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Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining Station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn't an accident--or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court. Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her Station from Teixcalaan's unceasing expansion--all while navigating an alien culture that is all too seductive, engaging in intrigues of her own, and hiding a deadly technological secret--one that might spell the end of her Station and her way of life--or rescue it from annihilation.… (more)
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I gather that
What fascinates me is all the reviews and even the author's own writing about the book say it's about the uneasy relationship subjects have with an empire - and I'm sure it is. But I've never lived outside of the
This is a great book.
From the very first time I saw this book mentioned in the blogosphere I knew I would love to read it, since it promised to offer many of the themes I enjoy
The Teixcalaanli Empire has not extended its influence only through political or military annexation, but more subtly through the impact of its culture, one which is based on a poetry-inclined mode of expression that has become the model for what is viewed as 'in' - the very model of civilization. Even the systems not directly placed under the Empire's control can fall prey to this fascination for Teixcalaanli civilization, as is the case with Lsel Station, a mining space enclave whose only political tie with the Empire is represented by its ambassador in the City, the central planet at the heart of the dominion. Mahit Dzmare, a young woman who has long been a student and enthusiast of all things Teixcalaanli, is summoned to replace the former ambassador, only to discover upon arrival that her predecessor is dead.
Stationer culture offers a unique perspective on the preservation of past experiences: they have developed a neural implant called imago machine which can store the memories of its holder and share them with a different host - the mechanical equivalent of a Trill symbiont from Star Trek or the ancestral memories received by Reverend Mothers through the ritual of the water of life in the Dune universe. Mahit carries the fifteen-years out of date imago of her predecessor, Yskander, and is still in the process of fully integrating with it given the swiftness of her assignment, but as soon as she visits Yskander's body in the City's morgue, the voice inside her head goes silent, either because of a shock sustained by the hosted personality or of some kind of unexpected malfunction.
By all intents and purposes, Mahit must therefore carry on her mission alone - a stranger in a strange land, no matter how much of the Teixcalaanli culture she has absorbed - and under the double pressure of having to discover what really happened to Yskander, which could very well have been murder, and the political turmoil agitating the Empire, seemingly bent toward a new campaign of expansion, this time headed in the direction of Lsel Station. Not completely alone, though: the cultural attaché she was assigned, Three Seagrass, appears inclined to help her even when that means going against the rules, and the dramatic events they are part of - including a couple of attempts on Mahit's life - keep drawing the two young women closer, in a sort of mirror attraction for each other's culture that slowly turns into a personal one. Still, despite finding a few allies in unexpected places, Mahit's job looks like a mix of improvisation, deception and learning on the fly that never allows her a moment of respite, while the world all around her looks headed down a dangerous, uncertain path, one she must try to deflect at any cost, even personal safety.
A Memory Called Empire proved to be an intriguing read, as I expected, largely on the basis of the themes central to the story: one of them is the absolute belief at the root of Teixcalaanli society that it represents the best humanity can offer, the most civilized, refined example of mankind's achievements; a belief that makes them view everyone else as a barbarian, dismissing them all too easily. There are many instances where Mahit finds herself measured by this very yardstick instead of being accepted for her accomplishments in the culture she admires so much and in its aesthetic values, not to mention her own innate abilities. This leads to another interesting concept, the meaning of self and the way it can be defined - especially when confronted with the use of imago memories and the possibility of change introduced by the coexistence of one's experiences with someone else's. Where the initial buildup appears somewhat slow, once the pieces are all set on the board, the action moves forward at a fast pace, with the last segment focused on a fight against time and apparently insurmountable odds, one who certainly kept me on the edge of my seat as I waited for the whole complicated scenario to unfold completely.
And yet… As captivating as this story was, as delightful some characters were (Three Seagrass being the winner in this contest, thanks to her elegantly witty repartees), I could not shake the feeling that there was something missing - which does not mean that I did not appreciate this book, only I could not be… captured by it, always remaining on the periphery, so to speak, and never truly losing myself in it. Even now, as I'm writing this, I have not managed to put my finger on the real reason for this perception of distance and the best comparison I can find is through music: I enjoy listening to Mozart, I recognize the beauty of the works he shared with the world, but to me it’s a cold beauty, devoid of the heated passion I can find in Chopin or Rachmaninov, just to quote two of my favorite composers.
This does not mean that I view A Memory Called Empire in a negative light - the rating I gave it should dispel any doubt about that: it's only that though I recognize its brilliance, I failed to be engaged by it, probably because my heart wanted to be warmed by the story just as much as my mind had been intrigued by it…
Mahit Dzmare is the Ambassador from Lasalle Station to the Teixcalaan Empire. She's young; it's her first assignment; she's well-prepared academically. However, because the Empire demanded a new ambassador "immediately," she's not as well-prepared as she would otherwise be. There was no time, and there's another problem, related to her predecessor not having been as communnicative as he ought to have been.
She arrives on Teixcalaan, the world-city at the heart of the empire, to find that her predecessor is dead, allegedly of a food allergy. Since he had lived on Teixcalaan for twenty years, this seems unlikely. She's met by Three Seagrass, her cultural liaison from the Information Ministry, who takes her to her official apartment, and, it turns out, will be her guide even in opening doors in her own apartment, decrypting official messages some of which are encrypted in a manner she'll never have the key to, and in doing a number of other things in which, as she's a foreigner, and therefore not recognized by the world-city's AI as a person, she'll apparently always be dependent on her liaison or other Teixcalaani.
It's not long before she has met friends of the previous ambassador (including a high-ranking official named Nineteen Adze), a friend of Three Seagrass (Twelve Azalea), and the cultural liaison of the previous ambassador, back when he was new and young and needed one (Nine Engine? Maybe?), who gets assassinated while they're having lunch together, and Mahit is slightly injured herself.
She's soon deep in Teixcalaani politics, uncovering evidence that the former ambassador may have been intending to trade highly classified Lasalle Station technology to the Emperor, Six Direction.
Mahit loves Lasalle Station. Mahit also loves Teixcalaani culture. And Teixcalaani expansion plans include the sector that Lasalle Station is in--and would utterly obliterate Lasalle culture. Can she thread this needle? Can she save Lasalle Station without betraying it?
This is a fascinating, enjoyable adventure in a complex culture alien to Mahit and unfamiliar to the reader. Thoroughly enjoyable.
As mentioned, I did originally receive this book as part of the Hugo Voters packet. I am reviewing it voluntarily.
Mahit Dzmare is the new Ambassador for Lsel Station, a mining system where people live on stations instead of planets. As the story opens, she is bound for the City, the planet that is the heart of the Teixcalaanli Empire, to take the place of the previous Ambassador, Yskander Aghavn, who she eventually discovers has been murdered. Lsel Station is no financial or military match for Teixcalaan, but they do have a technological advantage in their imagos, implants that record the memories and experiences of several generations of previous holders so that precious knowledge is not lost. But Marit's imago is fifteen years out of date, so she is heading into this new assignment with one hand tied behind her back.
I'm sure some will say that this story is slow, and if a reader is accustomed to periodic explosions, desperate fights, and breakneck pacing, I guess it is. But the vividly realized richness of the world and characters more than makes up for it. There are many layers here, both in worldbuilding and characterization, and the author takes the proper time to explore them. (Just as an example: the character names are so gloriously alien. Six Direction, Nineteen Adze, Three Seagrass--numbers and nouns. And there are quotes at the beginning of each chapter: snippets of poetry and history, paragraphs from manuals and news broadcasts, that convey the sense of an entire complex culture without intrusive or tiresome infodumping. It's masterfully done.) But at the same time, the ticking of the plot gradually becomes louder and louder, until that moment about two-thirds of the way through the book when it explodes--and because it has all been so well set up, the reader's heart is thumping as they race to the end.
After the revolution and the installation of a new Emperor--an event in which Mahit is intimately involved--she returns to Lsel Station, irrevocably changed by what she has experienced. The next book, hopefully, will deal with that. There is also an overarching alien threat in the background, scarcely touched on in this book, which I presume will loom larger and larger as the series progresses. Don't miss it.
The other part of the story is the political thriller part; Mahit Dzmare is sent as a replacement ambassador after the previous one died in suspicious circumstances, and immediately has to try to work out what exactly her predecessor was up to and who of the many political players in this book she can trust. This aspect of the book was pretty dense, and I'll admit that I kept notes as to who of the many named characters was who, but it was also effectively maintained suspense and I was completely engaged by the story throughout. The setting is also intricately depicted and fascinating, with an evident Aztec influence. It was another one of those worlds I'd love to see depicted in a movie or TV show, because I think it would be visually spectacular.
There are a number of other things I could praise about this book too; I loved how language actually plays an important role, in that while Mahit is clearly fluent enough in Teixcalaanli to be the ambassador, it still takes effort to speak all the time in a language that isn't her native one and other characters sometimes underestimate her intelligence because she sounds like a foreigner speaking Teixcalaanli, which she is. I thought the imago-machines, and the different perspectives Stationers and Teixcalaanlitzim have on them, were intriguing. I liked the glimpse we got of how working-class and politically subversive Teixcalaanlitzim live (you know, away from the glitz and glamour of the central districts). I appreciated the major characters, and thought they were crafted well. Really, I have nothing to complain about in this book at all.
Overall, if you like thoughtful political thrillers and unique sci-fi settings, I would absolutely recommend this book. I thought it was excellent and will be anxiously hoping that the follow-up next March will be just as good.
The setting is perhaps a little contrived obviously based on a chinese imperialistic dynasty, although the setting is far future, with humanity splintered in a long galaxy conquest, different star systems settled at different times by different exploration waves have fragmented away from what we'd know as baseline human - such a concept no longer remains, each merely comparing the other against themselves. There are aliens out there too, but barely noted, although the hook for the next book seems likely to involved them. So the multi-system empire of Teixcalaan has existed for some generations, the latest reign of His Brilliance, Six Directions has lasted for eighty years of peace, Bureaucracy and culture has flourished, but he has no safe Heir and the three main candidates are not so gauche as to squabble for the privilege, but the politics is getting heated. Into this comes on Marit new Ambassador from a small Station based community, neighbouring but so far resisting amalgamation into the greater Empire next door. She has been summoned to the capital, the City, The Jewel as the Heart, very abruptly after a long silence of 15 years from their last ambassador. One of her overriding first duties is to establish what has happened to him, and why he hasn't been home to upload his memories into the Station archive for her use, a technology that the Empire shouldn't be aware of, and likely to disavow should they hear of it. On arrival she is quickly invited to view his body, clearing up the first mystery, but not answering the how or why.
As per chinese culture many of the statements in the empire were written in poetical forms, fortunately we're spared these other than as chapter headers, so this wasn't the cause of my disquiet, and the only obvious error: the frequent conflation of AI or algorithms -while important and annoyingly wrong term used to describe a key technology underpinning the City's working, was minor at worst. The author does quite a god job having the complex background politics exist around Marit, her being unable to perceive them, but still becoming clear to the reader as necessary. It's a long long build-up despite only taking place across a few days, as Marit gets to real grips with the culture that she's only studied for years, and then while she's still struggling with her memories of the previous ambassador there's a final crescendo.
I did enjoy much of this, the world-building of the City is great and characters clever and empathetic, but somehow the whole thing didn't quite gel in places, maybe it's just part of being the author's first novel. I'm interested enough to try the sequel and see where that goes.
For example:
The cultural liaison handed her an ice cream. Minutes and minutes of consideration of
Get. On. With. It.
Additionally, the main character is the ambassador to a large space empire from a small independent station. But is sent to be an ambassador without any support personnel and criminal under-preparedness. The only qualifications are that she really likes what she thinks the culture of Teixcalaan is, and she has a 15 year old copy of the previous ambassador's memories. But when she arrives, she doesn't even know that her mail is encrypted. You'd think the previous ambassador's memories would tell her at least that, or that would be part of some sort of briefing.
Both of these things set up Mahit to fumble her way through the plot incompetently, even though she's a learned person.
It received terrific reviews and is inventive in its premise. But it is written in a terribly pretentious and grating expository style in which every thought and action is explored from what feels like an infinite number of angles. Imagine Asimov trying to write like late Henry James on a bad day.
Mahit Dzmare is the ambassador from the tiny polity of Lsel Station to the homeworld of the powerful Teixcalaanli Empire. But even though Teixcalaan's might threatens her station's sovereignty, she's grown up reading poetry and novels and watching tv shows from Teixcalaan. She loves and is fascinated it, even as she understands its dangers-- but reading about it is no substitute for being there. This was one of my favorite parts of Memory: empire is cruel, but also seductive, and it provides great stories. In the nineteenth century you would have grown up reading about the virtues of Rome even if Rome's virtues actually weren't your nation's virtues. I really liked the book's attention to the nuances of empire; as I said above, it really feels as though it builds on Ancillary Justice in terms of that.
I enjoyed it from the start, but it got better as it went. It's a good political thriller (and it makes sense); it has some neat sf ideas; it has strong worldbuilding (the Teixcalaanli naming system is fun, even if I kept getting distracted by the name "Six Direction" at first). It gets you invested in its characters and their struggles. Mahit is a great, believable protagonist, but I had a soft spot for Twelve Azalea, a friend of Mahit's cultural liaison, a goofy guy who comes through in a pinch. Some aspects of the climax really got me emotionally, and by the end, I loved it, and I can't wait for book two (which isn't out until March 2021 in hardcover, so God knows when it will hit paperback).
I have some quibbles about Ms Martine's refusal to use the subjunctive (she's a linguist, she knows what
But these are quibbles. It's a great book.
"A Memory Called Empire: Teixcalaan Book 1" by Arkady Martine is published by Tor.
I really enjoyed the world building in this and how the politics of the end of an emperor’s rule played out. A great dive into this new setting and I can’t wait to see more of it.
Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley
Author: Arkady Martine
Publisher: Tor Books
Publishing Date: 2019
Pgs: 462
Dewey: F MAR
Disposition: Irving Public Library - South Campus - Irving, TX
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REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Summary:
The mighty Teixcalaanli Empire is a hungry
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Genre:
Science Fiction
Space Opera
Palace Intrigue
Why this book:
I’m on a bit of a palace intrigue kick at the moment.
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Hmm Moments:
Was beginning to wonder if the Yskander imago was going to try and pull a body coup and take control of their shared consciousness.
Palace intrigue with no romance except for what I’m reading into it. Nice. I don’t have a problem with romance being part of the story. I just don’t like it when stories are stopped down for the romantic subplot. I’m looking at your CW’s Supergirl. Nice the way that Martine slips the growth between Three Seagrass and Ambassador Mahit into the story. Smooth.
So...multiple usurpers readying their forces. Or is it all smoke and wag the dog. Is only one of them making a move and the rest being set up? Hmmm.
Juxtaposition:
A grow or die empire that has found peace. A peace marred by the recently quelled Odile insurrection. Or is it as quelled as the public is lead to believe.
The plot, not the story’s plot, but the plot is an onion that Mahit is trying to decipher without nearly any pieces. Author did a great job of not telegraphing. I dig it.
The Unexpected:
One Lightning trying to be a warrior emperor with no victories to his name.
Well of course the other Ygravan has to come into play. God’s eye view.
Missed Opportunity:
Lots of dangerous friends at the party. Veiled threats all around. Is the 10-year old, 90% clone of the current Emperor, co-heir to the throne, the most dangerous of all?
Despite my feelings about romance in stories, Three Seagrass and Mahit orbitted each other and failed to truly come together. Though I guess it could have been an offscreen kind of thing. But there wasn’t a payoff to the tension.
Predictability/Non-Predictability:
They’re all in on it. Just a bit of jumping to conclusions there.
Movies and Television:
It’s too internalized, too much thought and conversation with their own id, to make this into a decent movie...without totally leaving the story in the dust.
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Pacing:
Very well paced.
Last Page Sound:
I love this book, but I hate the ending.
Questions I’m Left With:
Why the sabotage?
What’s up with the wheeled ships? Where do they come from? Are they the Ebrekti?
Disagreements:
Mahit stated that poetry is more for the old because they feel the works differently than the young. I say that the passion of youth and their naivety makes the words leap off the page differently than they do for the older reader.
Author Assessment:
In the beginning, there is a whole lot more tell than show in this story. The heavy exposition of the story, once you are used to it, works in this context.
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