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A Memory Called Empire

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A Memory Called Empire

By: Arkady Martine
Narrated by: Amy Landon
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Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel

'I absolutely loved it' – Ann Leckie, author of Ancillary Justice

In a war of lies, she seeks the truth. An epic, queer space opera, A Memory Called Empire is the astonishing debut novel from Arkady Martine.

Ambassador Mahit Dzmare travels to the Teixcalaanli Empire’s interstellar capital, eager to take up her new post. Yet when she arrives, she discovers her predecessor was murdered. But no one will admit his death wasn’t accidental – and she might be next.

Now Mahit must navigate the capital’s enticing yet deadly halls of power, to discover dangerous truths. And, while she hunts for the killer, Mahit must somehow prevent the rapacious Empire from annexing her home: a small, fiercely independent mining station.

As she sinks deeper into an alien culture that is all too seductive, Mahit engages in intrigues of her own. For she is hiding an extraordinary technological secret – one which might destroy her station and its way of life. Or it might save them from annihilation.

A Memory Called Empire is the first in the Teixcalaan duology. It is followed by A Desolation Called Peace.

‘Contender for debut of the year’ - SFX Magazine

Shortlisted for the 2020 Arthur C. Clarke Award

Shortlisted for the 2019 Goodreads Choice Awards

Perfect for those who loved Ann Leckie's epic space opera Ancillary Justice, Tamsyn Muir's Gideon the Ninth and Iain M. Banks’s Culture novels.

 Military Science Fiction Space Opera Fiction
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Critic reviews

Stunning sci-fi debut. An ambassador from a small space station has to survive in the capital of a galactic empire where everyone seems to want her dead. Add in a great will-they-won’t-they wlw romantic interest. Awesome (Rick Riordan)
A Memory Called Empire perfectly balances action and intrigue with matters of empire and identity. All-round brilliant space opera, I absolutely loved it (Ann Leckie, author of Ancillary Justice and Translation State)
Arkady is one of the best new voices in speculative fiction (Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of Lords of Uncreation)
A cutting, beautiful, human adventure about cultural exchange, identity, and intrigue. The best SF novel I’ve read in the last five years (Yoon Ha Lee, author of the Machineries of Empire series)
An intricate, layered tale of empire, personal ambition, political obligations and interstellar intrigue. Vivid and delightfully inventive (Aliette de Bodard, author of A Fire Born of Exile)
An elegant and accomplished example of the subgenre of subtle scheming with a background of stars. A delightful read. I couldn’t put it down (Jo Walton)
An exceptional first novel recommended for fans of Cherryh, Leckie, Banks, and Asimov (Elizabeth Bear)
A cunningly plotted, richly imagined tale of interstellar intrigue that does something new with space opera (Ken MacLeod)
In A Memory Called Empire Arkady Martine smuggles you into her interstellar diplomatic pouch, and takes you on the most thrilling ride ever. This book has everything I love: identity crises, unlikely romance, complicated politics, and cunning adventurers. Super-fun, and ultra-fascinating (Charlie Jane Anders)
A Memory Called Empire is a murder mystery wrapped up in a political space opera, and deeply immerses the reader in a unique culture and society. I very much enjoyed it and look forward to what Martine does next (Martha Wells)
A Memory Called Empire is both deeply thought-provoking and thoroughly entertaining . . . I can’t wait to find out what happens next (James Oswald)
Exquisite and smart as hell (Fran Wilde)
Arkady Martine’s first novel is a thrillingly smart space opera with grand scope. Everything’s here: plots and counterplots, political manoeuvring, great writing, and brilliant ideas on language and empire. Like Iain M. Banks, she’s created a universe that can spawn a hundred books. Hop on now, people (Daryl Gregory)
Gorgeously crafted . . . Martine allows the backstory to unroll slowly . . . walking delicately upon the tightrope of intrigue and partisan battles in the streets to safely bring the tale to a poignantly true conclusion. Readers will eagerly await the planned sequels to this impressive debut (Publishers Weekly starred review)
All stars
Most relevant
The story was brilliant and thoroughly enjoyable and all the characters were so interesting. I thought the sci-fi technology aspects were very cleverly and thoughtfully done and the cultural elements were really rich as well. The author created a fascinating world and described it so poetically. I can't wait for the next installment! It was read very well so that the characters were easy to distinguish and the emotion came through very powerfully. It is good to see sci-fi with such a strong cast of believable female characters leading the story. It had plenty of intrigue, politics, action, suspense and surprises!

Astonishingly good!

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I quite like the book, interesting with good intrigue.
But the narrator made my ears bleed, I'm not sure if there's a weird effect in the recording or something but I can't listen to it for more than an hour at a time.
The narrator herself is distinctly average, functional, but very little variation in her voice and without life or charisma.

Great story, terrible, lifeless narrator

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How do you measure how much love a book? Is it by how much you can't bear to put it down, and you take every opportunity to listen to a few more words or read a few more sentences, or by how much you miss the characters when the book ends, or because you fancy one of them just a bit.

I felt with this book that I lived the characters lives for a time, that I strode the pavements and corridors of the city with them.

The world the author created had depth, complexity and a great verisimilitude. I could not have lived this story more and the boundary between the imagined and the actual became permeable, and I was briefly unsure which was more subjectively ‘real’. I gasped aloud at one point, and laughed at others, causing my family to look askance more than once.

I felt early on it may become predictable, and I would tick off the necessary plot points as they occurred, but actually it surprised me, right up to the denouement, sometimes in ways that were unwelcome as I didn’t wish those events of my friends. And at the end I wept, in relief, in sorrow and in a single dashed hope.

I split my reading between the Kindle edition and the Audio Book, the clipped tones and flawless delivery of Amy Landon very well suited to this novel, and when it came to the last pages, I wanted them to be in her voice.

This is a rare gem of a book. Read it, savour it, love it and look forward very much to the sequel, and future works from this author.

A rare gem

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easy listen, narration is done well easy to follow who is speaking. liked the story, good characters think the overworld needs some more work but ok as it is.

good story

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Lots of reviews slating the readers performance, it's not that bad but it's pretty poor and certainly detracts from the story.

The story itself is fine, far from great but not terrible. There's lots of telling and not much showing. The characterisation is solid but not any more than that. The fact that this book won awards tells you all you need to know about book awards. In fairness it's reasonably well paced and there are a few interesting concept in play. Hold this up next to a Dan Abnett, China Mieville or M. John Harrison work however and it just feels dull and inconsequential.

mediocre

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