A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

Check out the review of A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan #1).

Review Part One

Originally published on April 14th, 2021 on Instagram

Readers of the first book will notice from the get-go that A Desolation Called Peace is much easier to read (not that the first one was hard to) and flows much more freely. It is obvious that Arkady Martine has grown a lot as a writer, and her prose is much clearer and more entertaining, and her own style is starting to shine through more brightly.

What is not clear is whether Teixcalaan (the name of the series and the empire it is set in) is set to be a duology (I was unable to find any information about a potential third book, nor any information regarding this series being concluded), and I guess we just have to wait and see what Martine decides to do next (whatever it is, I am already looking forward to it). I am hoping to see something in the expanded universe, new civilizations, and aliens, or something about how humans came to be scattered around the universe without knowledge of their origin. The ending of this book, however, makes it seem like Mahit's story in Teixcalaan is finished for now.

A Desolation Called Peace covers the story of the war that started at the end of the first book and takes some aspects of military sci-fi (something I didn't even know I needed in my life before reading this book!) with military protocols and hierarchy while staying grounded in diplomacy and intrigue. It expands (a lot, and successfully) on what was already established in the first book, and that is, in part, the reason why I wasn't really sure whether Martine was going to be able to wrap it all up in a satisfying way. Even when there were 70, or even 50 pages left (and I finished those today), I was sure that a lot of the plotlines would just get dropped. It's certainly not perfect (some things work out very conveniently for main characters), but man, those last 50 pages were such a thrilling ride with everything mashing together perfectly and bringing it to a spectacular close!

Review Part Two

Originally published on April 16th, 2021 on Instagram

A Desolation Called Peace is told from the point of view of four main characters (as opposed to the one we had in the last book), three of which have been introduced previously. With the start of the war, we are met with Nine Hibiscus, a fleet captain promoted to the rank of an admiral of sorts, in order to prosecute the war against the alien threat.

While I wish Nine Hibiscus had a bit more agency and were able to participate in the plot more proactively—her scenes are clustered towards the beginning and the end of the novel—it is her scenes, aboard her flagship, that made me fascinated with the military aspects of the novel, and are the reason why I was hooked very early on.

The most interesting point of view character was Eight Antidote, the eleven years old ninety-percent clone of the previous emperor, and the heir to the throne. Being very smart and obsessive, Eight Antidote tries hard to appear mature in front of the adults in his life and is acutely aware of all the little ways he may be perceived as childish. Even as a twenty-five-year-old, I find Eight Antidote to be very relatable, as he constantly thinks about all the ways he is painfully unprepared for adult life and for the inevitable task of being an emperor.

Although his actions don't amount to much—he is the only character not directly involved in the war with the aliens—he is very proactive and refreshing to read.

And at last, we have Three Seagrass and Mahit Dzmare, the main characters of A Memory Called Empire, who continue in their romantic plot, while also serving as Teixcalaan's diplomatic agents in the war, tasked with finding a way to communicate with the aliens. With them, we are finally able to learn a bit more about the fascinating Lsel Station, where Mahit is from, and where we find her at the beginning of the book.