I also really appreciated the moral complexity Martine is building here. I also LOVED the characters (despite the fact that it’s a little hard to keep track of them at first, with Teixcalaanli names like “Three Seagrass” and “Twelve Azalea”). It’s one of the most impressive political worlds I have ever read it was basically an action-packed political mystery in outer space, which … yeah. This was not the fastest-paced book I’ve ever read - there was a lot of time spent on the characters puzzling through information - but it absolutely sucked me in. This one is a “space opera,” which in the fantasy world would be called epic fantasy. (Think Hitchhiker’s Guide, or The Left Hand of Darkness.) This subgenre is often really great for fantasy readers. This book is “soft” sci-fi, which basically means that there’s more emphasis on the fi than the sci - the science doesn't have to be totally plausible, and the emphasis is more on worldbuilding and story. But when she gets there, her connection is severed, and she finds herself alone and smack dab in the center of several masterfully woven plots. To help her in her new role, she’s inherited a form of her predecessor’s consciousness. She loves her home and culture, but she loves Teixcalaan as well - its dedication to poetry and story and more. In it, a young woman named Mehit is sent from her home station, which is currently independent from the universe’s massive empire (colonizer) Teixcalaan, as ambassador. This book is a dazzling, towering display of how worldbuilding can meet cultural commentary. It didn’t take long for me to understand why A Memory Called Empire won the Hugo Award. “In Teixcalaan, these things are ceaseless: star-charts and disembarkments.”

A memory called empire book review