Is A Memory Called Empire Worth Reading?
Ada’s Score
Arkady Martine's debut novel drops Mahit Dzmare, ambassador from a small mining station, into the glittering and treacherous heart of the Teixcalaanli Empire to investigate her predecessor's mysterious death. The book is a love letter to political intrigue, linguistics, and the complexities of colonial desire — what it means to adore the culture that threatens to consume your own. Martine, herself a Byzantine historian, builds one of modern SF's most richly realised empires with poetry, bureaucracy, and blood. Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel.
Award Season“Political intrigue meets genuine linguistic joy. Martine makes empire feel seductive and sinister all at once.”
An Empire You'll Want to Love and Fear in Equal Measure
Arkady Martine won the Hugo Award for this novel, and the moment you step into Teixcalaan you'll understand why — it's an empire so seductive in its culture, its poetry, its sheer aesthetic grandeur, that you almost forget it consumes everything it touches. Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives carrying a dead man's memories in her skull and a mystery she may not survive solving. This is space opera as literary fiction, and it is gorgeous.
Ada Brief
AI reading intelligence“Political intrigue meets genuine linguistic joy. Martine makes empire feel seductive and sinister all at once.”
An Empire You'll Want to Love and Fear in Equal Measure
Arkady Martine won the Hugo Award for this novel, and the moment you step into Teixcalaan you'll understand why — it's an empire so seductive in its culture, its poetry, its sheer aesthetic grandeur, that you almost forget it consumes everything it touches. Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives carrying a dead man's memories in her skull and a mystery she may not survive solving. This is space opera as literary fiction, and it is gorgeous.
Book Details
- Publisher
- Tor Books
- Published
- January 1, 2019
- Pages
- 464
- Language
- English
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Ada’s Score
4.5
Ada’s editorial score — not an aggregate of reader reviews.
Common Questions About A Memory Called Empire
- Is A Memory Called Empire worth reading?
- Political intrigue meets genuine linguistic joy. Martine makes empire feel seductive and sinister all at once. Ada rates it 4.5 out of 5.
- How many pages is A Memory Called Empire?
- A Memory Called Empire is 464 pages long — around 8–9 hours at an average reading pace.
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