Reviews

Une désolation nommée paix by Arkady Martine

nermo's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

changeablelandscape's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I enjoyed this a lot but I am not exactly satisfied with it -- it is such classic fantasy-of-agency science fiction, there is a problem for our characters to solve, and

Spoiler

indeed, they solve it!

But I was far, far more interested in the unsolvable problems of relationship between empire and not-empire, between people who think you have to be part of their civilisation to actually *be* civilised, and the rest of the world.   That's all there, but I wanted the weight of the book to be on THAT and not on the plotty sfnal problem-solving.   It's one of those books where I feel like the author was caught in the demands of her genre, and I probably wouldn't think anything of it except that the first book felt so much less by-the-numbers in terms of what was going on.

edenacadia's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

nina90's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

cassirin's review against another edition

challenging reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

brokenrecord's review against another edition

4.0

3.5 stars. A Memory Called Empire was one of my favorite books in 2019, and I've been eagerly awaiting the sequel ever since. Unfortunately this one fell a little short of my high expectations, although I did still enjoy it. The issue was mostly that the first one felt specifically aimed towards my interests with the diplomacy and language stuff, but this one was less focused on those elements. It also had more of a central mystery about what had happened to Yksander to keep me hooked, whereas this one was spread a bit more broadly in focus and had multiple POVs. It took me a little while to refresh my memory about what I was supposed to be remembering from the first book and what was being introduced for the first time — it probably would've helped if I'd had time to reread the first book before starting this one. I did like that Three Seagrass got a POV here, and this book really helped flesh out her character and deepened her relationship with Mahit. I thought they were cute and had potential in the first book, but it was more surface level there. I also found the interaction with the aliens and figuring out how to communicate with them really interesting, but it was a small part of the book. I would definitely consider reading more in this series, but my expectations would be lower.

tacanderson's review against another edition

3.0

While I rated this a 3, it's probably a 3.5 and I really am enjoying this series. Lots of talking but there are some really interesting concepts of identity and community developing that are very provocative.

paulr's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

4.5

platypus7311's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

mirrormir's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0