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quarkie's review against another edition
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, War, Vomit, Murder, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Death, and Violence
Minor: Grief and Alcohol
starlitpage's review
adventurous
emotional
tense
fast-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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Sexual content, Body horror, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Alcohol
Minor: Grief, Vomit, Cursing, and Colonisation
amandadevoursbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
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? No
4.25
I loved a memory called empire. This is a strong second to that book. We follow our main characters plus a couple more points of view, Maheet and Three Seagrass, that are introduced to this book. I don't want to spoil the end of the first book so I'm going to keep this pretty high level.
After the events of the first book, maheet desmar returns to the station and with the corrupted imago in her head. She has no friends on the station and is immediately embroiled in a battle of wits to keep herself and her imago line alive.
Three seagrass receives an emergency communicate, and she decides to answer it as a translator. Maheet is the linguist so she sidetracks through the station to pick her up and head to the front line of a war.
I loved this book. I loved revisiting the old characters. I liked the new points of view that were introduced. I also enjoyed the complexity of the culture of stationers and the empire.
This book continues to examine how The empire perceives everyone outside of it as not human. The aliens speak in a way that is totally different than how humans speak and the empire struggles with seeing them as thinking beings.
It's another ride of courtly politics and political intrigue. It adds a couple of new theaters. Overall, it was enjoyable, it was satisfying, and I'm really glad I read it.
After the events of the first book, maheet desmar returns to the station and with the corrupted imago in her head. She has no friends on the station and is immediately embroiled in a battle of wits to keep herself and her imago line alive.
Three seagrass receives an emergency communicate, and she decides to answer it as a translator. Maheet is the linguist so she sidetracks through the station to pick her up and head to the front line of a war.
I loved this book. I loved revisiting the old characters. I liked the new points of view that were introduced. I also enjoyed the complexity of the culture of stationers and the empire.
This book continues to examine how The empire perceives everyone outside of it as not human. The aliens speak in a way that is totally different than how humans speak and the empire struggles with seeing them as thinking beings.
It's another ride of courtly politics and political intrigue. It adds a couple of new theaters. Overall, it was enjoyable, it was satisfying, and I'm really glad I read it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War and Grief
fraxisle's review against another edition
mysterious
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? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Murder, Death, Grief, Sexual content, Violence, Xenophobia, and Blood
Moderate: Vomit, Gun violence, Stalking, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Genocide
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
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