A Desolation Called Peace, by Arkady Martine

[extrapenguin]

As it won the poll, I read it. It's ... well, my reaction is interesting.

I agree with the reports that the plot and character-work were worse than in A Memory Called Empire – the political threads did not quite feel like they congealed, esp wrt Lsel Station, and Three Seagrass's "oh yeah the Empire causes a power differential here" realization was kind of out of the left field. Martine could've written a completely functional book about Lsel Station politics, with Mahit dealing with the sabotage and idk possibly getting into some hometown intrigue, plus a look at how the threads of Empire extend even here via cultural imperialism, even if the Station is independent, and then written a sequel that was about the war and the aliens, since those two threads did not IMO congeal at all.

On the other hand, it was also about aliens with a nonhuman sense of cognition and first contact negotiations! This is like catnip to me, lol. So I really enjoyed the alien bit, and Twenty Cicada's thing at the end.

Also Eight Antidote was an adorable little dumpling. I loved reading him manipulate and be manipulated by a variety of people.

(Next up: The Long Utopia & The Long Cosmos; Blindsight; The Wandering Earth. In roughly that order.)

Comments

[lannamichaels]

I loved Eight Antidote so much, and Twenty Cicada should have been the protagonist of a completely different book and I would read it.

[extrapenguin]

Yeah, the biggest problem was that the book Mahit and Three Seagrass should've been headlining was not this book, and the protagonists of this book should not really have been Mahit and Three Seagrass.

[hamsterwoman]

The aliens were the one thing in 'Desolation' that I liked! And Twenty Cicada was interesting, and I wish his thing hadn't mystifyingly taken place largely offscreen...

I also get the sense that Martine finds Lsel Station a lot less interesting than I'd like her to, alas...

[extrapenguin]

The bridge confrontation that we got in lieu of Mahit and Three Seagrass being present for the thing was also, well, contrived and thus not that much fun.

I guess if Martine had found Lsel Station itself interesting, she might've written a book about the station/Heritage instead, instead of about a Stationer going to Teixcalaan. I really wish we'd get something about Station Council politics wrt Onchu trying to remove Amnardbat from the job.

[nnozomi]

Did not get to the poll but would've voted for this one, I'm among the minority (?) who really like it. Agree that it's kind of a mess in terms of plotting, but I have so much fun with the characters and the language and culture details that I don't care much. I really do wish she'd done something with the Lsel graphic novel thing, though, that seemed like such a fascinating loose end. (And agree re Eight Antidote! Everyone seems to find him wonderful no matter what else they think of the book, which I think is neat.)

[extrapenguin]

The language stuff is fascinating, yes! It was also my favorite bit of the first novel, and really wish it would've been the sole/main plot. (I also realized that oh dear, had my parents been naming me in Teixcalaanli, based on the brief explanation of number meanings and their interests around that time, they would have called me Three Azimuth. Not the worst namesake to have, but a weird realization nonetheless.)

[nnozomi]

oh dear, had my parents been naming me in Teixcalaanli, based on the brief explanation of number meanings and their interests around that time, they would have called me Three Azimuth.
That is delightful (and if you ever decide you want a new DW name, it should be perfect). My father was a musician, so if I had a Teixcalaanli name the number part would probably be a time signature...