This Hugo Award winning and Nebula nominee for 2019 is a big book about an ambassador sent to a territory hungry empire, trying to stave off annexation. The previous ambassador died suddenly (murder?), and so that is another thing she gets to work on. All Lsel natives (a satellite nation) have an imago implanted, which is the memory of 1 or more previous generations. In this case, Ambassador Mahit Dzmare got the imago from the previous ambassador, albeit 15 years out of date.

So she goes to Teixcalaan and tries to figure it all out. This is an ancient empire, defined by ever growing annexations and she is trying to keep Lsel out of the maws of this hunger empire.

So first off, this is not a "space opera", despite the claims from multiple blurbs, including one on the front cover by [a:Ann Leckie|3365457|Ann Leckie|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1402526383p2/3365457.jpg]. I am not sure what their definition of "space opera" is, but mine includes hopping across planets and/or the galaxy and/or galaxies, full of action and derring do. There is none of that in this book. Virtually all the action takes place on the city planet of Teixcalaan and for much of the book, Mahit is a velvet handcuffed prisoner.

Now there is plenty of political intrigue, as she tries to figure out how to keep Lsel out of the claws of the Teixcalaani. She plays various factions off against each, and deals with the Emperor himself a few times. But far ranging and full of action it is not.

But it does have some great characters. Mahit is a wonder, as is her local attache, Three Seagrass (the names of all the Teixcalaani are a number and a noun). The two woman play off each other wonderfully and their growing friendship is a cool part of the book, despite what may seem like Three Seagrass' competing loyalties. Mahit's internal discussions are interesting, deep and emotional and she is an easy character to really get into and love.

Plenty happens, and there is some action that goes on, although Mahit is mostly just a passenger in these cases. The dialogue between her and her imago is fun to eavesdrop on as well.

But it went on for a very long time, nearly 500 pages. I ran out of steam a few times, but chugged on to the ending. It is also definitely a book one, because the real nemesis to both Teixcalaan and Lsel barely made a showing, so I am sure we are due for a real reckoning soon. I enjoyed it, but it is like a 3.5 star book for me. Given its current high rating, which I find unreasonable, I am going to mark it down to the 3 star book, mostly because it is not a space opera!

But I am anxious to read book 2.