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eudaemonics's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
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? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Xenophobia, Sexual content, War, and Colonisation
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, and Vomit
booksthatburn's review
adventurous
emotional
tense
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
4.5
*I received a free review copy as part of 2022 Hugo awards voting.
A DESOLATION CALLED PEACE is a collision of cultures bleeding into war, trying to find the bounds of personhood in more than flesh and bone.
The plot follows several parallel threads, centering on various characters. I love Twenty Cicada’s storyline. He’s one of my favorite characters, followed closely by Eight Antidote. Mahit and Three Seagrass are working together again, this time to find a way to communicate with the aliens whose proximity Mahit had used as leverage in the previous book. The worldbuilding focuses on intra-empire politics as much as it focuses on the empire’s communications with Mahit and with the aliens. It balances stress and war with levity and intimacy, exploring connections and communication as characters with conflicting methods and competing aims collide.
This answers a few things left hanging from the first book, showing the next steps without closing much off. There’s a new storyline involving aliens which is almost entirely new (the existence of those aliens was pivotal in Mahit’s big move at the end of A MEMORY CALLED EMPIRE). A few major things involving those aliens are both introduced and resolved. It specifically leaves aspects of Mahit’s relationships to other characters to be resolved later, but with substantial changes from how they were at the start of the book. Some of narrators are the same, with the addition of a new perspective between sections. I don’t think Eight Antidote was a narrator last time, if he was it was brief, but he, Mahit, and Three Seagrass are all narrators this time.
This story likely wouldn’t make sense to anyone who hadn’t read the first book. Because Mahit was on her first journey as an ambassador last time, A MEMORY CALLED EMPIRE had a lot of exposition which could fit naturally into that story. A DESOLATION CALLED PEACE is therefore (assuming one read the first book) free to focus on building up descriptions of the fleet, the Shards, and the aliens, leaving the Empire and its basic details to be shown but more rarely explained.
The ending utterly devastated me, wrapping up the main story and leaving me sated, but promising more in the vast future now made possible by the resolution.
A DESOLATION CALLED PEACE is a collision of cultures bleeding into war, trying to find the bounds of personhood in more than flesh and bone.
The plot follows several parallel threads, centering on various characters. I love Twenty Cicada’s storyline. He’s one of my favorite characters, followed closely by Eight Antidote. Mahit and Three Seagrass are working together again, this time to find a way to communicate with the aliens whose proximity Mahit had used as leverage in the previous book. The worldbuilding focuses on intra-empire politics as much as it focuses on the empire’s communications with Mahit and with the aliens. It balances stress and war with levity and intimacy, exploring connections and communication as characters with conflicting methods and competing aims collide.
This answers a few things left hanging from the first book, showing the next steps without closing much off. There’s a new storyline involving aliens which is almost entirely new (the existence of those aliens was pivotal in Mahit’s big move at the end of A MEMORY CALLED EMPIRE). A few major things involving those aliens are both introduced and resolved. It specifically leaves aspects of Mahit’s relationships to other characters to be resolved later, but with substantial changes from how they were at the start of the book. Some of narrators are the same, with the addition of a new perspective between sections. I don’t think Eight Antidote was a narrator last time, if he was it was brief, but he, Mahit, and Three Seagrass are all narrators this time.
This story likely wouldn’t make sense to anyone who hadn’t read the first book. Because Mahit was on her first journey as an ambassador last time, A MEMORY CALLED EMPIRE had a lot of exposition which could fit naturally into that story. A DESOLATION CALLED PEACE is therefore (assuming one read the first book) free to focus on building up descriptions of the fleet, the Shards, and the aliens, leaving the Empire and its basic details to be shown but more rarely explained.
The ending utterly devastated me, wrapping up the main story and leaving me sated, but promising more in the vast future now made possible by the resolution.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Medical content, Death, Grief, Blood, Gore, Medical trauma, and War
Moderate: Cursing, Colonisation, Violence, Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, and Vomit
Minor: Suicide, Ableism, and Self harm
crystalmethany's review
adventurous
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: War
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Genocide
hanz's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Genocide, and War
Moderate: Grief and Colonisation
kathleencoughlin's review against another edition
adventurous
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? No
4.75
An excellent sequel to A Memory Called Empire. Familiar characters were thrown into new situations. The world was expanded. Martine built on ideas and themes about belonging and self. Overall very interesting and fun.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Xenophobia
Moderate: Body horror, Gore, and Genocide
Minor: Grief and Suicide
criticalgayze's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
First, I would like to thank the publisher (Macmillan Audio) for an advance listening copy of this title that I am very behind on reading.
I think the choice to move all of the characters into unknown territory in the sequel works in this novel's favor and boosts it slightly over A Memory Called Empire for me. My major gripe with Memory was that I felt the reader was not given quite enough world building on the Teixcalaan empire to understand and appreciate all the machinations of the palace intrigue plot. I also thought it focused too much on describing, rather than showing, poems as a cornerstone of the Teixcalaan society's culture. In A Desolation Called Peace, the poetry element plays a much more minor role, and the story moves away from the under built empire to a first-contact narrative. This allows all three societies involved in the engagement to be on unsure footing, and it forces Martine to have to explain for the benefit of all involved. (The issue is not fully resolved, however, as we do still get some of the under-explained dissidence in the empire via the storyline of the empire's heir.)
I also really appreciated the use of a choral narration. The reemergence of choral narration is proving a big stylistic device in recent literary fiction, and I am appreciative of the grandeur of it all.
I would also like to again shout out Amy Landon, who returns to the sequel to provide fantastic narration.
I think the choice to move all of the characters into unknown territory in the sequel works in this novel's favor and boosts it slightly over A Memory Called Empire for me. My major gripe with Memory was that I felt the reader was not given quite enough world building on the Teixcalaan empire to understand and appreciate all the machinations of the palace intrigue plot. I also thought it focused too much on describing, rather than showing, poems as a cornerstone of the Teixcalaan society's culture. In A Desolation Called Peace, the poetry element plays a much more minor role, and the story moves away from the under built empire to a first-contact narrative. This allows all three societies involved in the engagement to be on unsure footing, and it forces Martine to have to explain for the benefit of all involved. (The issue is not fully resolved, however, as we do still get some of the under-explained dissidence in the empire via the storyline of the empire's heir.)
I also really appreciated the use of a choral narration. The reemergence of choral narration is proving a big stylistic device in recent literary fiction, and I am appreciative of the grandeur of it all.
I would also like to again shout out Amy Landon, who returns to the sequel to provide fantastic narration.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Medical content, and Death
Moderate: Sexual content, Genocide, and Xenophobia
readandfindout's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
slow-paced
4.0
Style/writing: 4.5 stars
Themes: 4 stars
Characters: 4 stars
Plot: 4 stars
Worldbuilding: 3.5 stars
Themes: 4 stars
Characters: 4 stars
Plot: 4 stars
Worldbuilding: 3.5 stars
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Blood, Gore, and War
Moderate: Violence, Medical trauma, Body horror, Xenophobia, Vomit, Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, and Grief
totallyshelfaware's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, Medical content, and War
Moderate: Colonisation and Xenophobia
Minor: Grief and Genocide
the_tridentarii's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-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
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Xenophobia
Moderate: Violence, Death, Genocide, Colonisation, War, Panic attacks/disorders, and Medical trauma
Minor: Vomit