Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - A Desolation Called Peace

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A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

38 reviews

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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amberacks12's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

It’s incredible to think this duology was a debut for Arkady Martine. It’s complexities and themes felt extremely well developed and communicated. The exploration of dialogue and rhetoric and language being used in a million different ways as well as the development of complex cultures was extremely intoxicating and addicting to read. But also made my head spin.
The characters weren’t always lovable. I would love to read more about Mahit and Yskander navigating more of their new identity, I maybe would have liked Mahit to be just a little less helpless and needing Three Seagrass to rescue her from every mess she gets herself in. Eight Antidote was not very believable as an eleven year old, though very entertaining at times. And I wish we could have learned more about Twenty Cicada and his planet and religion. In summary, I would not have minded a third addition to this series.

I don’t feel intelligent enough to review this book in any more depth.
So I’ll just stop there and say that I loved it.

Enjoyment: 4
Educational value: 5 (in the context of the world building)
Emotional impact: 3

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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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iam's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging hopeful mysterious 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

5.0

I already loved A Memory Called Empire, and I loved A Desolation Called Peace even more. It not only featured the same political intrigue and twisted machinations, but also an alien first contact storyline the likes of which I adore, and two new POV characters whose chapters I greatly enjoyed.

I especially liked Eight Antidote, the 11-year-old clone to the previous emperor. His chapters were a delight, though maybe not entirely realistic to the mind of such a young person. My suspension of disbelieve was however never broken, and his arc was just so much fun to read.
I also really liked Nine Hibiscus, the fleet captain, and Swarm, her second in command, was one of my new favourites.
But Mahit and Three Seagrass, too, had their moments, and I liked how their relationship developed.

The aliens and various technologies were all fascinating, and I really like the worldbuilding of this series.
I greatly enjoyed any direction the plot turned to, and I cannot wait for more of this series.

Content warnings include: sex on-page, death, anaphylaxis, violence, vomiting, trauma, exile, mentions of and plans to commit genocide.

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