's about to be a succession crisis? Because of course there is. Three contenders for the throne (two of whom are supposed to be co-regents ahahahahahhaa would you like to buy a bridge somewhere?), one underage heir, an ancient emperor, and somehow Mahit's predecessor was all in the middle of this before he died.)
Now, with this set-up, I was thinking it would tend to be grim, and tense, and paranoid -- but the very next day after Mahit has arrived and recovered a little, she and Three Seagrass are bonding over snark, shared appalled emotions at the choice of names of someone who married into the Empire (I won't spoil that; it's great), and shared xenophilia. Which is good, because Mahit needs to save her colony from annexation, save herself from getting killed, and possibly save the Empire's peace while she's at it...