A Son of the Rock

Tor, 2020, 460 p, including 11 p Glossary of Persons, Places and Objects and 2 p Acknowledgements.

Mahit Dzmare has spent her young life on Lsel Station, an artificial habitat on the borders of known space. Though the Station is independent – and keen to remain so – Mahit has always been fascinated by the literature of the neighbouring Teixcalaan Empire. Her affinity with Teixcalaan culture and her match with Lsel’s Ambassador to the Empire, Yskandr Aghavn, sees her chosen to replace him. This is made easier by a piece of highly confidential Lsel technology, the imago machine, an implant which gives access to the memories of the donor. But Yskandr last came home fifteen years before and so, when the call comes for Mahit to travel to Teixcalaan, The Jewel of the World, to replace Yskandr, her implant’s memories are long out of date. Her mission is to try as far as possible to prevent Lsel’s absorption by the Empire.

On arrival she finds herself precipitated into a crisis. Yskandr is dead, the Emperor is ageing, the succession uncertain and revolution astir. Despite the Teixcalaanli regarding implants as immoral (though they cover their faces with something called a cloudhook, which gives them two-way access to an internet-like network,) Yskandr had, in return for Lsel’s continuing independence, bargained with the Emperor to provide him with one as a means to give his consciousness immortality. But other influential Teixcalaanlitzim, especially those who seek his power, were and are working against this.

On inspecting Yskandr’s body (the Teixcalaanli have no problems with keeping bodies on ice for long periods but find Lsel’s funeral practices distasteful, non-Teixcalaanli are routinely referred to as barbarians,) Mahit’s imago machine ceases functioning and she has to cope with her new and increasingly dangerous environment with only her Teixcalaanli liaison, Three Seagrass, and her friend, Twelve Azalea, to help her.

The latters’ peculiar appellations are a feature of Teixcalaanli life. There is no explanation for this in the text (and why should there be?) but any Teixcalaanlitzim’s first name is a number – see Nineteen Adze, Thirty Larkspur, Eight Loop, and the Emperor, Six Direction, etc.

As the book progresses Mahit encounters various levels of Teixcalaanli society, all the while wondering if, why, and how Yskandr was murdered and whether her imago machine was deliberately sabotaged by someone back home.

The plot’s resolution is aided by Mahit’s knowledge that Lsel and the Empire are threatened by a species known as Ebrekti inhabiting space beyond the Station,

Teixcalaan society has echoes of the Aztecs – though without the ritual sacrifice – and words such as ezuazuacat and ixplanatlim seem to point to their language, Nahuatl. In this regard the Emperor’s final words “‘I am a spear in the hands of the sun’” seem particularly pointed.

Even though its action is restricted by and large to one planet A Memory Called Empire is Space Opera – of a sort – and is a good enough example of the form. Whether it was worth the Hugo Award it won in 2020 is another matter. At least one sequel (another Hugo winner – in 2022) awaits the reader who wants more.

Pedant’s corner:- “None of them were …” (none of them was… .) “‘How often does that happen,’” (is a question and ought to have a question mark, not a comma, before the end quotation mark. There were many more such examples.) “The jaws of the Empire opening up again, akimbo. Bloody-toothed” (akimbo? How on Earth can opened jaws be positioned on hips? Only arms can be akimbo,) “open maw” (how can a stomach be open?) “she had been Amnardbat’s choice of successors for Yskandr” (choice of successor,) “teeth on the maws of …. parasites” (stomachs don’t have teeth,) “wide jaws akimbo” (again; jaws cannot be placed on hips,) “there are a series” (one series, so: ‘there is a series’.) “One of the sunlit on the edge of the platoon detached themselves” (One …. detached itself.)