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indeedithappens's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
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
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Alcohol, Classism, Death of parent, Blood, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Colonisation, Death, Deportation, Pandemic/Epidemic, Genocide, Gun violence, Medical content, Self harm, Stalking, Violence, Vomit, Gore, Grief, Murder, Sexual content, War, and Xenophobia
kseret's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror
Moderate: Vomit, War, Violence, and Colonisation
Minor: Injury/Injury detail and Grief
sunday_evening's review
adventurous
challenging
funny
reflective
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
An incredible sequel and great close to the series. I can’t rate it 5 stars though because the beginning DRAGGED. It felt like the plot was moving at glacier-speed.
But once Three Seagrass and Mahit made it onto Wait for the Wheel, we hit the ground running. The rest was very well paced. I love Three Seagrass but at the same time she makes me want to rip my hair out.
But once Three Seagrass and Mahit made it onto Wait for the Wheel, we hit the ground running. The rest was very well paced. I love Three Seagrass but at the same time she makes me want to rip my hair out.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, War, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Violence and Genocide
Minor: Injury/Injury detail
eleanora's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
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? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Xenophobia, Death, War, and Violence
Moderate: Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Vomit, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, and Medical content
maddiebusick's review
adventurous
challenging
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
4.5
I loved everything about this except for the ending. This entire universe from this book and the previous book was so fascinating as were the characters and it will stick with me forever.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Xenophobia, Violence, War, Colonisation, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Medical content, Sexual content, Vomit, Cursing, Death, and Grief
Moderate: Gun violence, Alcohol, Deportation, and Suicide
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
minervacerridwen's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
What a ride!
I would definitely recommend this duology if you like political intrigue, compelling characters, and in particular a hilarious queer poet-diplomat entangled with your space opera. I felt the plot in "A Desolation Called Peace" was stronger than in the first book, and I absolutely love that we got to see Eight Antidote's point of view. With the characters who were already in the spotlight in "A Memory Called Empire" it felt great to reconnect. I'm very happy to have liked "A Memory Called Empire" so much that I decided to pick this one up immediately.
The only downside, if I have to name any, still is that this world's view on gender is barely addressed, but it didn't feel as relevant as it did in the first book, where the worldbuilding was still happening more actively. There seemed to be one character with they/them pronouns at the very end of the story (unless Cure simply couldn't make out their gender), which only served to make me more curious about that little aspect - but as it didn't reflect on the actual story, it didn't really affect my reading experience. I'll be happy to dive back in if Arkady Martine ever decides to return to Teixcalaan.
I would definitely recommend this duology if you like political intrigue, compelling characters, and in particular a hilarious queer poet-diplomat entangled with your space opera. I felt the plot in "A Desolation Called Peace" was stronger than in the first book, and I absolutely love that we got to see Eight Antidote's point of view. With the characters who were already in the spotlight in "A Memory Called Empire" it felt great to reconnect. I'm very happy to have liked "A Memory Called Empire" so much that I decided to pick this one up immediately.
The only downside, if I have to name any, still is that this world's view on gender is barely addressed, but it didn't feel as relevant as it did in the first book, where the worldbuilding was still happening more actively. There seemed to be one character with they/them pronouns at the very end of the story (unless Cure simply couldn't make out their gender), which only served to make me more curious about that little aspect - but as it didn't reflect on the actual story, it didn't really affect my reading experience. I'll be happy to dive back in if Arkady Martine ever decides to return to Teixcalaan.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War
Moderate: Violence, Vomit, and Xenophobia
Minor: Colonisation and Grief
wordsareworlds's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I loved Memory Called Empire, and this was a very, very good sequel, although I don't like it as much as the first. I found having four PoVs plus interludes more difficult to engage with (a recurring theme for me when there are more than two PoV characters), and often the PoV changes were used as cliffhangers in a way I found off-putting.
Martine's writing is beautiful, and I found the way she balanced the personal aspects of the characters with the larger, epic plot points incredibly well done. I was more satisfied by the end of the novel before I realized it was a duology, but still felt like it fit the book very well, as heartbreaking as it was in several respects. My favorite parts I definitely didn't get enough of - especially the way Martine was exploring colonization and xenophobia both as part of and in response to colonization, or the evolution of Mahit's sense of self and her relationship with Three Seagrass.
CN violence, descriptions of aftermath of genocide, racism, xenophobia, one instance of body horror, grief, chronic pain, sexual content
Martine's writing is beautiful, and I found the way she balanced the personal aspects of the characters with the larger, epic plot points incredibly well done. I was more satisfied by the end of the novel before I realized it was a duology, but still felt like it fit the book very well, as heartbreaking as it was in several respects. My favorite parts I definitely didn't get enough of - especially the way Martine was exploring colonization and xenophobia both as part of and in response to colonization, or the evolution of Mahit's sense of self and her relationship with Three Seagrass.
CN
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Chronic illness, Grief, Violence, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Body horror and Sexual content
deedireads's review
adventurous
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? No
4.5
All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.
TL;DR REVIEW:
A Desolation Called Peace was a great sequel to A Memory Called Empire. Bigger scope, better pacing, same great characters being pushed even further toward growth — what’s not to love?
For you if: You like hard sci-fi novels (and already ready Memory!)
FULL REVIEW:
A Desolation Called Peace is the sequel to A Memory Called Empire, which together make up the Teixcalaan duology. Memory won the Hugo Award and was nominated for a bunch of others, and Desolation already won the Locus Award and is nominated for this year’s Hugo.
The duology itself is about a woman named Mahit from the space station Lsel, who travels to the capital Teixcalaan as ambassador. Those from stations and planets outside the empire are called “barbarians” by the Teixcalaanli, whose society revolves around things like advanced poetry. But those from Lsel have a secret technology called Imago machines, which basically implants the recorded consciousness and knowledge of another person into their minds. Mahit is given a very old Imago machine from the previous ambassador, who recently disappears, and is thrust into a mystery and revolution in Teixcalaan with just her liaison, named Three Seagrass, for help. This book picks up a few months after that one left off, sending Mahit and Three Seagrass to the reaches of the empire, where the war with mysterious aliens rages — or does it?
There is so much to love in this duology. It’s sapphic, which we always love to see. It’s got lots to say about home and loyalty and even more about colonization and the stickiness of prejudice, even in the face of love. It’s got really really good characters (who grow even more, in better ways, this time), and the scope of the world are exquisitely, intricately built. Nobody can make political relations as exciting as Arkady Martine! I do also think the second book was a bit better paced in the middle than the first one was (mostly because less worldbuilding).
TL;DR, if you like hard sci-fi, don’t sleep on these books!
TL;DR REVIEW:
A Desolation Called Peace was a great sequel to A Memory Called Empire. Bigger scope, better pacing, same great characters being pushed even further toward growth — what’s not to love?
For you if: You like hard sci-fi novels (and already ready Memory!)
FULL REVIEW:
A Desolation Called Peace is the sequel to A Memory Called Empire, which together make up the Teixcalaan duology. Memory won the Hugo Award and was nominated for a bunch of others, and Desolation already won the Locus Award and is nominated for this year’s Hugo.
The duology itself is about a woman named Mahit from the space station Lsel, who travels to the capital Teixcalaan as ambassador. Those from stations and planets outside the empire are called “barbarians” by the Teixcalaanli, whose society revolves around things like advanced poetry. But those from Lsel have a secret technology called Imago machines, which basically implants the recorded consciousness and knowledge of another person into their minds. Mahit is given a very old Imago machine from the previous ambassador, who recently disappears, and is thrust into a mystery and revolution in Teixcalaan with just her liaison, named Three Seagrass, for help. This book picks up a few months after that one left off, sending Mahit and Three Seagrass to the reaches of the empire, where the war with mysterious aliens rages — or does it?
There is so much to love in this duology. It’s sapphic, which we always love to see. It’s got lots to say about home and loyalty and even more about colonization and the stickiness of prejudice, even in the face of love. It’s got really really good characters (who grow even more, in better ways, this time), and the scope of the world are exquisitely, intricately built. Nobody can make political relations as exciting as Arkady Martine! I do also think the second book was a bit better paced in the middle than the first one was (mostly because less worldbuilding).
TL;DR, if you like hard sci-fi, don’t sleep on these books!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Xenophobia
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Death
qwerty88's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
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
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Colonisation, Violence, Sexual content, and War