A Desolation Called Peace

A bit on the fence with this book; I really liked aspects of it. The core story was compelling. I love her major characters, both the main characters brought back from the first book and the addition of Eight Antidote, the child emperor-in-waiting. I liked the central conflict and plot. Good stuff!

It just took so many words to get there. The whole first third of the book was a slog, before the action started. And then the rest feels very wordy. Not padded, I can't point to any subplot or page that felt superfluous. But the book would benefit from a denser narrative.

We finally get around to the interesting central concept of the book, the various forms of group consciousness. But it takes a very long time to tease out what's going on with the aliens (despite it being obvious from the first hint). And the Teixcalaani versions of group thinking were fascinating, more of that! Still it's a pretty remarkable accomplishment from the author, to take the theme of shared-minds from the imagos in the first book and then expand on it. Just wish it were executed better. (And now I'm re-reading Fire Upon the Deep because Vinge's exploration of group minds is so excellent.)

All in all a remarkably good book. I'm hoping for a third one and am optimistic that the author's writing is improving with each book.