Approx length: Book 1 A Memory Called Empire is 462 pages and book 2 A Desolation Called Peace is 496 pages.
Where to find it: Here's a GoodReads link so you'll know what to browse for in your bookstore or online for ebooks.
What is it, in summary?: A political space opera that explores language, colonialism and what it means to be a person.
What do you love about it?: While I adore the characters as characters, what I've fallen in love with most in this series is the worldbuilding and the language. There are so many gorgeous sentences in these books! So many! The exploration of personhood and what it's like to exist as a semi-person in the eyes of the dominant law and culture of your world is also heart-wrenching in the best of ways. The added science fiction element of literally inheriting the previous generations' memories, as the main character Mahit's people do via memory chips installed into their brains, adds a nice twist to the whole "what is a person"-question. Oh, and I fell hard for the aliens. Especially one alien species that shows up later in the story.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: Something set post-canon. I'd love to see where the story goes from the end of book 2, either with focus on one or more of the characters' lives or from a more "bird's eye view" of the setting. What changes? What stays the same? What new discoveries are there to be found?
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): There's plenty of violence and murder in this book, and there's some semi-detailed descriptions of both injuries and medical procedures. Consent is explored in detail so romantic and sexual relationships with huge power imbalances do show up. Identity and loss of identity, both via colonialism and mind-sharing, are a prominent theme.
Teixcalaan Series - Arkady Martine
Media: Book duology
Approx length: Book 1 A Memory Called Empire is 462 pages and book 2 A Desolation Called Peace is 496 pages.
Where to find it: Here's a GoodReads link so you'll know what to browse for in your bookstore or online for ebooks.
What is it, in summary?: A political space opera that explores language, colonialism and what it means to be a person.
What do you love about it?: While I adore the characters as characters, what I've fallen in love with most in this series is the worldbuilding and the language. There are so many gorgeous sentences in these books! So many! The exploration of personhood and what it's like to exist as a semi-person in the eyes of the dominant law and culture of your world is also heart-wrenching in the best of ways. The added science fiction element of literally inheriting the previous generations' memories, as the main character Mahit's people do via memory chips installed into their brains, adds a nice twist to the whole "what is a person"-question. Oh, and I fell hard for the aliens. Especially one alien species that shows up later in the story.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: Something set post-canon. I'd love to see where the story goes from the end of book 2, either with focus on one or more of the characters' lives or from a more "bird's eye view" of the setting. What changes? What stays the same? What new discoveries are there to be found?
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): There's plenty of violence and murder in this book, and there's some semi-detailed descriptions of both injuries and medical procedures. Consent is explored in detail so romantic and sexual relationships with huge power imbalances do show up. Identity and loss of identity, both via colonialism and mind-sharing, are a prominent theme.