2021. Borrowed from CLP on 12/23/24 to read for the Mpls Sci-fi (and sometimes F) book club on January 7, 2025.
Lisa Tuttle in The Guardian wrote that it was "first-class SPACE OPERA, with added spy craft, political and diplomatic intrigue, and scary aliens [and first contact drama], along with interesting explorations of perception, ways of communicating, and what makes a person."
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/mar/12/the-best-recent-science-fiction-and-fantasy-reviews-roundup
Interview:
https://locusmag.com/2020/01/arkady-martine-histories-of-power/
2 eeviews:
https://locusmag.com/2021/03/adrienne-martini-reviews-a-desolation-called-peace-by-arkady-martine/
Also an excellent and assured PROSE STYLE, approaching literary fiction. Shifting point of view, reminiscent of The Expanse series. Lots of nterior dialogue, made more interesting in Mahit by the presence of *two* Yskandrs. Lovely hooks back to the first novel; unobtrusive, inviting, not confusing to the current plot.
For an example of great writing - structure, character, style - see the Nine Hibiscus section of chapter 7. And note throughout, the repetitions of words, and thoughts, e.g., “And didn’t try to get away from Mahit’s touch, not at all.” p. 296. Nice use of emphases too. E.g., “Three Seagrass did *try* to remember her training.” And pauses - through dashes. A quite stunning use of voice and orthography.
Throughout, I’ve been “simply, deliciously, hideously intrigued” ch. 8 p. 183
Note: there’s a fine glossary of nouns (persons, places, and things) at p. 481.
ARKADY MARTINE is the pen name of AnnaLinden Weller, b. April 19, 1985 (5 years to the day after I got married):
University of Chicago (BA)
University of Oxford (MSt)
Rutgers University (PhD)
Her first novel was A Memory Called Empire (2019) and it’s sequel, this one, A Desolation Called Peace (2021), together form the Teixcalaan series; each won the Hugo Award for Best Novel.
My DRAMATIS PERSONNAE, not merely copied from the glossary:
*Mahit Dzmare, Lsel Station ambassador to the Empire, linguistic specialist
Yskander Aghavn, Mahit’s imago(s), the prior (murdered?) ambassador (“the places they were misaligned bloomed into [neuropathic] pain”) (also p.o.v. characters in their “conversations” with Mahit.
Aknel Amnardbat, Councilor for Heritage
Dekakel Onchu, Councilor for Pilots (military defense, exploration, and navigation)
Darj Tarats, Councilor for the Miners (resource extraction, trade, and labor)
Councilor for Hydroponics,
Nineteen Adze. Her Brilliance. New Emperor.
*Nine Hibiscus, fleet commander of the 10th legion and newly appointed yaotlak (commander of all fleet commanders); Captain of the Weight for the Wheel; former protégé of Nine Propulsion.
Twenty Cicada, ikantlos-prime, friend to Nine hibiscus, highest-ranking of all the officers, a/k/a “Swarm”
Eight Antidote, clone of Six Direction, heir to the throne, 11 y.o., very smart and brave and enterprising, his lack of opportunity for a childhood is so sad.
Three Azimuth, Minister for War, after Nine Propulsion’s “retirement”
Eleven Laurel, Third Undersecretary to the Minister of War, the Third Palm, the Ministry of War’s internal intelligence service (infosec, political officers, internal affairs) and mentor to Eight Antidote and Sixteen Moonrise; the only one of his rank to remain after death of previous emperor? See ch. 11 p. 287 for the rivalry.
*Three Seagrass, Information Ministry specialist at Palace Earth, makes herself Special Envoy to the fleet
Sixteen Moonrise, fleet commander of the Twenty-Fourth Legion and Captain of the Parabolic Compression; political foil to Nine Hibiscus, in direct communication with Eleven Laurel.
Seven Aster, Second Undersecretary of the Ministry of War, the Second Palm. (supply chains and logistics).
An organizational chart would be helpful: six ministers (Teixcalaan), six councilors (Lsel Station), six Palms for each?
Teixcalaanli Palms—Third, war; Six, engineering and shipbuilding; Two, logistics; xxx, Judiciary; xxx Life Support;
Brings all three * together on the Weight for the Wheel in ch. 8. Their relationships are fraught, yet deep and satisfying. The fourth p.o.v. is Eight Antidote.
sabotage - Amnardbat’s, Interlude before ch. 11, pp. 268-6; Datj Tarats’ efforts to foment the war with the aliens.
propaganda, misdirection, treachery
first contact - communication, linguistic and conceptual, e.g., ch. 11 pp. 290 ff.
politics very convoluted and dangerous, maintains tension throughout
Mass destruction as the only path to victory vs. negotiation through communication and respect for foreign existence.
IMAGO-LINES - what are they, how do they work, do the Teixcalaanli (a) know about them and (b) have access to them and (c) *want* access to them? Clues in the poem ch. 11 p. 270?
Mahit’s ‘imago’ of two Yskandrs - how did that happen, how does it work? Like a witch’s familiar? Or Lyra’s dæmon?
No privacy. Uploaded memories mandatory at Lsel station, camera and recordings of conferences on the Teixcalaanli ships and everywhere in (and under?) the Palace.
PAIRS:
> Six Direction and Eight Antidote are clones, or just lineal descendants? pp. 40 ff. “sole heir to Teixcalaan entire” “ancestor-Emperor”
>
>
> Eighth Antidote joins the Shard collective via the Shard trick to communicate with a single Shard to stop the planet-destruction order, while Twenty Cicada joins the alien hive mind by ingesting the fungus to permit joint understanding and thereby negotiate a truce.
This last is the key: if either one failed or did not try, there would be Armageddon. And neither knew the other was trying - or needed to.
Naming conventions, e.g., number glyphs - does one choose one’s own? Is there a pattern, or a significance, to the numbers?
discontinuity, 2d interlude, chs. 8, 10, 17, 18, 19
Conflicted motives, conflicted ethics, e.g. Mahit: “how much she wanted to be useful, and how much she hated that wanting”
Hidden and ambiguous loyalties and motivations, e.g., Eleven Laurel, Sixteen Moongrass have loyal motives but terrible ways to a comp,ish them.
“War and Science again, working together and not letting Information in on the game” ch. 18 p. 453
‘your spook and your spook’s pet’ - an insult regularly used by Sixteen Moonrise
CURSES and IMPRECATIONS:
starfucked, Stars,
bloody stars, blood and stars, bloody fucking stars,
bleeding sunlight, bleeding star, bleeding starshine,
Sunfire and space willing,
Blood and starlight, Blood-soaked starlight, blood-and-sunlight,
I’d swear to that in a sun temple with blood from both wrists at once—
thank starlight, bloody fucking starlight,
thank every single divinity anyone had ever sacrificed blood to
VOCABULARY:
starflyers
cloudhook (the glass-and-metal overlay on her right eye that linked her)
plastisteel
jump gates
asekreta
ixplanatlim, ixplanatl
*imago, imago-lines
infopaper
petrichor
collective proprioception
proprioception
animalian encumbrances
algorithmic AI
algorithmic reform
indiction(s)
the shattermost of shatterharmonicists
friable
shockstick
lychee (there is a fruit called litchi)
palace-hummers
cartograph
flit-ship
use-name
noun-sign
number-glyph
infofiche stick
groundcar
Nancy liked this
