I received an advanced copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Political SFF pulled off well is a delight to read, and I'm happy to report that this (mostly) succeeds. Excellent worldbuilding, deft prose, and a zippy plot that never dragged. I especially enjoyed the whole "empire of poets" idea, which the author plays with in really interesting ways.

If I had a criticism, it would be that I expected (wanted?) MORE political drama than we got here. Our narrator barely lands before shenanigans commence, but those shenanigans weren't quite what I was expecting; I thought there'd be more backbiting and maneuvering at parties, spying, and all that fun stuff; which we do get some of, but our narrator spends an awful lot of time quite literally on the run, which some might prefer, but just wasn't what I was expecting. And from a plot perspective . . . the ambassador from a small mining station to a mighty intergalactic empire brings with her no diplomatic staff whatsoever, which kept pulling me out of the narrative---Lsel Station is small, I get it, but she had ZERO STAFF! It was just her and a member of her host government's staff, which struck me as so bizarre it kept ripping me out of the narrative.

But those are minor criticisms. All things considered, I'll definitely pick up the sequel.

[NOTE: I have scheduled my review to go live on my blog on the 13th of March 2019. The link given below won't work until that time.]


A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine is a story of galactic empire and the author’s debut. I was drawn to it by two blurbs: the summary from the publisher and the recommendation from Ann Leckie. Combined they gave the impression that the book would appeal to fans of the latter, and I don’t think that impression was wrong.

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.

The story in A Memory Called Empire follows the Ambassador from a small space station colony and she begins her placement in the grand galactic empire. Her people, the Lsel, use brain recorders to preserve knowledge and before Mahit leaves she receives the memories of the previous ambassador. Except they’re fifteen years out of date and no one knows what actually happened to the previous ambassador. Finding out is her main motivation.

On the one hand, this is the story of someone alone in a foreign planet. On the other hand, she’s not entirely alone, since she has Yskander, the previous ambassador, in her head, and it’s not entirely a foreign world since she’s been studying their language and in love with their culture for a long time. Of course, things are not so clear cut, which is also the source of much of the tension in the book. That and a series of events entirely out of Mahit’s purview.

I found this to be an interesting and entertaining read. At times it would drag for a minute, but then there’d be a funny quip or a dramatic event and the story would pick up again. That aspect did emphasise how long this book was, which I hadn’t entirely expected, but since it was enjoyable, I also didn’t mind.

A Memory Called Empire explores empire and dominant culture. How to resist it and the extent to which that isn’t entirely possible. The more we learn about Mahit’s predecessor’s approach to his job, and the more more we see of the citizenry’s reactions to Mahit, the more dominant the empire seems. The political intrigue aspect of the plot was well done also (and I always like political intrigue in my stories), and included some unexpected turns.

I highly recommend this book to all fans of space opera, interstellar empires and politics seen from a person and outsider perspective. While the general style of the book has some similarities to Ann Leckie’s works, I feel most comfortable comparing it with Provenance rather than Ancillary Justice for the tone evoked. A Memory Called Empire is the first of a series but it tells a self-contained story. I want to know more of this world and how certain events develop, but we, the readers are not left in the lurch to wait for a sequel.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: March 2019, Tor
Series: Teixcalaan book 1 of 2 announced
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

TW/CW : I can't think of any except maybe death and kinda disturbing funeral rituals

2.5/5
I would not have finished this book if it wasn't an ARC and I felt like I had to power through it and review the whole thing.
It's not a bad book by any means though, it just wasn't for me personally.

We follow Mahit who just because the ambassador of her station in this huge empire. As she comes into the capital she realizes her predecessor is dead, and she suspects he was killed. Court intrigue and political maneuvers will ensue.
It's a politics and diplomacy-heavy book. It's very smart and even intellectual, Martine created an empire that is all about poetry and language. You'll read long paragraphs just about the language of the empire and the linguistic of it.
I like politics and diplomacy but I also need some.. entertainment when I read a book. I didn't feel like this one really had any. There's kind of a murder mystery but there's no reveals, no surprising moments. We understand very early who probably killed and we don't...really care ? Mahit doesn't either because she has bigger problems by then. But those problems are not really much more exciting for us as readers, or at least for me.

The whole part of the book (and it's an important part) about language construct, linguistics and poetic structures really wasn't for me. I do not care. I think if you are a writer or a poet yourself, if you studied english lit in university or anything like that it could totally be your jam, but it just wasn't mine. My native tongue isn't english and I never studied english above high school. I had some (french) linguistic classes in uni and it bored me to tears... So yeah, I don't think I was the target audience here, if I had known how much it relied on language I might not have picked it up but I didn't realize that before it was "too late".

Also of course there's that whole storyline about the Imago Machine, a technology that only Mahit's station uses, bringing the memories of now dead people in the head th next generation so that they never forget anything about their past, about their competences and experiences.
Mahit's imago malfunctions very early on in the story and she is left without one. So the fun part that could have brought that technology into the story.. Wasn't there. The imago was mostly used as a political pawn... How frustrating.

Characters and world-building
Some of the problem might also come from the fact that I didn't feel like the characters were really fleshed out. They all had their use and we get a general idea of who they are but..Also, not really. Even Mahit feels hollow to me when I think about her now.
I don't think there was much world-building either. Those parts were actually used to talk about language and poetry mostly. Other than that we know that the Teixcalaani do not smile widely, make personal space very important and... love poetry. I cannot tell you one other thing about the world.

This book spends so much time telling us about Mahit's state of mind right then and there, and talk to us about language that it forgot to really develop the characters and the world. It's pretty, it's super smart and intellectual but it's missing something. Something that make it real and human. There was some of it, some scenes here and there really brought me what I wanted... But most of the time it didn't, and I felt bored.

To finish on a positive note, I did enjoy the relationship between the 2 main characters, Mahit and Three Seagrass, it was one of the part that helped make the story a bit more human (though it wasn't enough, there wasn't that many scenes like that between the two. I mean, they are always together so there's many scenes between the two but if you remove the scenes where they strictly talk about politics and what to do next there's not that many left).

In my mind, it's like if you took the Imperial Radch from Ancillary Justice but didn't have any AI or the vengeance plotline, with the technology of Ninefox Gambit, but no battles or active war; also language instead of maths. So it really depends on your tastes with this one.

Even though I didn't enjoy myself at all, I don't want to give it less than 2.5 (and 3 on GR), because there was nothing wrong with it, I couldn't see any problematic parts, nothing infuriated me. I was just bored.

It's a difficult book to put into words. It's not so much plot or character driven as it is world and language driven. If you've read Ninefox Gambit, it's like that...but instead of math and time centered, AMCE is linguistics and poetry centered. Much of the world-building is done through depictions of the language.

The author includes a brief description of the language, including a pronunciation chart (with IPA symbols!) and also talks a little bit about its writing system. I greatly appreciated this, along with the detailed glossary. It's a book that throws you into the world, but doesn't abandon you.

Objectively, it's a really good book. Subjectively, I found parts of it to be a bit too slow. The pacing felt off at times. Like when a lot of action was happening, the prose didn't really match. At a couple of points, I had these moments of, "Wait. This is a really intense action scene. We're not just sitting and talking anymore."
And one last thing I feel like I should mention: There are 0 mentions of any type of sexual assault or rape. Off screen or on screen. No hints either.

If I'm being really specific, I'd say 3.75 stars out of 5. But more generally, I'd say 4 stars. I really liked it for its originality while maintaining some classic tropes done well. But I felt that sometimes the writing style was unnecessarily confusing -- to the point where I'd have to re-read certain parts to really understand what was happening. There will be a more detailed review posted later on The Fantasy Inn blog (thefantasyinn.wordpress.com). Thank you to Tor & NetGalley for the digital galley.

ARC provided by the publisher—Tor Books—in exchange for an honest review.

Easily one of the cleverest sci-fi debut I’ve read so far.

A Memory Called Empire is Arkady Martine’s debut novel and the first installment in the Teixcalaan series. Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in Teixcalaan only to find out that the previous ambassador from the same mining station as hers has died. Contrary to her belief, nobody wants to admit that his death wasn’t an accident, and now it’s up to Mahit to uncover who’s behind the murder. At the same time, she also has to save the place where she came from—Lsel—from the Teixcalaan expansion. A Memory Called Empire at its core is a murder mystery story. If you start this book expecting tons of action, there’s a chance that you’ll be sorely disappointed. The main charm of the book lies in Mahit’s challenges in navigating the unfamiliar culture of Teixcalaan; it’s a book heavily centered on politics. In my opinion, this novel was a bit reminiscent of The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson. The main difference between the two is that while I disliked The Traitor Baru Cormorant, I highly enjoyed reading this one due to a superb prose that clicked with me.

“The problem with sending messages was that people responded to them, which meant one had to write more messages in reply.”

It did, however, take me a long time to be wholly invested in the main character; almost 50% into the book truthfully speaking. I wasn’t really impressed by Mahit’s character at first, and the fact that the story was almost entirely told through her perspective actually made me think that the book wasn’t working for me. However, I was gladly proven wrong. The second half of the book did more than redeem what I initially thought was lacking in the book—fascinating characters. By then, I’ve come to realize that the reason I had some issues with Mahit in the earlier half of the book wasn’t that she was poorly written, but it was because she needed some time for her personality to shine and she hasn’t really interacted much with the main side characters; Three Seagrass and Twelve Azalea. These two characters truly made Mahit’s personality bloom. The unlikely relationships that Mahit formed with these two characters were utterly delightful to read and I loved reading every moment of it. Eventually, the novel ended up becoming an exhilarating ride due to the gradual increase in tension and most of all, my growing investment in the characters and their fates. Plus, Martine was brilliantly able to make weird character names work. I’m not kidding, I’ve read a lot of books and this was literally the first time I’ve read characters’ names as original as those in A Memory Called Empire. Here’s an example:

“‘I am Six Helicopter,’ said the man—Mahit stared at him, and wondered when he’d learned to say his name with not only a straight face but with that degree of smugness”

Once you’ve started reading this novel, I think you will easily agree with me that Arkady Martine is a very intellectual author. The reason why I say this is mainly because of the incredibly intricate world-building, and Martine’s implementation of it into the storyline. I won’t lie, I haven’t read sci-fi/space opera as much as I’ve read epic fantasy. However, from my experience so far, the world-building in sci-fi/space opera rarely reach the intricacy that can easily be found in epic fantasy. However, A Memory Called Empire amazed my vision and imagination with its super detailed world-building, and its seamless integration into every aspect of the book. Technology, culture, memory, legacy, language, citizen’s behavior, identity crisis, and history, they were all written impeccably. Most of the novel was told in the past tense, but there were a few times where the narrative shifts to present tense and Martine nailed this transition wonderfully. Not only did the changes in tenses feel natural, it was also necessary to enhance the frantic scenes portrayed. I’d like to also add it’s better to take your time reading this book. Digest each word slowly, because there are a lot of nuances to appreciate in the multi-layered world-building. Plus, Martine didn’t spend a lot of time explaining the terminology; it’s up to the reader to define what the terms mean through the context of the story and narrative. Luckily, there’s a glossary near the end of the book that will help readers a lot in understanding what each in-world term means, or who the characters are.

“Histories are always worse by the time they get written down.”

Written with finesse, A Memory Called Empire didn’t feel like a debut effort at all. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have guessed this is a debut if no one has told me about it. The prose was so vivid, engaging, and easy to follow despite a myriad of terminologies and unique names to remember. The intro of my review said crystal clear - it’s very easy for me to claim that A Memory Called Empire is one of the cleverest sci-fi debuts I’ve ever read. There are a lot of promising books being published in 2019, and I’m pretty damn sure that Arkady Martine’s skilfully crafted debut will be one of the books that many readers rave about in the future.

“Better to take action than to be paralyzed by the thousands of shifting possibilities.”

Official release date: March 26th, 2019

You can buy the book with free shipping by clicking this link!

The quotes in this review were taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.

You can find this and the rest of my reviews at Novel Notions

"A Memory Called Empire" is a densely-packed, detailed story of interstellar palace intrigue. Those expecting shoot-em-up action need to slow it down a little here. It's a very thick story that takes a while to be fully revealed. One of the central themes is past lives memory in the form of imago machines much like the past lives of Frank Herbert's Bene Gesserits and often a struggle for mind domination with a ghost from the past. Other themes involve how a minority culture on a distant frontier maintains its political and cultural independence in the face of a world-devouring empire that swallows up planets and absorbs the planet's technology and culture, spitting it back out as part of the empire's culture much as the world Hellenized under Alexander the Great or Romanized under the Roman Empire. Most of all, it's a story of a barbarian ambassador entering the empire's capital and learning slowly but surely how to negotiate the treacherous politics of an empire whose heart is being ripped asunder by internal strife and struggles for succession of an aging leader. Amazingly, it's a very interesting journey without a whole lot of bombs bursting in the air - well, maybe one or two.

Many thanks to the publisher for providing a copy for review.

There's a new ambassador for the Lsel System to the Teixcalaanli Empire, Mahit Dzmare discovers her predecessor was murdered. Then is seems others want to wish the same upon her. It's a great scifi thriller.

A Memory called Empire is one of my top reads for 2018, but sadly it's not out until next year! I can't wait for this to come out and have people pick it up, I have a feeling/hope that it will be racking up award nominations.

It is exquisitely paced and the narrative tension and world building slot together to craft one of the best political mysteries I've ever read. The characters are fully realized and complex, even the major players who have little page time. You'll find yourself aching and feeling with them. If you're a fan of books like the Goblin Emperor or Ann Leckie's work, this is something I highly suggest you pick up..

As a fan of Ann Leckie's Ancillary series I have been looking for new books with a similar feel. This was an excellent read. Enough of a mystery to keep me reading into the evening. I read this in one day. I could not put it down.