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A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine
May. 11th, 2019 01:33 pmI've been hearing about A Memory Called Empire since long before its publishing date, as the online SFF world has been talking about it. And everything I heard about it made me so excited to read it, to the point that when I finally got my hands on it I couldn't make myself begin for two weeks because I was so nervous about it not living up to my dreams of what it could be.
Well, my fears were entirely unfounded: it was everything I could possibly have hoped for and more. It's just. It's just SO GOOD. As I said on twitter when I was partway into reading it: It is absolutely outrageous how much I am loving A Memory Called Empire, it is like this book was written specifically as a gift to me personally and I can't handle how much I am into it!
So let's see how much of this review I can write without spoilers, in order to attempt to entice more people to read it! (all spoilers will be behind cuts.)
A Memory Called Empire is a space opera, in all the best senses of the term. (The author has called space opera "vivid emotionally and vivid conceptually." Which. Yep.) A representative from the backwater independent republic Lsel Station on the edges of an ever-expanding empire is sent to the centre of Teixcalaan space to act as Lsel's ambassador, after the previous ambassador is no longer able to continue in the role. The new ambassador, Mahit, has to navigate intricate political systems in a culture and language not her own, in a time when the situation is particularly high-stakes. She's young and inexperienced, but also smart and capable and well-educated and with good instincts.
Who can she trust? What's going on? What really happened to her predecessor Yskandr? What political shenanigans was Yskandr up to for the last 15 years that are about to get dropped on Mahit without warning? These are just some of the questions Mahit has to begin her ambassadorial career with, and it gets worse from there.
But the book isn't only focused on the suspenseful plot. There's also like a zillion other interesting intersecting themes and priorities that all are carefully and beautifully woven together into a coherent whole.
Such as: Themes of identity! Empire! Otherness! Friendship! Complicated relationships! State control! The inherently biased nature of algorithms! Political poetry! The self-referential nature of a culture's body of literature! And so much more! (Also there are queer people!)
I love the careful, thoughtful way Arkady Martine depicts empire in this book: not the unexamined background radiation of the universe, or the monolithic evil antagonist, which are both so common for depictions of empire in SFF. But instead it's clear how empire can be seductive and appealing while at the same time being hugely toxic and dangerous.
Like, the way that Mahit has grown up loving and admiring Teixcalaanli literature, and can't help but be thrilled to actually be THERE in the CITY at a POETRY ORATION CONTEST like she'd read about!!! while also knowing that the empire is a real and present danger to the home she loves so much and also to her personally and specifically. And knowing that no matter how long she lived in the City she'd never actually manage to fit in and be one of them and belong in these cultural trappings she loves. Even from Teixcalaanlizlim who genuinely like her, she still gets those reminders on a regular basis that she'll always be an outsider, always be other, always be a barbarian who's learned how to play along.
But Mahit also does make real and genuine friends among the Teixcalaanlizlim (as well as making uneasy alliances, enemies, and more). I loved Three Seagrass and Twelve Azalea so much! Three Seagrass's ambition, dedication, and embarrassed interest in barbarians was so great. And Twelve Azalea cracked me up with his total delight in getting to play spy games, and then ( I'm cutting the rest of this sentence for spoilers. )
And I loved how the pacing of the book wasn't just a madcap dash from one emergency to the next - I mean, it was, but it also made room for some realistic breathing space, like the brief nap and ice cream in the park amongst mildly-seditious students. A person can't just go forever, and these characters did fall apart when sleep-deprivation got to them, as even highly-competent people eventually must.
And the relationship between Mahit and Yskandr - oh dang, so interesting. ( And okay literally everything about this needs to go behind a cut )
And the book is full of this, honestly, of people who clearly have full lives and priorities and perspectives of their own, their own complexities, their own story. We see more of some than of others, but they're all there, and it's clear that the main characters of the story we're shown in this book are not the only characters who it would be worth following. Even Nineteen Adze, who's one of the most major secondary characters in the book, still clearly has a whole bunch more going on outside of what Mahit sees and experiences of her.
Something else I loved was the care Martine took in setting things up worldbuilding-wise so that when they later become relevant it's "OH WOW I didn't realize this is where that was going!" rather than "what the heck this is out of nowhere." For example: ( yeah this has to go behind a spoiler cut too. And this one is a really big spoiler so watch out if you don't want that for yourself. )
And then there's the cool way this book demonstrates the roles literature can play within a culture, from being a vector of imperialism through imports to other cultures, to being a source of self conscious inspiration behind one's actions, to being something you can have fun playing with amongst a group of clever friends, to being something that's used to exclude people who are "other" for not having grown up steeped in the same base assumptions of familiarity, to being something you can use for political gain, to being something you simply enjoy for being really really good.
I still haven't covered nearly everything I loved about the book but I'm finding myself running out of things I can coherently describe or explain so I think I'd better end myself here. And just say: This book is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, and alongside all the above verbiage it's also just fun and exciting and captivating and I cared about the characters and I always wanted to know where the author would take me next.
Also I cannot wait until the sequel is published next year!!!!!!
Well, my fears were entirely unfounded: it was everything I could possibly have hoped for and more. It's just. It's just SO GOOD. As I said on twitter when I was partway into reading it: It is absolutely outrageous how much I am loving A Memory Called Empire, it is like this book was written specifically as a gift to me personally and I can't handle how much I am into it!
So let's see how much of this review I can write without spoilers, in order to attempt to entice more people to read it! (all spoilers will be behind cuts.)
A Memory Called Empire is a space opera, in all the best senses of the term. (The author has called space opera "vivid emotionally and vivid conceptually." Which. Yep.) A representative from the backwater independent republic Lsel Station on the edges of an ever-expanding empire is sent to the centre of Teixcalaan space to act as Lsel's ambassador, after the previous ambassador is no longer able to continue in the role. The new ambassador, Mahit, has to navigate intricate political systems in a culture and language not her own, in a time when the situation is particularly high-stakes. She's young and inexperienced, but also smart and capable and well-educated and with good instincts.
Who can she trust? What's going on? What really happened to her predecessor Yskandr? What political shenanigans was Yskandr up to for the last 15 years that are about to get dropped on Mahit without warning? These are just some of the questions Mahit has to begin her ambassadorial career with, and it gets worse from there.
But the book isn't only focused on the suspenseful plot. There's also like a zillion other interesting intersecting themes and priorities that all are carefully and beautifully woven together into a coherent whole.
Such as: Themes of identity! Empire! Otherness! Friendship! Complicated relationships! State control! The inherently biased nature of algorithms! Political poetry! The self-referential nature of a culture's body of literature! And so much more! (Also there are queer people!)
I love the careful, thoughtful way Arkady Martine depicts empire in this book: not the unexamined background radiation of the universe, or the monolithic evil antagonist, which are both so common for depictions of empire in SFF. But instead it's clear how empire can be seductive and appealing while at the same time being hugely toxic and dangerous.
Like, the way that Mahit has grown up loving and admiring Teixcalaanli literature, and can't help but be thrilled to actually be THERE in the CITY at a POETRY ORATION CONTEST like she'd read about!!! while also knowing that the empire is a real and present danger to the home she loves so much and also to her personally and specifically. And knowing that no matter how long she lived in the City she'd never actually manage to fit in and be one of them and belong in these cultural trappings she loves. Even from Teixcalaanlizlim who genuinely like her, she still gets those reminders on a regular basis that she'll always be an outsider, always be other, always be a barbarian who's learned how to play along.
But Mahit also does make real and genuine friends among the Teixcalaanlizlim (as well as making uneasy alliances, enemies, and more). I loved Three Seagrass and Twelve Azalea so much! Three Seagrass's ambition, dedication, and embarrassed interest in barbarians was so great. And Twelve Azalea cracked me up with his total delight in getting to play spy games, and then ( I'm cutting the rest of this sentence for spoilers. )
And I loved how the pacing of the book wasn't just a madcap dash from one emergency to the next - I mean, it was, but it also made room for some realistic breathing space, like the brief nap and ice cream in the park amongst mildly-seditious students. A person can't just go forever, and these characters did fall apart when sleep-deprivation got to them, as even highly-competent people eventually must.
And the relationship between Mahit and Yskandr - oh dang, so interesting. ( And okay literally everything about this needs to go behind a cut )
And the book is full of this, honestly, of people who clearly have full lives and priorities and perspectives of their own, their own complexities, their own story. We see more of some than of others, but they're all there, and it's clear that the main characters of the story we're shown in this book are not the only characters who it would be worth following. Even Nineteen Adze, who's one of the most major secondary characters in the book, still clearly has a whole bunch more going on outside of what Mahit sees and experiences of her.
Something else I loved was the care Martine took in setting things up worldbuilding-wise so that when they later become relevant it's "OH WOW I didn't realize this is where that was going!" rather than "what the heck this is out of nowhere." For example: ( yeah this has to go behind a spoiler cut too. And this one is a really big spoiler so watch out if you don't want that for yourself. )
And then there's the cool way this book demonstrates the roles literature can play within a culture, from being a vector of imperialism through imports to other cultures, to being a source of self conscious inspiration behind one's actions, to being something you can have fun playing with amongst a group of clever friends, to being something that's used to exclude people who are "other" for not having grown up steeped in the same base assumptions of familiarity, to being something you can use for political gain, to being something you simply enjoy for being really really good.
I still haven't covered nearly everything I loved about the book but I'm finding myself running out of things I can coherently describe or explain so I think I'd better end myself here. And just say: This book is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, and alongside all the above verbiage it's also just fun and exciting and captivating and I cared about the characters and I always wanted to know where the author would take me next.
Also I cannot wait until the sequel is published next year!!!!!!
