Reviews tagging 'Grief'

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

37 reviews

purplatypus's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Xenophobia, Murder, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Grief, War, Blood, Colonisation, Gun violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcohol, Pregnancy, and Classism

hybridhavoc's review against another edition

hopeful tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This is a fantastic book. I'm not typically a big fan of politics and diplomacy in stories, but wrapping the whole thing in a murder mystery I think really helped with the onboarding. The most fascinating facet has to be the cultural.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Blood, Self harm, and Xenophobia

Minor: Murder, Alcohol, Terminal illness, and Grief

northisnotup's review

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Body horror, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Medical content, Colonisation, Blood, Police brutality, Injury/Injury detail, and Grief

None of these tags are shocking or out of place, given the plot and themes of the novel, nor do any of them come as a surprise or are used strickly for shock value. The content warnings are appropriate, and not to be used as reasons why not to read this novel.

alexijai98's review against another edition

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Death, Xenophobia, Colonisation, Blood, Grief, Medical content, Murder, and War

quarkie's review

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

The major themes I took from this book were: an exploration of how cultures may differently define the "self", the feelings associated with accepting or rejecting a colonizing culture (as well as being accepted by or being rejected by that culture), and how quickly alliances and motivations can change based on changing circumstances and relationships.

What I liked: I thought the concepts of imago machines and a poetry-based political system were fascinating. I wanted to keep reading in order to find out more about the world. The characters were all written to be strong and individual.

What I didn't like: I'm not sure if it's because I wasn't paying close enough attention, but I found the plot to be a bit incoherent at times. I couldn't isolate the precise motivations of each character, as they seemed to be changing over time. Some plot points would come up, and then never come up again, or come up at a point where they no longer really matter since the situation had since changed.  Maybe this was on purpose, to reflect the changing political circumstances, but it led to a slightly less-than-satisfying read. The main character kept coming back to two main points (her missing imago machine and her relationship with the Teixcalaani culture) so often that it felt a bit ham-fisted.

Overall, I think it's an interesting concept that could have been executed slightly better. Still a wholly worth-while read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Suicide, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Violence, Terminal illness, Murder, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, War, and Grief

Minor: Alcohol

wordsareworlds's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

It's been the better part of two years since I read this book and I still think about it regularly. It's a phenomenal work.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Violence, Grief, Medical trauma, and Police brutality

Moderate: War and Death

starlitpage's review

adventurous challenging emotional reflective tense fast-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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Xenophobia, War, Violence, Medical content, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Self harm, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Terminal illness, Sexual content, and Abandonment

allegrahistory's review

challenging dark 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Racism, Blood, Medical trauma, Body horror, and Xenophobia

alisonvh's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

If you like your sci-fi with a whole bunch of political intrigue, and sassy dialogue, this book is for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Terminal illness, Suicide, Gore, War, Medical content, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Colonisation, Forced institutionalization, Stalking, Police brutality, Murder, Violence, and Classism

sauvageloup's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.5

a fascinating space opera, not usually my genre but really enjoyed it.

pros:
- cool and innovative world building, very original. loved the details of the technology, the poetry culture, the complicated politics, the empire and its colonialism, the naming structure, the way they have clones more than kids it seem , etc. 
- Mahit's love and hate relationship with the empire's culture and people, and how she desperately wants to be part of it, but sees its flaws and loves her own people.

I loved the ending where she decides to go back home while she still wants to. really shows her growth in character and the complicated nature of her relationship with the empire

- the writing was lovely, super evocative and descriptive, very visual.
- the romance

between mahit and three seagrass at the end

was not focused on but a sweet moment too.
- loved the relationships and the details of the side characters. and the gently mentioned queerness that wasnt a big point but quietly there and no bigotry or question was raised about it.
- also loved the turns in plot, always surprising

especially the big reveal at the end about the new emperor, which fixed a lot of problems and worked so well. and Mahit managing to get her mental guy back again.
- it also left more to be explored, with the imminent threat of aliens, Mahit heading back home and facing the woman who sabotaged her mind thing, and I want to hear more about the emperor's 90% clone and if he'll really turn out like his "father". </spoilers>

cons:
- I was losing track of the characters a fair bit. partly bc of their unusual names I think, and bc of the sheer no. tho I did take a break in the middle too. But I didnt realise there was a character and word glossary at the back which I should've checked.
- I did find it slightly sad that we didnt get to see more of Mahits mental guy, since she missed him so much but we barely knew him so I didnt relate much.

and when he did come back, I didnt love him that much, bc he'd sold out this info and wasnt as likeable as Mahit, or we didnt see as much of him

- I did just generally find it a bit of a slow read, but I think that's just the genre and it isnt rly a criticism. it definitely really got going in the 2nd half too, it didnt drag at all.

so overall, a really good read and I plan to read the 2nd book when the library gets it for me :) thanks to @deadlypapercut for getting it for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Medical content, Death, Violence, War, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Grief, Colonisation, Suicide, and Blood