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.

[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...

[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.)