A Memory Called Empire

This was a fantastic whirlwind of politics, intrigue, diplomacy wrapped in a vivid, unique setting. While some of the finer aspects of the book didn't quite land for me, I thought this was a great read and look forward to the next one.

In A Memory Called Empire, we follow Mahit, a resident of Lsel Station, a space station off in deep space; but that's not where the story takes place. You see, Mahit has been selected as the next ambassador to the Teixcalaanli Empire, a sprawling and powerful empire, influenced by Aztec culture. The previous ambassador, Yskander, has died under extremely mysterious circumstances, and while it is Mahit's mission to fulfill the role as ambassador, her secondary mission is to figure out what happened to him. And thankfully she has help from -- Yskander himself.. Well, an outdated version of him. On Lsel Station, residents utilize an extremely secretive technology that allows people to access the consciousness of other people before them, assuming they are a personality match. After a few years as an ambassador, Yskander returned to Lsel station to upload his consciousness at the time, then returned to the Teixcalaanli Empire, only to die after 15 years. It is this outdated version of Yskander that Mahit has to consult, but he knows almost as little as Mahit stepping into this new role. What follows is almost immediate politicking and backroom deals, figuring out where her successor left off, what he got himself into, what deals he made, and who to trust. With the backdrop of growing unrest around a succession crisis with the aging emperor and a growing unknown galactic threat, Mahit must move quickly to position herself as a main player so she can do what it takes to protect her people.

I have always really enjoyed extremely political science fiction stories. This book takes it to another level with the intriguing story being set in a beautifully crafted world. With every passing chapter, the Teixcalaanli culture took more shape and grew more vivid, leading me to love it as much as Mahit did. I loved how the tension steadily grew and grew throughout the book, coming to an explosive head that felt satisfying and well-earned. While the story was long and many might argue it was slow paced, I found the backroom machinations to be interesting, and I was never bored while reading this.

Despite being a lover of good world building, at the end of the day, I'm a character reader, and that's where this book missed a bit. While I liked Mahit's character a lot, I think many of the other characters I was supposed to like more than I did, particularly Three Seagrass and Twelve Azaela. I think an attempt was made to really make them likable, but I just wasn't feeling it, so some of the story beats that hit later on in the book that relied on the reader feeling a connection to the characters fell flat for me personally. There were some characters that I liked, like Nineteen Adze and the emperor, but that was more to do with how the story treated them with a level of reverence rather than having them be dynamic characters that cultivated an emotional connection. I really wish the character work here was stronger or it would definitely be a new favorite.

But still, I can't recommend this enough. Especially if you enjoy other political sci fi, like Dune, The Expanse, the Luna series, or the Ancillary series. I'm eager to pick up the next one!

I feel like "political thriller" is a buzzterm that gets thrown around rather loosely (having a single character who just happens to be a politician does not a political book make). But here it feels earned; we got ambassadors with secret agendas, high society galas, partisan riots in the streets, technological sabotage, constantly shifting secret alliances and backroom deals made in the dead of night. Oh yeah, and two distinct imminent wars looming over everyone's heads.

It's hard for me to say whether all of that was a helpful vehicle or a distraction for what this book really wanted to be about, which was identity (what is the ~self~ and how much can that change before you become someone else?) and about being enamored and subsumed by a different culture that you will never be 100% assimilated into, whether you want to or not. That isn't to say that this felt like three different books rolled into one, but if you wanted to make that argument, you'd have material to work with.

Language nerd that I am, I enjoyed how the protagonist would play around with the fictional language of the empire she was in, usually intentionally-accidentally switching to informal speech when playing dumb was in her best interests; "weaponized barbarism" for lack of a better term. And the reader very much gets the impression that she's an outsider in this setting, what with her occasional faux-pas and cultural references that go over her (and the reader's) head that other characters in the scene are so familiar with that they don't require explanation.

There were stretches of this book that just felt like a constant stream of back-to-back appointments and it took a little longer than I'd like for the proper action to begin. Still, it's a well-told story with believable enough worldbuilding that I'd like to revisit, but I was also ready to say goodbye to these characters towards the end. Maybe that's just a result of my innate preference for shorter books though, so you might get more out of it if you have a higher "stamina" than I do.

… wirklich schön anzusehen. Die Unterschiede auch in der Betrachtung der Welt, zwischen denen, die auf einer Weltraumstation aufgewachsen sind und denen, die auf DEM Planeten aufwuchsen. Gute Charakterisierungen, tolles Namenssystem, das mir das Merken von Namen sehr erleichtert. Alle auf dem Planeten heißen $Zahl $Substantiv also bspw „Neunzehn Breitaxt“, „Sechs Vektor“, „Drei Seegras“. Die Zahlen haben manchmal auch Verbindungen zum Charakter oder Job der jeweiligen Personen — so viel einfacher zu merken für mich als irgendwelche random Fantasynamen wie „Ft‘anr Lobdart“ oder sowas. Ich mochte auch die Poesie-Obsession der Planetenbewohnenden, die ihre ganze Kultur formt. Hier hatte ich allerdings desöfteren das Gefühl, dass die Übersetzung ihr nicht gerecht wurde. Auch wunderte es mich sehr, dass die Menschen in dem Buch alle Männer oder Frauen waren und sehr sehr viel generisches Maskulinum genutzt wurde. Daher werde ich den 2. Band auf Englisch lesen zum Vergleich. An sich ist das 1. Buch aber abgeschlossen und kann alleinstehend gelesen werden.

Was ein bisschen kurz kam, als seiendes Thema nur angeschnitten aber nicht ganz ausgespielt worden: Der Charakter der Stadt. Diese ist AI gesteuert und wird von Ministerien beeinflusst, scheint aber auch das Potential zu haben, rogue zu gehen. Mal sehen ob das im Band zwei anklingt.

Kurzum: Echt spannend, manchmal n bisschen langatmig aber überlebbar und richtig gutes Worldbuilding. Zudem ein paar „Queers“, wobei Heterosexualität nicht die Norm zu sein scheint und daher als Beschreibung vermutlich L/G/B besser passen würde.

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, really teetered on the precipice between detailed world-building and self-absorbed. I'm not really in to poetry - which is a huge part of Teixcalaanli culture so maybe that explains why I didn't really get on board with certain aspects of the world building but the descriptions of the technology, city, space vessels etc were well done.

Overall a solid, captivating sci-fi read if you can get on board with some of the slower descriptive parts of the book.