A Memory Called Empire

I enjoyed this but it fell a little flat for me. It's an awful lot of words. And for a book about a vast and ancient space empire it sure is claustrophobic.

The best part of the book is the slow personal reveal of the main characters. I felt over all those words we really got to know Mahit, and Yskandr, and particularly Three Seagrass. It's a very human sort of writing. I also enjoyed the intricate world-building and its parsimonious reveal. Over time I felt I understood the Teixcalaanli, at least a little, and I liked how the author slowly shared what she must have spent years designing. It comes out in the poetry, and the flowers, and the AI that controls the City (a topic only hinted at but could have been a whole book.)

It sure was claustrophobic though. There's only, what, 4 characters in the book with any significant narrative? And almost all of it takes place in one neighborhood in one city. There's a vast stellar empire out there, and our hero's home station, and apparently some sort of galactic existential threat. But instead all the time is spent inside palaces and homes and so, so many pages of diplomatic sparring. Which was all fun but I like my space operas to enjoy the grandeur of their setting a little more.

Still eager to read the next book and anything else Martine writes. It's a remarkably mature book for a first novel.