#unless...hellspark?

[booasaur]

Book Review - A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

Okay, so third time's the charm! 

If you've seen my previous pained, diplomatic attempts to review ARCs, I haven’t had the best luck with them but I straight up ADORED A Desolation Called Peace. I loved the the first one, A Memory Called Empire (which won a Hugo?? Did I know this?), but this was even better.

You know when you're enjoying something for its own sake, not just to see how it ends, but for the sheer appreciation of it? When consuming even the slowest, most insignificant parts just makes you happy to be reading about those characters in that world written by that writer? That’s how this was for me. As with Memory, it does indeed start off slow and dense, setting up the board and pieces, but Desolation has the benefit of jumping into a known world, with the characters and dynamics almost the same as when we left them. Except the month that’s passed since has not gone so well for...pretty much anyone, and once again Mahit’s finding herself at a flashpoint. Teixcalaan is now officially at war with the mysterious aliens eating up huge swathes of space and they happen to be almost at the doorstep of Lsel Station, where Mahit’s trying to dodge Councilors suspicious about what exactly went down back in Teixcalaan.

This is very much a sequel, you could maybe read it without knowledge of the first book, it alludes to it often enough, but this world requires such a steep learning curve, and really, I don’t know why you’d want to miss out on the beauty of Memory! The callbacks are more for someone like me, who hadn’t had the time to reread it before starting Desolation. I’d often have trouble remembering who was who or what exactly went down until some character or the narrator helpfully clarified. But even so, I'd actually still recommend a reread of Memory before starting this one.

Unlike Memory, we get a variety of character perspectives this time, Stationers and Teixcalaanli, although Mahit is still heavily present throughout, often the subject of the other characters’ thoughts (and sometimes hate). It’s always hard to balance multiple POVs, you run the risk of breaking momentum when jumping away from intense scenes to something much slower, but I think the advantages won out. This wasn't an introduction to the world, or a whodunit mystery, where we went in with one character and needed information handed out piecemeal, learning everything the same time Mahit did. This was a study of brokering peace with aliens while politics on every side hamstrung the negotiators. The more information and perspectives, the better, even when--especially when different factions interpreted the same events completely differently.

Most of the additional character perspectives come from characters we already met in Memory, now being able to see more in-depth into their actions and motivations, with the delightful side effect of knowing what they thought about Mahit back when everything first went down. Another reason you can't and shouldn't want to read this without Memory, the two make up a complete story together (though I'm hoping someone convinces Arkady Martine to not leave this as just a duology).

The richer perspectives also make up for where in Memory, I kind of felt that while Mahit was SO strong, Three Seagrass almost suffered a bit in comparison? Along for the ride, conveniently always what Mahit needed her to be. Not to say I didn't love her but there's way more personality and agency here. The romance is also more...layered? I remember, when Memory came out, I put it in the same mental box as The Priory of the Orange Tree (both long, well-written, mainstream sff with f/f, published around the same time) but liked the romance in Priory more, feeling that while what we got in Memory was nice, it was more a bonus than integral to the story. I liked its handling better here.

The increase in character perspectives and watching a war fought in real time means we get a nice and personal look at some really frustrating moments, too! Because we get the full picture we see not only the inflexible, paranoid nationalism and xenophobia no matter where it comes from, but how straight up dumb and wrong it is, suspicions and speculations already directly contradicted in other character POVs.

As with the Memory, while all this, the prose, the world, the plot, the characters, they’re all great, the specific understanding of colonization and how it affects people, the colonized and colonizers, that is what this series will be remembered for. There are many quotable moments but this is what I immediately pasted to my friend:

What a clear encapsulation of the whole concept! That second line especially, “There’s no room for me to mean yes, even if I want to.” That’s at the root of ALL these conversations we have about--about choice, right? And why, no matter how benevolent or kindly even the nicest person in power is, this will always be there.

To wrap this up, it’s a joy to read, the prose remains gorgeous, with, similar to Teixcalaanli art, repeating themes, similar phrases across different character POVs, but also these organically introduced concepts that end up being such delicious parallels. When you realize... It’s just super fun to read, especially once everything starts in earnest. It just starts to flow faster and easier, more character- and action-based, while remaining so thoughtful and intelligent.

I don’t recommend it universally, y’all know I never do that, it’s just not going to be for some people: it’s hard scifi, mixed with the unfamiliar linguistic and cultural traditions of worlds that share little with ours. But I’m gonna do what I do, just say how much I loved it. If you like some of what I do and anything mentioned above, I would say you’re missing out if you don’t catch this series. Book 2 officially comes out on March 2nd, this Tuesday.

ETA: I forgot to mention this earlier but I’m REALLY grateful that we get actual adult fiction books like this that aren’t steeped in grimdark violence and sex to justify not being YA.

[netgirl-y2k]

for the bookish asks, 1-7, 14-25, and then the rest of the odds after that

Ooh, lotta questions there, skipping over the ones I’ve already done, or where my answers bored even me.

1: What book did you last finish? When was that?

I finished The Nuns of Sant’Ambrogio: the true story of a convent in scandal yesterday. And for a book featuring several murders and lesbian initiation rites it wasn’t nearly as salacious as I was expecting. I mean, it was interesting, but definitely set your expectations to ‘mild historical interest and not ‘19th century nuns gone wild.’

2: What are you currently reading?

Hellspark by Janet Kagan, and I’ll need to get a bit further into it before I decide what I think.

3: What book are you planning to read next?

I might get to The Fate of the Tearling. I have Strong Negative Feelings about this series, but feel oddly compelled to finish the trilogy in order to more fully articulate my Strong Negative Feelings.

4: What was the last book you added to your tbr?

A Closed and Common Orbit, because I recently really enjoyed The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.

5: Which book did you last re-read?

I’m currently rereading The Rook for @fandomtrumpshate related reasons

6: Which book was the last one you really, really loved?.

City of Blades. 

*insert a quick chorus of When Does City of Miracles Come Out? here*

7: What was/were the last book/books you bought?

I bought a used paperback of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay for my holidays, on the off chance that none of the twenty odd books I had on my kindle quite did it for me.

14: Name a book where the movie/tv adaption actually was better than the original

I’ve only seen the pilot of syfy’s The Magicians, but telly Quentin seemed mildly less loathsome than his book incarnation.

16: If you could bring three books to a deserted island which would you bring and why?

I would cheat and bring the entire Discworld series, just cause. Moby Dick, because it’s the only circumstances under which I might actually finish it, and - drumroll, please for the oldest joke in the world - Raft Building for Fun and Profit.

17: If you owned a bookshop what would you call it?

Books and Beer.

My bookshop would also be a bar.

20: Best summer read?

A nice cold pint, a pub beer garden, some manner of historical romance, and a cheerful degree of not caring about anyone who scoffs at the cover. Maybe something from the Brothers Sinister series.

21: Best winter read?

Winter days are for Agatha Christie. Murder on the Orient Express or And Then There Were None as first picks.

22: Pro or anti e-readers? Why?

Pro. So, so pro. For reasons of space, convenience, and the fact that when I got my first one I felt like Captain Janeway.

((also, how is this an argument we’re still having?)

27: If you could change one thing about mainstream literature what would you change? (i.e. more diversity, better writing, better plot etc.)

I would ban titles that have the word Girl in them, unless the story actually is about a child of the female persuasion under the age of twelve, and even then show some imagination, okay.

29: How do you sort your shelves? (i.e. by color, author, title etc.)

I have a pile of books. It was once several stacks of books, but there was some, like, slippage.

31: Who’s your favorite contemporary author?

Sarah Waters, unless you count The Little Stranger, which I don’t.

33: Who’s your favorite Sci-Fi author?

Iain M. Banks.

37: How many books are actually in your bookshelf/shelves right now?

Well, most of my TBR is on my e-reader, and I try not to keep physical books unless I am almost certain I’m going to want to read them again. But by the same metric, I know I’m going to want to revisit Discworld in its entirety, and that’s, like, forty books right there. So, idk, maybe seventy-five?

41: Do you own a library card? How often do you use it?

YES, and all the damn time. You can’t bang on about the importance of libraries, which is one of my favourite subjects to hold forth on down the pub, and then not make use of them

43: Are you the kind of person who reads several books at once or the kind of person who can only read one book at a time?

This year I am trying to even out my fiction to non-fiction ration by having one of each on the go at the same time.

47: What do you do to get out of a reading slump?

Lean into it. Trying to force myself to read will only make the slump last longer and make me hate whatever I try to pick up. Thirteen episodes of something or other on Netflix and I’ll probably feel like reading again.

49: When is your favorite time to read?

Lunchtime. Stop trying to talk to me at lunch, co-workers!