I'm going to attempt, in my last five minutes as a conscious human being tonight, to sum up why I love this book so much: It's smart, it's rich in character, it has a highly nuanced and appropriately complicated approach to systems of power and government, and it takes its time without losing the plot. This isn't what I would call a rip-roaring read, a can't-put-the-book-down one-night stand, but rather a pleasurably slow burn that sticks to your taste buds long after you have finished the meal. I'd put it in the upper echelon of science fictional books I've read this decade in respect to worldbuilding, in the same sentence if not the same breath as Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch series, or Ian McDonald's Luna trilogy. Each author is coming at the whole systems-of-power thing from a different angle, but they all share some DNA in that they all tackle the messy congealed monstrosity of a thing we call government through relatable and accessible characters. It's hard to believe that a debut can be this good ... but guess what? It's THAT GOOD. And it demonstrates that, once more, the simplest and most rewarding of pleasures is as a reader to witness an author in full and perfect command of their craft, doing what they do best: building worlds and inhabiting them with people we don't mind spending a couple of evenings with.

One of my greatest purchases at the library! Though patrons coming in looking for fantasy recommendations are few and far between, I will always recommend "A Memory Called Empire," especially because it's a debut. The patrons that are interested in Fantasy have already been through the bigger names, so I was glad to see that Martine's novel was a success. It's got great characters, great plot, and it's written in a great way. Great all around!

I was expecting a lot more out of this book. While it has a fascinating world, I felt like the plot consisted of a lot of things that had little to do with each other & there was very little that kept me reading. Overall, a well-done book but just not as much for me as I thought it would be.

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine follows the new ambassador, Mahit, to the powerful Teixcalaan empire as she tries to figure out how and why her predecessor was murdered. So far as names go, and a tendency to honor willing blood sacrifice, and physical appearance, the Teixcalaanli seem roughly based on the Aztecs, except in space, and possibly with more poetry. There’s a succession crisis happening, and a looming threat near the ambassador’s home space station, and a mystery surrounding Mahit’s imago, which is a personality/memory impression of the previous ambassador. This may sound like a lot, but it’s all tied together and the plot clicks over swiftly and entertainingly. I really liked it, and though the ending isn’t exactly a cliffhanger, it very clearly sets up the next book.

This was ridiculously good. Reminded me a lot of Cherryh and Leckie with their slower more political space operas. I loved everything about this, from the plotting to the world building to the endearing characters. I need the sequel now.

A Memory Called Empire is something I’ve wanted to read since I first saw the cover. I mean, the star feature is the sci-fi equivalent to the Iron Throne and I just couldn’t resist. And then the synopsis…. A murdered ambassador and deadly secrets? Say no more!

This book basically shoves you off a cliff into a convoluted alien culture which isn’t necessarily a negative. I like piecing things together as I read along and info dumps are rarely an elegant addition to any story, so in many ways this worked for me. The learning curve with this book was quite steep though and I can see that this probably won’t work for everyone.

For me the biggest thing that kept me from getting maximum enjoyment (a 5 star rating) was that it took me fully half of the book before I cared about the characters or the plot. I wasn’t tremendously invested in them and I pondered putting the book down and trying again later but I pushed onward. I’m really glad I continued because things really picked up in the latter half – THE PLOT THICKENED! I cared about what happened to the new ambassador Mahit Dzmare and her assistant/liason Three Seagrass. There was rebellion in the streets, attempted assassinations, and even illegal technological enhancements. I would say this book is in the category of slow-burners. Not everything starts off with a bang – good things can take time.

Overall, this was an intriguing and ambitious book with an exotic culture. The Teixcalaanli (how do I even pronounce this???) culture is one of poetry and power. The names were interesting – Three Seagrass, One Lightning, Six Helicopter… you kind of see where this goes. I didn’t love this book, but it was one that prodded the imagination and the city and people are subjects I would love to see in painting.

I had to give up about 20% of the way through this book. I didn't quite realize from the description how spacey it actually was. The story was good, the protagonist compelling, but the thing that often turns me away from SciFi as a genre is the space/alien jargon. There is a lot of that and it prevented me from being able to get into the book. Wouldn't discourage people from reading it, but not something I can finish myself.

Arkady Martine’s debut novel is an exploration of identity, colonialism and loyalty, pitting the main character Mahit against a culture she loves — the culture of an empire waiting to swallow up her own home, Lsel Station. She’s the ambassador from Lsel Station, taking over after the unexpected death of her predecessor. She has one secret weapon: within her she carries a recording of her predecessor’s personality, partially integrated into her own, though somewhat out of date. At least, she has that weapon until something breaks, and she loses touch with that barely-integrated personality within her.

You can probably see from this description already why I was reminded powerfully of the work of Ann Leckie and Yoon Ha Lee. This is very much in their vein of work, and that sense of familiarity left me a little disengaged. You’re not going to beat Jedao in that role of a shadow from the past half-integrated into a new, younger, female body, and it’s just too darn similar!

There is a lot of entertaining and interesting stuff here, despite that sense of over-familiarity. I definitely enjoy Nineteen Adze and her power; Three Seagrass and her relationship with both Mahit and Twelve Azalea (“Reed” and “Petal”, ahahaha); all the little glimpses we get of how things work… There was also that big barely-defined threat in the background, so it’ll be interesting to see how things go on. I assume it’s going to pick back up the threads of the relationship between Mahit and Three Seagrass, as well; that barely started before it felt cut off by the ending.

In the end, though, I don’t know. I never got quite that engaged with it, though once I hit around 57%, I did enjoy it enough to keep on reading to the end in one go. The similarities to Ninefox Gambit and Ancillary Justice eclipsed a story I might’ve enjoyed on its own terms. I’ll probably pick up the next book, but… there’s definitely no compulsion to do that, for me.

"That was the problem. Empire was empire – the part that seduced and the part that clamped down, jaws like a vise, and shook a planet until its neck was broken and it died."

A Memory Called Empire follows Mahit Dzmare – a young Ambassador from an independent mining Station – arrives in the Teixcalaanli Empire to find that her predecessor has died, and she is left alone to navigate the changing political culture of the heart of the Empire. Not only must she figure out how her predecessor has died (not accidentally, as some would have her believe), but she must also tread carefully to avoid the same fate. When the political unrest hints at expansion of the Empire, she must also figure out how to avoid annexation of her Station she calls home.

This book was so much better than I thought it would be. Although it was a little hard to get into toward the beginning – there is so much detailed world-building that it was initially hard to follow – it was worth sticking it through for the journey.

Arkady Martine’s world-building was breathtaking – it was so layered and complex. Although it was a little overwhelming in the beginning – as it should be, when introducing a whole fantastical world – it was done in a way that wasn’t overly heavy-handed. World-building is a crucial element to any story of this breadth, and in A Memory Called Empire, these elements are so intricately woven into the story that it blends more-or-less seamlessly into the narrative.

The plot, also, was interesting and nuanced. I enjoyed watching as Mahit peeled back the layers of political intrigue and learned more about Teixcalaanli culture. She together with her “cultural liaison” Three Seagrass, had to navigate an increasingly tumultuous political landscape that quite literally put them into serious danger more than once.

All-in-all, this was an exciting and intricately detailed space opera, and I wish I didn’t have to wait an entire year for the next book in the series…

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Books for a copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

An ambassador goes to the heart of the empire to solve the mystery behind the death of the previous ambassador who is also supposed to be narrating his knowledge in her head. This is what happens when Mahit Dzmare goes to Teixcalaan, after living on a mining colony called Lsel.

What I really loved about this book is the fine balance of political intrigue, space opera wonder, and that feeling of coming to a new place and having no concept of being of that place. Martine captures that sense of loneliness so well, it jumped off the page. Teixcalaan from start to finish felt beautiful but also very unattainable. The way Mahit perceives the world and even the subtle differences in facial expressions felt so true to trying to read someone when you're not sure you know how to mutually communicate on a cultural level. So many delectable layers.

It isn't all melancholy though! There are exciting explosions and gorgeous poetic competitions, and the names. The names are so fun. It helped make the characters memorable, but Martine also has such an adroit hand when it comes to character interruptions. It made the larger cast feel much more intimate, and I felt fully grounded in what everyone's motive could and could not be.

If you want a bit of a spy caper in a gorgeous space opera, definitely read this book.

This has it all: possible alien invasions, awkward cultural clashings, assassinated ambassadors, blatant sabotage, political intrigue, an insurrection, a possible civil war, and a dying emperor. Genuinely impressed with how intricate and detailed the plot and the peoples were. I couldn't put it down!

Unfortunately I didn't get approved for this with enough time to finish it before the archive date, so I can only speak to what I've been able to read so far. This only allows me to say that I really enjoy the writing style, and I'll definitely be finishing it up when I can get my hands on it again!

I read this novel courtesy of Netgalley for review purposes.

Arkady Martine's debut novel is propelling and fun, with complex characters, interesting worldbuilding and engrossing plot. It may not be as complex as it seems on the cover, and some of its plot progression depends on mild narrative contrivance and handwaving plot holes - but with small exceptions, I found it captivating enough as I read not to mind. The Byzantine influence seemed fun in particular, or at least what I thought of as Byzantine; and the dialogue with classics of the genre was appreciated. The way it approached the relationship between a person who loves the dominant culture and the oppressive object of their ambivalent love felt a little off; perhaps closer to otaku than ESL-speaking fans of American culture (which would be a closer correspondence)? But a little off is still close, and it made for a good and timely theme. The ending was satisfying and explosive.

I look forward to reading the continuation; I am certainly curious. (less)

Very, very good. Great concepts, excellent character development, great dialogues, humour, emotional depth...

Mahit, a very green-behind-the-ears ambassador, comes to the capital of the empire that might have designs on her home, Lsel Station. This is what she yearned for, but it‘s not entirely what it was supposed to be. And things don‘t go as planned.

After the first two chapters this made me think of Ann Leckie‘s Imperial Radch and Cherryh‘s Foreigner. Loved the first, was bored silly by the second and never got past the first book. I am reconsidering that now.

I like Mahit and how this world is slowly revealed to her and the reader. The character building is excellent. The imago lines are a fascinating concept.

There is a lot more talking and showing than doing, which normally results in me not liking a book much. But this was excellent. It took me quite a while to get through this, because it was pretty dense, but in the end I truly loved it. I can‘t wait to find out what will happen to my new best friends in the next book, A Desolation Called Peace.

You can call me ThirtyOne Adaptation!

P.S.: This could be fun for poetry lovers. And Sarah Gailey, Ann Leckie and Martha Wells 5-starred it on Goodreads. High praise indeed. Recommended.

I received this free e-copy from Tor via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review, thank you!

So first off, I love this book enough to eat it. Welcome to the Top Shelf Book Bar, I have RAVEN STRATAGEM and A MEMORY CALLED EMPIRE, and they’re yours for tasting, but I want them back because they’re mine now.

So let’s talk about A MEMORY CALLED EMPIRE.

The premise is so deceptively simple: Mahit Dzmare, the new ambassador from Lsel Station, arrives at the heart of the Teixcalaanli Empire to discover that her predecessor has died under suspicious circumstances. So not only does she have to traverse the great wide unknown, she has to do so knowing that someone may or may not have poisoned the ambassador before her. On top of THIS, the machine implanted in her brain stem – a copy of Yskandr, the previous ambassador – has shorted out, and all the help she thought she’d receive has gone right out the window.

So we all know by now that I really, really like sci-fi books that posit the question of how you you are when confronted with another version of yourself, and this book has it in spades. Like, Martine just knew that I have a thing for those sort of characters, and said, “Yo dude here you go,” and upended the bag on my head. For which I am eternally grateful.

But beyond my own like, obvious bias in that regard? This book’s ready to yank the carpet out from under you. And some of it you see coming, but the rest? You see the carpet, see just how nailed down the sucker is and get comfortable, and it STILL gets yanked out from under you.

I go more into detail in the podcast episode, but god guys. I’m just. So astounded by this book. We get world-building aspects so ironclad and top-notch that I’m trying to figure out what my Teixcalaanli name would be. I’m ready to pack my bags and move in, you know?

God. You guys gotta read this book.

(podcast episode CAN I BE YOUR MEMORY can be found on iTunes, Spotify, and Awesound)

An absolutely fantastic sci-fi novel, the first in an intended trilogy. The Teixcalaanli Empire is vast, powerful, and – like most empires – interested in getting vaster and more powerful. Lsel Station is tiny, poor, and – for now – independant. This is obviously a precarious state of things, and when Teixcalaan sends word that they need a new Lsel ambassador, it's unfortunately up to Mahit – young, only half-trained, and utterly unprepared – to maintain her station's independence. The task that becomes even more difficult once she discovers that the previous Lsel ambassador was murdered, and the questions of by whom and why involves everyone all the way up to the Teixcalaanli emperor himself, his heirs, and Mahit's supposed allies back on Lsel.

Teixcalaan is based on the Aztec Empire, and is a genius extrapolation of that culture out into a future galaxy-wide existence. Though I've seen this mentioned in surprisingly few reviews; are the Aztecs so little known to the average reader that the obvious allusions are flying over people's heads? Connections include the ball game, blood sacrifice, names like "Five Orchid" and "Nine Maize" (though part of Martine's excellent extrapolation into sci-fi means we also have "Six Helicopter" and "Twenty-Nine Infograph"), the mix of poetry and war and flowers, the description of the written language as glyphs and the sounds of words like xauitl and amalitzli (compare real Nahuatl words, chocolātl and tomatl; I don't remotely speak Nahuatl, but that -tl word ending is so distinctive and recognizable), the reckoning of dates, plus, you know, the whole conquering everyone around them thing.

But the emotional center of A Memory Called Empire is obviously not the number of Mesoamerican references that Martine can fit into the book. It's Mahit, who is not herself Teixcalaanli but who has spent her life studying the language, the literature, and the history; who desperately wants to succeed at being Teixcalaanli and not an uncivilized barbarian but who also doesn't want to lose her hold on her own culture; who must find her way between the Teixcalaanli sophistication she dreams of and the Teixcalaanli power that wants to take everything she has. It's about how concepts that are easy to express in one language can be difficult or invisible in a second language. A Memory Called Empire is about hegemony – the way it seduces, the promises it makes to those willing to join, and how even the most dedicated outsiders never quite become an unmarked part. Don't get me wrong, A Memory Called Empire is about a lot of fun, page-turning adventure too: riots and court politics and alien invasions and conspiracies within police forces and a f/f romance and a gloriously fucked-up polyamorous bisexual threesome and weird mind-control technology and spaceships and poisonings and gun battles and more. I loved it so much.

A Memory Called Empire is just SO GOOD. It's by far my favorite book I've read this year, and I absolutely cannot wait until the sequel arrives. It's part of the recent wave of colonial and imperial-critical sci-fi that includes Ann Leckie or Yoon Ha Lee, so if you're a fan of those authors, you should immediately check out Arkady Martine as well.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2776183921

How do you even begin to describe a book like this?

A young ambassador enamored with the massive overseeing empire journeys from her tiny, unimportant station into the heart of that empire to discover what happened to her predecessor and stumbles into things more alien and familiar than she anticipated.

Well, that's certainly the non-spoilerly summary.

I feel encapsulated, overwhelmed, barbaric and ignorant and left with a feeling of loss and wonder and like I know everything and nothing all at once.

Much like Mahit, probably.

Although, knowing that there is a bloody starlighting glossary at the back of this would have made my culture shock less...shocking. It would certainly have explained some things instead of having my poor brain try to figure out this utterly alien world where the word empire means City, World and Empire all at once and knowing which one is being referred means taking in sentence structure, context and nuance—and shows how all-encompassing the empire/city is for its citizens, who are literally never separated from it via a never-ending news loop attached to their eye that transforms one citizen into an empire (and think about the Sunlit, with a face cloudhook that has dominated their entire existence into algorithm and City).

There are so many things that happen in this book, and so many different layers and pieces and holy hell I am not smart enough to comprehend even a fraction of this. Plus there is a lot of poetry, and my brain automatically goes <404 error, page not found> when anything poetic pops up so half the book my brain was fizzling in confusion.

But instead of just being a political bore, there is excitement, sabotage, mystery, humor (Thirty-Six All Terrain Tundra Vehicle, anyone?) and very real human feelings behind the expressionless exterior of Teixcalaan citizens.

At its heart, however, this is a story of the dominance of colonialism and cultural expansion and erasure and incorporation.

How seductive another culture can become, particularly when it is one that gobbles up and overwhelms the smaller, outlying individuals (persons and stations and other civilizations alike) and turns them into one seemingly homogenous mass of oneness.

How algorithms are never perfect, but are inherently biased towards the minds of their creators.

How technology is wonderful and fantastic, but an over-reliance on an all-knowing wave of information can make you short-sighted and emotionally isolated.

How people outside of your overwhelming culture aren't barbaric—just different—and how deeply underlying cultural biases and bigotry can run.

How technology can preserve heritage and the memory of people, and how that same technology (and its cultural significance) can be perverted and misunderstood in the hands of a colonizing culture.

And now I just spent the entire review talking around what this story is actually about instead of the plot or the people or really anything of importance.

Ah well. Guess you're going to have to read it yourself.

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

Arkady Marine's debut novel adds another voice to clash-of-culture space opera. Fans of Bear, Banks, Bujold, Leckie, and Reynolds will all enjoy the author's prose style, political intrigue, and engaging characters. I certainly did.

The Teixcalaanli Empire spans many star systems, but the space habitats of the Lsel mining republic have managed to remain independent, as well as useful for their Jumpgate access and raw materials. When the empire suddenly requests a new ambassador, without explaining what happened the one they've had for the last quarter century, Lsel sends Mahit Dzmare, whose qualifications include deep knowledge and appreciation of the empire's language and culture, the two being mixed in the poetry that official correspondences are encoded in. More importantly, she has enough of a personality match to the previous ambassador to be able to mesh with the recording of his mind housed in an imago, a small device nestled at the base of her brain.
Every new space opera needs a strange-hook, and here it's the names of Teixcalaanli citizens, which consist of a number and a noun, for members of the government typically a flower. When Mahit arrives she meets her liaison/assistant 'Three Seagrass' and is rushed off to a briefing about her predecessor. The one who's 20 years out of date recording is sharing her head. The live version, to no real surprise, is dead and seeing the body sets off a shock in the imago that puts the recorded version offline, except for occasional echoes of feelings..

(full review to be published on SFRevu 5/1/2019) See link.

I enjoyed reading this book very much (a 4,5 * read for me) but can't say that I would blindly recommend it to any reader. Or more precisely, I know that I wouldn't recommend it to all science-fiction readers while I would recommend it to some other kind of readers, those who appreciate some kind of literate, subtil, slow, detailed stories (like Guy Gavriel Kay maybe, and of course Ann Leckie's books).

One of the aspects which sounded somewhat of key for me was that the story could easily have been a fantasy one. The SF tonality was rather weak, the sense of wonder muffled. The story would have needed very little adjustments to be transposed to a fantasy world, where it would have been even more credible, in my point of view. Magic instead of science would have been fine. Probably because the only futuristic differences explained, exposed, were about biology and weren't that convincing (these books with this sort of developments should be seriously proofed by someone with some kind of medical expertise).  For instance, the author speaks about cancer two or three times; I can't believe that a medicine so much advanced as to have mastered "imago machines" (neurological very sophisticated devices) wouldn't have cured cancer since a long time ago! (Very weird references about coffee, mugs and microwave too, but I'm being petty there). Another example: in a certain situation (won't spoil so fuzzy sorry) one character is left alone for hours, which is handy for the narrative as she has to do something in secret, but is absolutely inconceivable in the circonstances - she could have died! Her friends were just waiting in the next room, which is not believable for a second.

Well, enough quibbling. Just keep in mind that the story may holds a lovely fantasy tone under the science-fiction promised context for some kind of readers. 

The other reluctance that I may have about recommending this book is a point that didn't annoyed me, just prevented the read to be a page-turner: the atmosphere is tense, even dramatic, most of the time, the heroine is living historical and dangerous times, but the narration is slow. A lot of attention is given to small details, to psychological interpretations, with great meticulousness. The contrast between the narrative tone and the atmosphere (which is striking) is rather unsettling.

Another point that the reader must know before choosing this book, is that a great part of the book is dedicated to the Teixcalaanli culture, its love of literature, especially poetry. Poetry holds a tremendous place, is used to describe one sentiments or a building or to give sub-context to a discussion (the Teixcalaan learn quantities of poetry by heart), to make political statements, to encode some messages, etc. It gives a lot of charm to the story but could tire some readers waiting for some classic action.

The whole atmosphere is great however. I loved the very strong and personal voice of the author via the heroine's, Mahit. The world is carefully woven, with plenty of specific details, which gives a very vivid picture. 

The story is a political one but also a very personal one. It depicts with great care and strong authenticity the emotions of enthusiastic and ambitious young persons, cultivated and intellectual, aspiring to eminent political careers. We see how they love to discuss, to recite poetry, to be part of important decisions, and feel their complicity and enthusiasm. The theme is universal. It perfectly shows the difference between theory and pratique, about speaking and debating about politics and been thrown into a revolution, a civil war.

The story is also quite pregnant with a poignant fact: Mahit is head over heels in love with Teixcalaan's culture, has learned the langage (quite different, hers has an alphabet and Teixcalaan's has ideogrammes) and is quite bilingual. She's also au fait of many customs and subtleties, she knows how to keep the proper behaviour, especially about facial expressions (Teixcalaan don't smile by showing their teeth, but by opening their eyes wide, etc.) or even when to use her barbarian's manners to unsettle someone. She also supposed to have many memories of her predecessor thanks to her imago, which will give her all the necessary informations about everything and everybody.

Alas, she's not a true Teixcalaan and will never be one. Because of her very different physique (so tall, with pale skin and auburn hair) but also because she hasn't grown up here. She's from the Station, from a Barbarian world, and hasn't benefited from the unequalled avantages of lifelong immersion. She knows it, frequently muses about it, and suffers when she compares her (yet spectacular) capacities with her new Teixcalaan acquaintances' ones. 

I really think that this particular side of the story will appeal to people who loved a langage, a culture, as all the readers who read in English even though it's not their native langage (my case) or people who dream to live abroad, in a country with a different langage and so many different ways. 

To finish with another positive argument, the plot is good and clever. All that seems rather foggy clears up nicely in the end!

A series I'll be happy to read on.

With an out of date version of the previous ambassador in her head Mahit goes to the center of the Teixcalaanli Empire as requested by them to find her predecessor dead and the capital up to its eyeballs in political intrigue. Mahit must trust her liaison from the empire in order to do anything from reading her mail to what happened to Ambassador Aghavn. The station she represents is small but they have one piece of tech the empire doesn’t have, the ability to record another person’s memories to pass along knowledge and skills. The station is holding one other secret as an ace in the hole with the empire to buy peace before the expansion hungry Teixcalaan take them over.

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