Status Updates From A Memory Called Empire (Tei...

Why is there a random romance being infused into the plot??

I’m tired. I need this book to end.

Wait. So now Teixcalaan isn’t the bad guy?

Somebody in Lsel had to be in on this shit.

“What did Yskandr promise you?”
“The schematics to Lsel’s imago-machines,” the Emperor said, quite easily, like he was discussing the prices for electrical power, “and several for immediate Teixcalaanli use. In exchange for which I would guarantee the independent sovereignty of Lsel Station for as long as my dynasty holds the Empire”

Excerpt From
A Memory Called Empire
Arkady Martine

Theory confirmed!

Plot point 1: the reason why everybody and their grandmother in teixcalaan knows about the imago is because Yskandr has been using it as bargaining chip to restrain empire’s expansion into Lsel. I’m inclined to think empire killed him to test his theory that imago is immortality. However, they’re also pushing forward with colonial war toward Lsel. So…

The plot is weak and slow moving. The book intends to rest on its social critiques but that demands too much from a fiction reader. The entirety of the plot so far has been “who can Mahit trust?” But that’s a question that arises in Mahit’s thoughts more than in the prose. The prose is bogged down with descriptions of locations, people, dressing, speaking style and dancing. The plot is weak.

This book reads like a sociopolitical and sociocultural study of the Teixcalaan world. If this was non fiction about a real people or something from history, I would be intrigued. But this is fiction. Fiction demands more than world building or understanding the intricacies between different cultures. It requires propulsive plot through which these issues are examined.

Very cool to have some Aztec-inspired Sci-Fi, but I’m kind of torn on how much deeper it goes than just the aesthetics