Reviews with content warning for War - A Desolation Called Peace

I don't know if I like the way that Martine glorifies conquest through Mahit. She describes the Devouring Maw of Teixcalaan as though it's something beautiful and mostly ignores the fact that this is an empire that has brutally colonized large parts of the galaxy.

There's a quick explanation of "well they haven't had a war of conquest in hundreds of years", but that doesn't really matter to me when alien xenophobia is very obviously, deeply entrenched in their society.

Also, sp**k is a real racial slur and either Martine didn't think to check, or knew and used it anyway (like, a disturbing amount of times).

Still, I can appreciate that the main cast we're mostly in agreement that they should open dialogue with the new species before they try and wipe them off the face of the galaxy, and it actually works.

Overall solid read and a good expansion on the first book, but I think the major subjects that it covers were not discussed deeply enough.

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frogcakes's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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alexijai98's review

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adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Would be 5 stars but the ending slightly irked me

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quarkie's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

As in the first book, a really interesting world and some thought-provoking takes on various concepts, but I was a bit distracted by what I thought to be less-than-stellar writing. I liked this one a bit more than the first one, but I think it was more due to the change in structure rather than a significant change in writing. Rather than the entire book told from a single point of view, this story was told from four distinct viewpoints. This helped avoid repetition of the same topic and thoughts that was present in the previous book, and also allowed readers to better follow the motivations of characters, since they had access to more internal monologues. It also allowed for readers to see characters' thought processes develop over the course of the book.

One thing I really enjoyed was the pacing - while the beginning was s bit slow, the second half had me on the edge of my seat, and made it difficult to put down!

One complaint I have, that is similar to the previous book, is that sometimes plot points "just happened". Meaning that they either seemingly had no lead up to them, or that they happened and didn't actually have an effect on the plot. It left readers hanging in a few cases.

The main topics that I took away from reading this were what the concept of "you" means to various societies, which was explored in the previous book and then expanded even further upon here. It was also an interesting look at how a society that is know for consuming cultures through colonization acts when confronted with a (SPOILER ALERT) society that will much more literally consume them. Finally, this book explored more concretely the ways in which people from these various cultures interact with one another, and how they can be actively doing harm when they are in fact well-intentioned.

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michaelcattigan's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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deleore's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

What an honor to start 2024 with this book. It is also 03:22 now, so my reviewing abilities are severely impaired.

Beautifully woven, wonderfully sung.

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peregrinwho's review

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adventurous challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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nixwithapen's review

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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