Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining Station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn't an accident—or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court.
Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her Station from Teixcalaan's unceasing expansion—all while navigating an alien culture that is all too seductive, engaging in intrigues of her own, and hiding a deadly technological secret—one that might spell the end of her Station and her way of life—or rescue it from annihilation.
a fun read with beautiful, full worldbuilding and compelling politicking, and plenty of space opera to keep you from putting it down. for me, I didn't find it very striking as a plot or character book, though there's plenty of both, and didn't get much out of it as an ideas book (compared to other SF I've read that plays with self, empire, and language)
that said, I do love books that know how to interact with language! linguist-me was left satisfied!
I feel like "political thriller" is a buzzterm that gets thrown around rather loosely (having a single character who just happens to be a politician does not a political book make). But here it feels earned; we got ambassadors with secret agendas, high society galas, partisan riots in the streets, technological sabotage, constantly shifting secret alliances and backroom deals made in the dead of night. Oh yeah, and two distinct imminent wars looming over everyone's heads.
It's hard for me to say whether all of that was a helpful vehicle or a distraction for what this book really wanted to be about, which was identity (what is the ~self~ and how much can that change before you become someone else?) and about being enamored and subsumed by a different culture that you will never be 100% assimilated into, whether you want to or not. That isn't to say that this …
I feel like "political thriller" is a buzzterm that gets thrown around rather loosely (having a single character who just happens to be a politician does not a political book make). But here it feels earned; we got ambassadors with secret agendas, high society galas, partisan riots in the streets, technological sabotage, constantly shifting secret alliances and backroom deals made in the dead of night. Oh yeah, and two distinct imminent wars looming over everyone's heads.
It's hard for me to say whether all of that was a helpful vehicle or a distraction for what this book really wanted to be about, which was identity (what is the ~self~ and how much can that change before you become someone else?) and about being enamored and subsumed by a different culture that you will never be 100% assimilated into, whether you want to or not. That isn't to say that this felt like three different books rolled into one, but if you wanted to make that argument, you'd have material to work with.
Language nerd that I am, I enjoyed how the protagonist would play around with the fictional language of the empire she was in, usually intentionally-accidentally switching to informal speech when playing dumb was in her best interests; "weaponized barbarism" for lack of a better term. And the reader very much gets the impression that she's an outsider in this setting, what with her occasional faux-pas and cultural references that go over her (and the reader's) head that other characters in the scene are so familiar with that they don't require explanation.
There were stretches of this book that just felt like a constant stream of back-to-back appointments and it took a little longer than I'd like for the proper action to begin. Still, it's a well-told story with believable enough worldbuilding that I'd like to revisit, but I was also ready to say goodbye to these characters towards the end. Maybe that's just a result of my innate preference for shorter books though, so you might get more out of it if you have a higher "stamina" than I do.
I wrote this long detailed review and it just disappeared into the ether, so here's a shorter version:
Sci-fi full of political intrigue. Very lovely queer romance in it. Interesting concept of memory and what it would mean if we could preserve it in other people.
