Tor, 2021, 492, including 12 p Glossary of persons, places and objects, 2 p On the pronunciation and writing system of the Teixcalaanli language and 2p Acknowledgements.

After her part in the transition of the Teixcalaan Empire from the indiction of Emperor Six Direction to that of Nineteen Adze, ambassador Mahit Dzmare has returned to Lsel Station. There she finds herself under threat from Councillor Aknel Amnardbat who suspects her of treason – or at least being too sympathetic to the Empire. There is also the illegal nature of her imago (a copy of the memories and personality of her predecessor as ambassador, Yskandr Aghavn, and previous personalities of his line – none of which seem to impinge on Mahit’s consciousness, though) of which she has two versions, the deliberately damaged one implanted by Amnardbat’s operatives, plus the one illicitly salvaged from Aghavn’s body on Teixcalaan.

In the meantime a group of apparently ruthlessly implacable aliens has been invading the boundaries of Teixcalaanli space just beyond the Lsel Station area and the local Teixcalaan commander, Imperial yaotlek Nine Hibiscus, has sent back to Teixcaalan a request for a translator, to which Ministry of Information officer, Three Seagrass, Mahit’s former liaison on Teixcalaan, has responded in person, with the intention of enlisting Mahit’s help.

Also, on Teixcalaan, in the imperial capital, The Jewel of the World, the former Emperor’s clone sibling Eight Antidote, eleven years old, is being trained in statecraft and the military arts while also being enlisted by Nineteen Adze to spy for her. (Imperial politics is never an easy situation.)

The aliens have devastated the planet of Peloa-2, leaving little but eviscerated bodies behind them. The only form of communication the Teixcalaan forces can decipher is a hideous sound that causes humans to retch.

Martine’s book’s title here invokes the words which the Roman writer Tacitus placed in the mouth of the Caledonian chief Calgacus, and indeed the full quote (of which “They make a desert and they call it peace” is a part) is given as one of the book’s epigraphs. Its relevance is that Peloa-2 is now a desert and is the place where Three Seagrass and Mahit meet with the aliens’ representatives to attempt to broker a peace.

The aliens are vaguely humanoid in form, bipedal, heads on top of their bodies etc but seem to be able to communicate with each other without speaking; as if they were telepathic. Despite their nausea-inducing noises, Three Seagrass and Mahit manage to achieve a sort of communication back by singing to them.

[Aside. The aliens (one of whose bodies is taken from a destroyed space ship for examination) are said by several of the characters to be mammals. Creatures which are true mammals could only originate from Earth. There is no suggestion in the book that the aliens are derived from terrestrial creatures. Evolution elsewhere may produce a similar kind of animal which feeds its young from secretions from a parent’s body but they could not properly be described as mammals.]

The nearest description of the nature of the aliens is that they have a kind of hive mind and are seemingly incapable of understanding that humans have not. But the Teixcalaanli military employs single seat spacecraft known as Shards who are connected in an instantaneous network which means they experience everything the other Shard pilots do. This so-called Shard Trick provides a key to conflict resolution.

Teixcalaanli politics is as full of intrigue and personal manœuvring as any reader could wish. Add in the external conflict and the interpersonal relationships and the whole is a diverting read.

Pedant’s corner:- “open-mawed hangar” (a hangar does not have a stomach,) “who would rather bleed into a bowl for propriety rather than give up” (has one ‘rather’ too many.) “None of them were trying” (None of them was trying. There was another instance of ‘None … were.’) “She was going to have to live with it, wasn’t she.” (Is a question, so needs a question mark at its end,) “sharp-toothed maws” (and stomachs don’t have teeth,) “an insolvable political problem” (either ‘unsolvable’ or ‘insoluble’ but not ‘insolvable’.) “‘Did he now,’ said Nineteen Adze.” (‘Did he now?’ said Nineteen Adze.) “There was no hesitance in it” (no hesitancy.)

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.)

I even missed the announcement of nominees this year.

The winner was Deep Wheel Orcadia by Harry Josephine Giles.

The other nominees were:-

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
A River Called Time by Courttia Newland
Skyward Inn by Aliya Whiteley – I have actually read this.
Wergen: The Alien Love War by Mercurio D Rivera

The shortlist for the 34th Arthur C. Clarke Award is:

The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders
The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell
Cage of Souls by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Last Astronaut by David Wellington

I had been looking for the list for a while but not for the first time discovered it had finally been announced via Ian Sales’s blog.

I reveiwed the Charlie Jane Anders book for Interzone 282 and published that review here on 28/5/20.

The Martine and Serpell I had seen good reviews of. The works of Hurley I have read tend to wallow in violence which I find off-putting. I’ve only read Tchaikovsky’s two Children of Time novels. They were OK but no more. Wellington is new to me (and Ian Sales doesn’t think much of his book.)