A Memory Called Empire

Teixcalaan, Book 1

By: Arkady Martine

Narrated by: Amy Landon

Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner of the 2020 Hugo Award for Best Novel
A Locus, and Nebula Award nominee for 2019
A Best Book of 2019: Library Journal, Polygon, Den of Geek
An NPR Favorite Book of 2019
A Guardian Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Book of 2019 and “Not the Booker Prize” Nominee
A Goodreads Biggest SFF Book of 2019 and Goodreads Choice Awards Nominee

"A Memory Called Empire perfectly balances action and intrigue with matters of empire and identity. All around brilliant space opera, I absolutely love it." (Ann Leckie, author of Ancillary Justice)

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 fascinating space-opera debut, Arkady Martine's A Memory Called Empire is an interstellar mystery adventure.

"The most thrilling ride ever. This book has everything I love." (Charlie Jane Anders, author of All the Birds in the Sky)

©2019 AnnaLinden Weller (P)2019 Macmillan Audio

While I enjoyed the book...

While I enjoyed the book, the story was predictable with one twist that I did not see coming.

Wonderful atmosphere

Loved the book, the story, its character and above all the atmosphere of immersion into that world. Binged for 4 hours at one point

good

would have been 5 stars but the unique names keep pulling me out of the story. also there was a part at the end that didn't fit into the story at all and was unnecessary to move the story forward.

Diplomacy as high drama in space

I love this book. Mahit is a girl just trying to be the best diplomat for her people in the big city of the large galactic empire next door, but runs afoul of plots and intrigue that almost see her...well, no spoilers. Very smart story with great characters and world building Definitely some new ideas here - not your usual space opera.

Story ^ Performance >

I loved the story; what a wondrous world the author created. I'm not a fan of the voice performer.

A great sci-fi experience

I enjoyed every moment of the story. Nice twists and turns of political machinations in a believable universe. Warmly recommended. Though I never got quite used to the narrator, she still delivered a solid øerformance.

different constructs to Ancillary Justice

tonally different from Ancillary Justice (present tense) and still enjoyable. maybe a what if 100-1000 years before the Imperial Radch

Fabulous narrator

Amy Landon was terrific as narrator! I loved her work and will look for her again.

Amazing narration, characters, plot and world!

Had to speed up the narration to around 1.6x but once I did I absolutely loved the performance.

The narrator that did the voice work here was wonderful. Her range really made this feel like a full cast production and it made every one of the several characters you meet here easy to identify, know who's talking and fall for their character the way they were represented. I really enjoyed the emotion she put into it as well that made sense with what was going on in the story.

Highly recommend the Audible version.

Overall this was a fantastic book, maybe my only issue with it is didn't feel like it ended in a way to be considered a stand alone. It sorta just ends in a way that forces you to get into book 2 to get a more complete story.
Not totally the worst issue to have though, wanting more of a book that already is fairly long. But just felt a bit too abrupt for my taste and I didn't really get the sense of a finality.

The pacing is really well done, i feel like it had an amazing balance of putting plot devices, action scenes, dramatic moments and intrigue in right at the right moment and never let anything drone on longer then it needed to anywhere. I never was bored and kept feeling like I was learning something or just enjoying constantly what was being delivered.

I was totally invested into the plot line thanks the amazing world building done to support it. The world felt very well though out, complicated and unique enough but not too wild that it is not comprehended. The descriptive writing style and the way they weaved world building naturally in with the plot instead of doing giant exposition or info dumps made it easy to pick out small details at a time and then gave me time to digest and understand those details before giving more. It helps that it has a character that is a 'newcomer' trope to slowly introduce a new world to you the same way it would be introduced to them. It felt natural with the story line and not like I was being bombarded with too much information.

The characters were also really well done. I felt like they were living, breathing people. I had a easy time identifying them, mostly because the narrator did such a good job with her portrayal but also because they each felt like they had identified personalities, quirks and a self that was realized really well by the author. There was even one side character that I just adored how cute she was. The main character was decent, i definetly felt her personality come through, i just personally didn't identify much with the studious type that much but it still helped make for a good story to have a character with a good head on her shoulders and had a good sense of responsibility to her task at hand.

The ending was fun, i enjoyed where the book was going with the plot, i felt it was fun, at times wild but its sudden ending felt weird. Could have really used a prolog or something to help wrap up more plot lines or give something that felt like a full stand alone experience. I loved the book enough that that I'm definitely getting the next in the series now, i just need to see more of this world!

good story!

Reader should look up pronunciation, and meaning, if they are unfamiliar. It's a la-grange point, not a lag-range point. It was a reasonable guess. Excellent job overall!