2019 science fiction, first in a projected series. The Teixcalaanli
Empire is huge, and Lsel Station has only just managed to maintain its
independence from it. So when the Empire requires a new ambassador,
Mahit Dzmare is sent. Then she discovers that her predecessor has been
murdered…
Lsel has a technology that the empire doesn't: its imago machines
allow skills and some memories to be passed down from one post-holder
to the next. But Mahit's record of the previous ambassador is fifteen
years out of date, and soon fails completely. That's the least of her
problems, though, as the capital starts to descend towards civil war.
I should love this. In large part I do love it. But it's not quite
what it could have been, I think. There's a lot of business about the
imago machines, and who among the Imperials has been promised them and
how they'll abuse them if they get them, and it doesn't quite fit
together. Is it the machine itself that's been promised (in which case
the Imperials could just have taken the existing one from the body of
the previous ambassador)? Is it the supporting neurosurgery (some of
which is done by an Imperial, new to the technology, later)? Is there
some other procedure which would have to be done first, in which case
why didn't the previous ambassador make any arrangements for that to
happen? Or not, in which case why does Mahit claim it's impossible?
This is presented as a puzzle story on various levels, and this
particular level of the puzzle never quite held together for me;
similarly there's a scene where people are evading pursuers at a
transit station which got rather confused, and I felt shouldn't really
have worked as written. I get the feeling the author is less
interested in delving into practicalities than in writing about
people, which is fine, but the practicalities need to work too.
Arkady Martine is also an historian of the Byzantine Empire, and
there's a lot of Byzantium here, even if much of the surface flash is
from Mesoamerican cultures. But the people are the most important
thing, and it's the interactions of the people that drive everything
else, including the civil war and its resolution. Mahit is to some
extent the outsider there to ease the reader's path into this culture,
but she's a student of the culture and knows a lot of the basics
already, as well as being a competent and practical negotiator; some
of her most important decisions are about whether and when to play up
to the "barbarian" stereotype, since many people will dismiss her just
for not being an Imperial. Mahit likes the Imperial culture, even as
she recognises the threat it poses to her home, and this is very
effectively portrayed.
Twelve Azalea, Indistinguishable Courtier Number Three, except for
how looking at him gave Mahit the impression of being in the
presence of some other culture's impeccably observed standard of
masculine beauty. She felt a little peculiar about her lack of
response.
In some ways more interesting to me is Mahit's aide, Three Seagrass, a
minor noble with ambitions. She's the one who knows the society from
the inside, but of course her first loyalty is to the Empire. At least
until that becomes a choice of which "the Empire".
Things end a bit hastily, with many important plot points unresolved,
and a sequel is expected in 2021. So in summary: yes, I liked it, and
I'll certainly read the next volume, but it was flawed enough that I'm
not raving over it.
Some notes on Imperial
names
are on the Tor/Forge blog.
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