An alien armada lurks on the edges of Teixcalaanli space. No one can communicate with it, no one can destroy it, and Fleet Captain Nine Hibiscus is running out of options.
In a desperate attempt at diplomacy with the mysterious invaders, the fleet captain has sent for a diplomatic envoy. Now Mahit Dzmare and Three Seagrass—still reeling from the recent upheaval in the Empire—face the impossible task of trying to communicate with a hostile entity.
Whether they succeed or fail could change the fate of Teixcalaan forever.
Content warning
Desolation Called Peace (sequel to Memory Called Empire) minor setting spoilers
Much better than the first part, or to be more precise two parts fit together very well. A lot of open threads and parts of the setting seemed unnecessary, in the second book suddenly came together.
While the first book was for me mainly about immersion in alien culture, second is about things much closer to my heart: finding home, communicating across barriers. There is even some romance.
Also the aliens are very good.
Only minus is this book is still set in facist empire (that is somehow ruled wisely) and the characters are not starting a revolution ;)
Review of 'Desolation Called Peace' on 'Storygraph'
5 stars
*I received a free review copy as part of 2022 Hugo awards voting.
A DESOLATION CALLED PEACE is a collision of cultures bleeding into war, trying to find the bounds of personhood in more than flesh and bone.
The plot follows several parallel threads, centering on various characters. I love Twenty Cicada’s storyline. He’s one of my favorite characters, followed closely by Eight Antidote. Mahit and Three Seagrass are working together again, this time to find a way to communicate with the aliens whose proximity Mahit had used as leverage in the previous book. The worldbuilding focuses on intra-empire politics as much as it focuses on the empire’s communications with Mahit and with the aliens. It balances stress and war with levity and intimacy, exploring connections and communication as characters with conflicting methods and competing aims collide.
This answers a few things left hanging from the first book, showing the …
*I received a free review copy as part of 2022 Hugo awards voting.
A DESOLATION CALLED PEACE is a collision of cultures bleeding into war, trying to find the bounds of personhood in more than flesh and bone.
The plot follows several parallel threads, centering on various characters. I love Twenty Cicada’s storyline. He’s one of my favorite characters, followed closely by Eight Antidote. Mahit and Three Seagrass are working together again, this time to find a way to communicate with the aliens whose proximity Mahit had used as leverage in the previous book. The worldbuilding focuses on intra-empire politics as much as it focuses on the empire’s communications with Mahit and with the aliens. It balances stress and war with levity and intimacy, exploring connections and communication as characters with conflicting methods and competing aims collide.
This answers a few things left hanging from the first book, showing the next steps without closing much off. There’s a new storyline involving aliens which is almost entirely new (the existence of those aliens was pivotal in Mahit’s big move at the end of A MEMORY CALLED EMPIRE). A few major things involving those aliens are both introduced and resolved. It specifically leaves aspects of Mahit’s relationships to other characters to be resolved later, but with substantial changes from how they were at the start of the book. Some of narrators are the same, with the addition of a new perspective between sections. I don’t think Eight Antidote was a narrator last time, if he was it was brief, but he, Mahit, and Three Seagrass are all narrators this time.
This story likely wouldn’t make sense to anyone who hadn’t read the first book. Because Mahit was on her first journey as an ambassador last time, A MEMORY CALLED EMPIRE had a lot of exposition which could fit naturally into that story. A DESOLATION CALLED PEACE is therefore (assuming one read the first book) free to focus on building up descriptions of the fleet, the Shards, and the aliens, leaving the Empire and its basic details to be shown but more rarely explained.
The ending utterly devastated me, wrapping up the main story and leaving me sated, but promising more in the vast future now made possible by the resolution.
I really liked this book, particularly the second half. I will say that I would rather it have explored more of the internal workings of the empire, and maybe have a stronger opinion on the effect of the war in its citizens. I feel like it skirted around the edges of these topics.
I loved every bit with Eight Antidote in it! Because I read the Goblin Emperor recently, it's so interesting to see the opposite of Maya - someone who was born and knows they will be the emperor, and yet is still a child. I appreciated the intrigue and exploration of the city we got through him a lot.
I loved this as much as the first--the stakes of what it means to be a person and how we express that, along with what are memory and empire and language, are compelling and the characters radiate.
Review of 'Desolation Called Peace' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
This expands on the first book beautifully across multiple fronts - plot, setting, and characters. I admire how it handles so much depth without coming across as pretentious. Heck, it can reference its own internal history via epic poems and still not feel pretentious. It feels like every word has been chosen deliberately, perfectly, but somehow without taking itself too seriously. That tightrope walk is incredible.
This book could have so easily failed. Second books in a series are especially tricky beasts, as a sequel to a fabulous award-winning debut the pressure must have been off the charts. Incredibly well done.
Review of 'Desolation Called Peace' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
I could see the writing was good, the world building too, but I didnt really connect to the characters and ended up skimming chapters to read faster and I didn't feel like I missed a lot haha
I ripped through this almost 500 page book in about a week. It felt like an exploration of some of the more interesting ideas in the first novel. It was very different, even though it shared some of the same characters and places. But importantly it FELT similar, and built to an equally satisfying conclusion. Arkady Martine is a VERY capable writer, and I will read more when and if that is possible.
Review of 'A Desolation Called Peace' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
A Desolation Called Peace has a very interesting, intricate plot with a few twists and turn. It follows the similar pattern as the first book. There is a lot of intricate details, a lot of thought processes of the characters. Some of these long stretches I found a bit dry, but not so dry that I wanted to stop reading the book. A few unexpected turns happen at the end of the book before the plot comes to a resolution. Overall, I enjoyed the whole book and the ending. I would recommend this book for those with literary minds. It is for those who enjoy the journey with some excitement and a lot of introspection.
There were many directions in which Arkady Martine could have taken the sequel to her popular 2019 novel A Memory Called Empire, and she has chosen an interesting and entertaining one.
The worldbuilding for which A Memory Called Empire was praised is back in A Desolation Called Peace, and while the first book focused on the Teixcalaanli capital, the second one explores more of the life onboard of the Lsel Station, as well as life in campaigning military fleets of the empire. For the most part, the worldbuilding in the sequel does not disappoint.
The bits where it does disappoint is in Martine leaning perhaps too heavily on space opera tropes in the parts of the book that take place aboard starships. While the descriptions of the capital or the palace grounds therein continue to be evocative, the descriptions of what it is like onboard of an imperial …
There were many directions in which Arkady Martine could have taken the sequel to her popular 2019 novel A Memory Called Empire, and she has chosen an interesting and entertaining one.
The worldbuilding for which A Memory Called Empire was praised is back in A Desolation Called Peace, and while the first book focused on the Teixcalaanli capital, the second one explores more of the life onboard of the Lsel Station, as well as life in campaigning military fleets of the empire. For the most part, the worldbuilding in the sequel does not disappoint.
The bits where it does disappoint is in Martine leaning perhaps too heavily on space opera tropes in the parts of the book that take place aboard starships. While the descriptions of the capital or the palace grounds therein continue to be evocative, the descriptions of what it is like onboard of an imperial warship feel dull in comparison.
The plot continues to explore the politics of empire, and their relationship to individuals. Like with the first book, Martine manages to portray empire as a system built up of individuals—same as those it looms over, poised for conquest. The grand plots of the novel are not driven by villains motivated by their own evil nature, but by people who, entwined as they are with the culture of the empire, are doing what they think is the right thing to do. This is perhaps the most compelling aspect of Martine's Teixcalaan novels—the view of empire from within, but also from the liminal space on its edges.
The one complaint to level here, though, is that the book's pacing leave some to be desired in the first parts of it. The action moves rather slowly as everyone gets from where they were at the end of the first novel to where interesting things will happen in the second one. It is in the second part that things become more interesting and compelling.
Overall, the book is likely to be enjoyable for anyone who enjoyed A Memory Called Empire. The lack of novelty inherent in a sequel means that A Desolation Called Peace does not outshine the first novel, it is nevertheless a worthy successor.
Review of 'A Desolation Called Peace' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
A Memory Called Empire, den första delen i den här duologin, innehöll ett flertal nya intressanta och spännande grejer. Se min tidigare recension av den. Uppföljaren är välskriven på alla sett och vis, men blir, känner jag, lite för lite av nytt och spännande för att motivera den.
Review of 'Desolation Called Peace' on 'GoodReads'
4 stars
Это уже куда больше похоже на что-то интересное, всё равно только жаль, что пришлось первую ради этого прочитать: часто бывает, что после ознакомления со второй книгой цикла нагнетавшая ранее лишь тоску книга первая, книга-экспозиция вдруг начинает восприниматься куда полнее, целостнее, необходимее, будто произошёл какой-то ретроактивный перелом в восприятии.
Так вот это не тот случай, первая книга могла бы быть вступительной парой глав во второй, и все мы скорей обрели бы что-то, чем потеряли.
Review of 'Desolation Called Peace' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
I loved A Memory Called Empire but I think A Desolation Called Peace is even better. Empire did have some slow spots, particularly in the middle where I felt it dragged a little. But Peace is all killer no filler. Get it now!
Review of 'A Desolation Called Peace' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
A Desolation Called Peace continues Arkady Martine's Teixcalaan series about: where do the boundaries of culture/community and individuality get drawn? What does it mean to be a member of a community. Those themes are much more deeply explored in a Desolation Called Peace with the addition of the ring aliens and a deeper focus on life on Lsel station.
However, it lacks the central focus of a Memory called Empire -- Teixcalaan culture is just so richly developed. A Memory Called Empire was brilliant in part because the best parts of the world, the philosophical questions it raised and the most compelling central character was all bound up in a central mystery about Lysander. A desolation steps away from that singularity of focus, and also includes multiple substories and the book really suffers from this diffusion.
Nonetheless, Arkady Martine realizes alien cultures with a depth like no one else, and …
A Desolation Called Peace continues Arkady Martine's Teixcalaan series about: where do the boundaries of culture/community and individuality get drawn? What does it mean to be a member of a community. Those themes are much more deeply explored in a Desolation Called Peace with the addition of the ring aliens and a deeper focus on life on Lsel station.
However, it lacks the central focus of a Memory called Empire -- Teixcalaan culture is just so richly developed. A Memory Called Empire was brilliant in part because the best parts of the world, the philosophical questions it raised and the most compelling central character was all bound up in a central mystery about Lysander. A desolation steps away from that singularity of focus, and also includes multiple substories and the book really suffers from this diffusion.
Nonetheless, Arkady Martine realizes alien cultures with a depth like no one else, and a Desolation is one of the best science fiction books I've ever read, it just pales in comparison to its predecessor.
