Hugo 2022 Novel: A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

A mess-up on my part. I thought I had written a review of this last year after I read it but Debarkle messed up my normal blogging habits. So no review of my thoughts directly after finishing the book. So apologies. This will be a shorter discussion and more impressionistic.

A Memory Called Empire was the well deserved 2020 Hugo Award winner and A Desolation Called Peace follows up on the lingering threads created in the first novel. Specifically:

• Why had the “imago” memories of ambassador Yskandr Aghavn been sabotaged
• Who or what had been attack ships in a remote part of the Teixcalaanli Empire

Both of these questions connect the central character Mahit Dzmare with her home: Lsel Station. However, where Memory was centred on Mahit Dzmare, Desolation brings other characters to the fore. Three Seagrass, whose friendship with Mahit was established in the earlier book, has a more prominent role and the theme of collaboration and partnership that develops around her and Mahit is key to the resolution of the conflict at the centre of the book.

The Teixcalaanli Empire faces an existential threat and any such threat reveals the inherent weaknesses of a culture. With the Teixcalaanli, the importance of status and military prowess becomes a direct threat to the capacity of the Empire to respond to an alien species that operates in a way utterly unlike either the Teixcalaanli or humans in general.

Although quite different books, A Memory Called Empire was often compared with Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice. Not unlike the sequels to Leckie’s books. Martine’s sequel knows that to deliver a book as interesting as the first, it has to be sufficiently different from the first. The questions of identity and memory are still relevant here as are the questions of hegemony and culture. However, those perspectives and examined from different angles and in different circumstances.

Does it pack the same punch as the first novel? It didn’t for me but I found it a satisfying sequel and also, I think, the right sequel to the first book. There are times when the story could have accelerated the stakes so as to pitch the Empire into a far greater crisis, taking the story to a big space-opera cliffhanging ending. The story takes a different route and is better for it (even if I would have enjoyed the opposite).

From a Hugo perspective, it is another solid finalist in what is a fine set of novels that are quite varied in style. I wouldn’t bet against this one winning. However, it’s not one of my top three choices.