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hirsute's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Moderate: Cursing
Minor: Death, Violence, and Sexual content
bloodbrooxv's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia, Blood, Death, Grief, Suicide, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, and Violence
Moderate: Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Medical content
Minor: Medical trauma, Gun violence, Police brutality, and Vomit
cskye's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Gun violence, Cursing, Blood, Colonisation, Death, and Suicide
Moderate: Xenophobia, Alcohol, Confinement, Police brutality, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Grief, and War
rlinnyc's review against another edition
- 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
3.25
Minor: Gaslighting, Violence, Body horror, Alcohol, Blood, Classism, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Medical content, and War
jjjreads's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Colonisation, Medical trauma, Cultural appropriation, Classism, Police brutality, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Grief, Medical content, War, Xenophobia, Murder, Racism, and Suicide
Moderate: Self harm, Alcohol, Blood, Cannibalism, Child abuse, and Cursing
scifi_rat's review against another edition
Graphic: Death, Colonisation, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Police brutality, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Medical content, and War
Minor: Alcohol, Cursing, and Genocide
ticktock's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Moderate: Cursing, War, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical trauma
criticalgayze's review against another edition
- 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? No
4.0
I found A Memory Called Empire to be a really enjoyable court intrigue story. Martine has done interesting things with the integration of language, like a heavier version of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe. I also found all the characters incredibly enjoyable, especially with the aforementioned work by the audiobook narrator. This was a long audiobook that spread across a span of two weeks for me, so I'm having trouble forming solidified praise, but I do recommend this one.
The problems are small for me, but they did keep from a full appreciation of the novel. The biggest is the minimal world-building. I don't know if this is done to give us a connection to the in-over-my-head feeling of Mahit, the novel's narrator, as she tries to navigate the inner turmoil of the Teixcalaan empire, but the reader is left with little sense of the history that would lead to the kind of civil war the capital city is facing or the relationship of Mahit's Lsel Station to the empire. My other sticking point centers around poetry, which is a central motif of the story. I'm not sure if it would be more accessible an idea in print, but there seems to be too much description of poetry characters are writing and not enough of the poetry itself, which comes across as overly indulgent linguistic fascination on the part of the author.
A Memory Called Empire is an interesting and effortlessly Queer entry into the science fiction genre that has plenty of things to chew on in the current conversation on American imperialism.
Graphic: Blood, Cursing, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Suicide, Xenophobia, Gun violence, Death, and Terminal illness
Minor: Alcohol
alouette's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
also, the fact that the whole plot took pace over only 5 days?! there was no time to understand most of the characters' motivations. storygraph user 'annebonny' explains this much better than i can, so you can go read their review of this book for more insight.
it felt like scratching the surface of this sci-fi world (and the world-building was good, even if also confusing) and knowing with certainty that i would never understand its truths and not even being sure if i cared to.
Graphic: Blood, Colonisation, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Cursing, Death, Murder, and Violence
pyrochoresis's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Blood, Suicide, Violence, Police brutality, Confinement, Medical content, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Death, Xenophobia, Vomit, Racism, Grief, and Gun violence
Minor: Murder and Cursing