A Memory Called Empire (9/20): roll call and first impressions (no spoilers!)

[Shel, Moderator]

Post here if you are reading or planning on reading A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine! No spoilers please!

[Anthony]

I read this a couple of months ago and enjoyed it very much, moreso than I would have anticipated. Curious to see others’ responses here and in the spoiler thread.

[Shel, Moderator]

I'm waiting for the library loan to come in on this one!

[Kari]

I just started this one and I'm really intrigued by the world-building. I'm such a sucker for the sociological and cultural implications of language usage. This is why I love Ann Leckie's Ancillary series so much.

[Ryan]

I read it a while back, happy to discuss. I really enjoyed it.

[MadProfessah]

Same! The immediate comparison to Leckie are inevitable I guess but I actually like the way Martine obscures gender with the interesting naming conventions even more than Leckie did with the universal she/her.

[Eva]

I'm excited to read the newest Hugo winner! I've heard it has court intrigue, a murder mystery, and a cool future culture, and that it's very sophisticated and smart. :-)

[Ryan]

It wasn't difficult to keep genders straight, given Martine's use of pronouns. Was obscuring gender actually an intent of the author? Why did you like that?

[MadProfessah]

Interesting. I had a hard time keeping the gender of the characters fixed in my mind when they are referred to by names as “Eight Seagrass” or “Five Poetry.” This may have been an unintentional impact of the naming convention but I doubt it. Did anyone else experience that with this book?

I also like the fact that the book works as very different genres. I like the political/palace intrigue. And as a “fish out of water” story.
I wasn’t that big of a fan of the cultural/poetry stuff.

[Shel, Moderator]

Hey friends! Can we move this level of discussion to the spoiler thread please? Thank you!