Title: A Memory Called Empire & A Desolation Called Peace
Series: Teixcalaan
Author: Arkady Martine
Genres: Sci-fi
Publishing Date: 2019 & 2021
CW: Suicide, Blood, Death, Xenophobia, Medical content, Violence, Alcohol, War, Genocide, Sexual content, Vomit
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Read if you’re looking for:
- A sci-fi duology about empire & war
- Political intrigue & assassination attempts
- Implanted technology that gives a person the memories of their predecessors
- A sapphic love story
- First contact
- Attempts to translate alien communication that makes humans sick when they listen to it
Along with Translation State, this duology was my favorite sci-fi of March, and I can see many similarities between this author and Ann Leckie’s writing. The story begins when our main character, Mahit, is assigned to be the ambassador from her relatively small space station to the massive empire of Teixcalaan (another human civilization) after her predecessor dies suspiciously. The space station’s residents use a technology called an Imago Machine to transfer knowledge from one generation to another by implanting a device into a successor’s brain that gives them the memories of the predecessors of their role (pilot, ambassador, politician, etc.) When Mahit arrives in Teixcalaan, she experiences an Imago failure and loses all the valuable memories and her advisor. From here, Mahit becomes entangled in political machinations and intrigue, and looking into the possible assassination of her predecessor. Additionally, unidentified alien ships have been arriving near her home station, and wiping out ships and colonies with no warning or explanation. Mahit and her friends must solve the mysteries of what is going on politically, and in the second book, attempt to communicate with the aliens in a first contact situation and prevent an all-out war.
This series is an action-filled ride of adventure and intrigue, and has many original and artful ideas. I really enjoyed all the political scheming, and the world building of Teixcalaan is top notch, with Martine giving us so much texture and insight. I’m also a sucker for a first contact story, and their process of learning how to communicate with the new aliens was really interesting. My only criticism is that, there is a sapphic love story where we, again, have a miscommunication trope. But, that’s easy to overlook with so much amazing stuff going on. I highly recommend this series for anyone who enjoys modern sci-fi, and works by other similar authors, like Ann Leckie or Kameron Hurley.
