Scan barcode
A review by tsunni
A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine
adventurous
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? It's complicated
5.0
At this point I'm completely convinced anything Arkady Martine writes would be brilliant.
A Desolation Called Peace won the Hugo Awards like the previous book did, and absolutely deserves it; it managed to continue and expand on everything the first book did thematically, introduce an even stranger alien culture convincingly (and it's so damn easy to mess up what the aliens were about, plenty of other scifi books have tried and failed to present it as easily and understandably as this does), continue the sapphic love story where it left off, and does it all at once while making every new character real and human, and keep up the tension of a desperate space war. And it's completely accessible, easy to read writing that doesn't have me reaching for a dictionary too often. Unreal.
I'm especially enamored with how Mahit has been reacting to Three Seagrass and the evolution of their relationship over these two books; it feels so real how much she's struggling with her feelings as being simultaneously more Teixcalaan than most Teixcalaan, but also an eternal outsider to Teixcalaan culture and the continual, constant micro aggresions just from existing in their space. Her leaving at the end of the last book made complete sense, as unsatisfying as it was from a "fantasy" perspective; her conflict of wanting to be with Three Seagrass at the end of this book and not yet resolving that struggle with the cultural side of things felt so human as well. It would've been so easy to just have her say yes and I think a lot of stories would've taken that out; I'm glad Martine didn't. I connect with Mahit much more because of it.
I absolutely enjoyed it. I finished it quite a while ago and I'm still sitting here just digesting it; there's so much to unpack about what it says about how we communicate and connect with each other, and I get the feeling I'd find more to think about on the next read through. I went for the Broken Binding special edition hardcovers set and I'm so glad I did; I think these two Teixcalaan books will be ones I'll come back to over and over.
A Desolation Called Peace won the Hugo Awards like the previous book did, and absolutely deserves it; it managed to continue and expand on everything the first book did thematically, introduce an even stranger alien culture convincingly (and it's so damn easy to mess up what the aliens were about, plenty of other scifi books have tried and failed to present it as easily and understandably as this does), continue the sapphic love story where it left off, and does it all at once while making every new character real and human, and keep up the tension of a desperate space war. And it's completely accessible, easy to read writing that doesn't have me reaching for a dictionary too often. Unreal.
I absolutely enjoyed it. I finished it quite a while ago and I'm still sitting here just digesting it; there's so much to unpack about what it says about how we communicate and connect with each other, and I get the feeling I'd find more to think about on the next read through. I went for the Broken Binding special edition hardcovers set and I'm so glad I did; I think these two Teixcalaan books will be ones I'll come back to over and over.