A Memory Called Empire

Paperback, 462 pages

English language

Published Nov. 7, 2019

ISBN:
978-1-5290-0158-7
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4 stars (5 reviews)

A Memory Called Empire is a 2019 science fiction novel, the debut novel by Arkady Martine. It follows Mahit Dzmare, the ambassador from Lsel Station to the Teixcalaanli Empire, as she investigates the death of her predecessor and the instabilities that underpin that society. The book won the 2020 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

2 editions

Politics as war by other means

4 stars

What do you do when your homeland is in the path of an expanding empire, hungry to consume it and draw it into its embrace? That's the central question to this, and it tells a fascinating story of Mahit Dzamare, sent to the imperial capital as an ambassador to try to protect her home, but also to find out what happened to her predecessor. There's a lot of palace intrigue that she has to figure out, but also a wider set of political processes going on outside the confines of the court, and it's good to see a recognition of those political structures and movements in a book like this. Sometimes feels like there's too much going on - I haven't even touched on the Mahit's internal story, as she deals with an outdated copy of her predecessors mind within her own - but it all comes together in a …

Review of 'A Memory Called Empire' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

On of the best sci-fi novels I've read in some time. Accomplishes the stellar feat of making a story which takes part almost entirely within a single city feel like it has galaxy spanning consequences. Reads as much like medieval court intrigue as it does full on space opera, and is all the better for it.

The last big space opera I read was Saga of the Seven Suns, and while that is a huge story full of fantastic imagination, I enjoyed the writing style of this novel so much more.

Can't wait to read the followup, and hopefully many more to come. Bravo.

The slow-burning love-child of House of Cards and The Expanse

4 stars

If I'm honest I first picked up this book because of the image on the cover but once I picked up the book I remained interested and the aesthetic remained pretty cool throughout and gave me vibes from the "Coup" and "The Resistance" board games.

The book really focuses in a lot on the political manoeuvrers of the central character Mahit and her allies (and enemies). There's a fair amount of political theatre and description of Mahit's internal monologue which reminded me of House of Cards. The world building meant that the plot does take a little while to really get going but once it does get going, there's a fair amount to be excited about. The last few chapters were pretty gripping and more reminiscent of something like The Expanse.

There is a lot of description of the culture and language used in the Teixcalaanli Empire which for me, …

Politics and spaceships

4 stars

What if, the Federation wasn't this big happy family and the humans weren't in charge but were only some minor part of some larger alien empire?

I enjoyed this book, it has a lot of politics; if you found the scenes in The Expanse around the earth parliament annoying, this book is not for you.

It also explains in an entertaining way how tricky being a Galatic Empire is, even (or perhaps because) you have the ships with the Big Guns.

It was entertaining

No rating

I experienced this as an enjoyable palace intrigue like some other reviewers, but I didn't really find it particularly insightful on "assimilation and language and the seduction and horror of empire" (quote taken from the author's acknowledgments section). It's an interesting world and I'm looking forward to reading the sequel, but I can't say my mind was blown.