Monday, August 5, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine




A Memory Called Empire is the debut novel by Arkady Martine, and it has been a novel I'd had recommended to me by a few people I trust.  It's the first in a new space opera series, and it's been compared to a bunch of other notable works - such as The Traitor Baru Cormorant (a personal fave) and Ancillary Justice (also strong) - which deal with the potential attraction that comes with a powerful Empire and the outward cultural and economic wealth they seem to offer.  It's a pretty rough set of books for any book to live up to, honestly, which isn't fair to the story.

And yeah, A Memory Called Empire didn't quite live up to those novels for me.  It is in ways a fascinating book that has some very interesting ideas, and a protagonist who is definitely compelling at times.  But unlike the novels above I mentioned, and like a few other novels and works I've reviewed on this blog over the years, it lacks enough moments for the plot to breathe and for those ideas to sink and make an impact.  The result is a thriller with some great moments, but one which doesn't quite manage to do much more than that despite showing the potential to do so.


-----------------------------------------------Plot Summary----------------------------------------------
Mahit Dzmare has spent much of her youth on the independent Lsel Station learning and being fascinated by the culture  of the Teixcalaanli Empire, whose power - both military and economic - always seems on the verge of a potential takeover of the Station.  So when the Empire arrives on the Station's doorstep with an urgent request for a new Ambassador, Mahit can't help be a little excited about the possibility.  If only it didn't come with all of the problems.....

Problems such as the fact that there is no word what happened to the last ambassador, Yskandr.  Problems such as the fact that Yskandr hadn't come home to the Station for years, meaning that Lsel Station's most secret technology, the implanting of an "Imago" - the memories and partial personality of one's predecessors, can only give her the memories and personality of a Yskandr from fifteen years prior, with no knowledge of the many events that have occurred since.

And when she gets to the Empire, those problems only multiply, for Mahit quickly discovers that her predecessor was murdered.  And even worse, he seems to have been involved in some serious acts and interactions with those at the highest level of the Empire itself.   And upon discovering the mess Yskandr has left her, her imago version of him seems to short out, leaving her alone on planet without anyone she can trust....among a whole nest of people who seem to have their own plans for Mahit and the people and technology of Lsel Station. 

It will take all of Mahit's diplomatic and intellectual skill in order to survive this hornet's nest, to discover the truth of what is happening, and to prevent the Empire from annihilating Lsel Station...if it doesn't eat itself first....
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With rare exceptions, a few interludes here or there, and a few blurbs at the start of each chapter, this entire story is told from the perspective of Mahit.  As someone who has spent her whole life studying the Empire - and more importantly wanting to be part of it - Mahit is a tricky narrator in that she recognizes the attributes of the Empire that are overwhelming of other cultures and threatens her own, but can't help but feel attracted to it.  And yet the Empire doesn't quite treat Mahit with the same respect, as Mahit is forced to rely on actual Teixcalaanli citizens in order to do things as simple as to read her own correspondence, to say nothing of doing anything significant.

It's a barrier that Mahit is constantly running into throughout the story, and one which never goes away, leading to Mahit's choices thoughout story until the very end (which will presumably lead into the second novel, whose summary doesn't seem to be available online yet).  Fortunately, Mahit is an excellent heroine, who combines a natural sense of insecurity - both as an outsider culturally and horribly out of place due to the loss of her Imago - with excellent and swift decision making and risk taking that she definitely needs given the craziness she finds herself led into.  Martine writes Mahit's internal thoughts excellently in a way that really makes her work as a character - to say nothing of the dialogue with some of the other characters.  And Mahit's viewpoint is somewhat effective as well - see below - at demonstrating the state of the Empire to the reader.

Other than Mahit, the story contains a number of secondary characters who are solid if unexceptional, but rarely stand out on their own (the second biggest character in terms of having their own personality not dependent upon Mahit is the deceased Yskandr, and he's well....dead).  But the plot works at a breakneck pace from pretty much beginning to end, as factions in the City move on their own agendas in a way that often puts Mahit...and her home station...on a knife's edge, and these plot twists and turns work rather well up through the conclusion.

Still, I couldn't help but feel at the end like the story missed some of its potential in the end, not just with the secondary characters, but with the Teixcalaanli Empire itself.  The Empire is made out in the beginning to be kind of like the Masquerade in Baru or the Radch Empire from Ancillary Justice - an incredibly powerful Empire constantly spreading its tendrils outwards toward other peoples, using generally economic and cultural enticements to get their hooks in before taking over....and using overwhelming military force if that for some reason fails.  And we can see some of that with how the Empire works here and the newspeak that's sort of its bread and butter - the word for City is the same word as World and Empire, to use an early example - and where communication through the Empire's form of poetry is considered a major facet of the Empire.  And the book includes at the start of each chapter a blurb from both an Teicalaanli source and one from Lsel Station that contrasts their attitudes in ways that really add to the setting.

But these ideas of this attractive Empire, especially Mahit's attraction to it, are shortchanged by the quick pace of the plot, which never gives these attributes time to breathe and be really felt by myself, as the reader.  It's only a minor spoiler to say that Mahit basically comes to the City at a time of major unrest, in which the Empire's leadership is basically on the verge of a potential succession crisis and civil war.  The result kind of shortchanges the Empire by making it look weak and unattractive, such that the contrast between the Empire's attraction to Mahit and outsiders and its overpowering colonizing evil gets completely lost in the whole mess.  Similarly, for example, there are a few insurgents against the Empire's leadership who show up at a few spots who just seem there and are never really explored.

Again, Mahit's a very good main character and the plot works rather well as a thriller....but it just felt like it could've been so much more.  I'll be back for the sequel, and the book leaves quite a few sequel hooks open, so let's see how that goes.     
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