Book Review - A MEMORY CALLED EMPIRE by Arkady Martine


(Title: A Memory Called Empire / Author: Arkady Martine / Publisher: Tor / Publication Date: March 26, 2019)


Over the past thousand years or so the Teixcalaanli Empire has been gradually swallowing up smaller planets and outposts to add to its vastly growing domain, often with no care with regard to the free people now being forced to bend the knee.  You see, The Empire considers itself to be the height of superior intellect, artistic achievement, ethics, and overall culture.  So when the small independent mining station Lsel is contacted by The Empire to supply another ambassador because the current one is missing, it raises a few eyebrows to say the least.

As more details arise, the current ambassador is no longer missing, but in fact dead.  The circumstances of his death are as yet unknown and newly-appointed ambassador Mahit Dzamare finds herself thrust directly into the heart of a mystery that some would kill to keep a secret.  She is not alone though, for she is accompanied by a special technology called an imago, a recording of someone else's thoughts and memories that can be fused with another.

In this case, the imago that is surgically implanted at the end of Mahit's brain stem is none other than that of the previous ambassador to THE EMPIRE, the recently deceased Yskander.  Yskander's memories can help Mahit only up to a certain point however, as he had not made a debriefing trip back to Lsel for a number of years, creating a gigantic hole in his memory recording between the time of his last reporting and his untimely death.

Upon her arrival to the capital city of The Empire, Mahit quickly discovers that it is much different than her humble little mining station and is also acutely aware that the officials greeting her treat her with a significant degree of condescension.  Officials with interesting and involved names like Three Seagrass and Twelve Azalea.

Mahit knows that she must navigate the startlingly different customs and culture of The Empire while also carrying out the directive placed upon her by the council of Lsel, to prevent The Empire from annexing Lsel at all costs and also to uncover what really happened to the previous ambassador.  Along the way she must try to piece together the missing portion of time in Yskander's memory, for it could very well reveal whether he did die of natural causes as The Empire maintains, or something more sinister occurred that led to his death.

When I began reading A MEMORY CALLED EMPIRE, it definitely called to mind a few of my favorite SF books and series.  There are definite hints of Peter F. Hamilton's Great North Road, as the heart of the story is a noir-style potential murder mystery.  But this is also an excellent space opera book as well that calls to mind the best of Alastair Reynolds and C.J. Cherryh.

Another thing that struck me as quite exceptional about this book was the world-building and neat technology applied by Arkady Martine.  The concept of an imago that contains the memories of one person and can be implanted into another, while not wholly original in itself, was done with enough variation as to make it feel unique.  It is also an effective device to utilize in this particular story line because this imago belongs to the subject of a possible murder investigation.

The character of Mahit is one that really intrigued me as well.  She has a vulnerability about her simply due to the natural fact that she finds herself a stranger in a strange land (sorry, had to go there Heinlein fans).  But she is also an intensely strong character who doesn't take kindly to being treated as a lesser individual by The Empire's higher-ups, most of whom are male.  And believe me she lets them know that she sees herself as their equal and not someone to be trifled with in any way.  She definitely challenges the norms of those in The Empire who have been conditioned to think and behave in a certain way.

Ultimately, although there were a couple of moments where I thought the story stalled a bit, I really enjoyed A MEMORY CALLED EMPIRE, and for the most part this was a really enjoyable SF book with a cool mystery that keeps you interested and engaged the entire time.  If you love SF noir books or space opera books involving alien cultures, then you should pick this book up and give it a read.  It's just the type of book that will capture your imagination while also treating you to a fun and entertaining story in the process.  Arkady Martine is an author to watch and I am looking forward to reading a lot more from her.

(My Rating: 8.5/10)

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