Desolation Called Peace

, #2

Paperback, 400 pages

English language

Published Oct. 27, 2022 by Pan Macmillan.

ISBN:
978-1-5290-0164-8
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4 stars (17 reviews)

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.

7 editions

Solid space opera

No rating

I read A Memory Called Empire earlier this year and really enjoyed it. In this sequel, I was curious to see how the author would handle the mysterious aliens, who we previously hadn’t seen on page.

We see this story from multiple points of view. While I liked getting different perspectives, they felt rather contrived in terms of answering questions raised by the previous PoV character. I also felt there was a lot of characters standing around being told (or overhearing) information by other characters. Sometimes I was put in mind of “messenger speeches” in Greek drama, where important events are recounted to the actors (and audience) by a messenger, rather than being played out on stage.

There was a sex scene which… felt unnecessary and didn’t (in my opinion) contribute in any way to the story, and I could have done without as much angst-y interactions. (Or perhaps, since …

Excellent sequel

5 stars

Rare for me to find a sequel more interesting than the original, but this was one of those occasions. It takes the world-building from Memory Called Empire and then allows the characters to step further forward in the story. After being at the heart of the Empire before, we're now at the fringe, where it faces a threat and a potential war, with politics at play that might lead to a catastrophe. Really enjoyed watching how this all played out and the way the characters grew and developed through it.

Unclear motivations & prose

3 stars

Disappointing sequel despite potential. Some dubious premises (surely a galactic empire would have first contact specialists?). Unclear motivations & prose: I rarely understood why particular choices were being made. Also an annoying inconsistency: internally, characters were flailing haplessly, but in actuality they were exceedingly competent.

Reading time 6 days, 80 pages/day

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Review of 'Desolation Called Peace' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I enjoyed the previous book enough to push for us to read the second at a book club before I’d even bought it. Fortunately I wasn’t disappointed! There’s less world building this time round, as many of the characters have already been introduced, as have most of the key concepts and the different cultures. Instead we get what is fundamentally a first contact story, along with some romance (and an unconvincing, as is often the case in sci-fi, sex scene) and political manoeuvring. If you enjoyed the first book, I think you’ll find the second at least as good - possibly better if you disliked the poetry as there is less this time round.

It’s a shame there isn’t a third book as I really enjoyed the universe and characters, but it did feel like a natural place to end and perhaps the author felt she had taken things as …

A Worthy Sequel

4 stars

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 …

Review of 'Desolation Called Peace' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Exquisite.
The first book in this series was one of my books of 2019 and looking at my review in retrospect, I may have been too harsh in my scoring.
This soared, the theme of 'meeting the alien' was shot through the story at every point. Whether that alien be human or not. The protagonists remained as engaging as ever, a strong point I recall from the first novel.
It was just damn good. Recommended.

Review of 'Desolation Called Peace' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

What I liked:

- The worldbuilding
- The romance
- The Eight Antidote subplot. When I'd read "Interstellar Mail Fraud" somewhere on an interview, I'd set expectations on what it was going to be (once Eight Antidote starts asking questions), but I was pleasantly surprised at what it ended up becoming
- The foreshadowing was good. Swarm's character for example perfectly fits with his ending, and so do the various Shard Trick scenes (especially the ones where the Aliens keep singularly calling out the Pilots as "we").
- STARSHIPS MAKE THE SAME SOUND AS PURRING KITTENS. personal headcanon for all space operas.
- The 2 references I caught to Ancillary Justice. It is apparently a Holodrama
- The writing. I wish there was more poetry in this one, but it was still lovely nonetheless.

What I didn't like: 1. The scope of the Empire. Despite all the epigraphs that hint …

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