A Desolation Called Peace

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine.

Surely there are better ways to communicate than nausea-inducing singing

The follow up to A Memory Called Empire doesn't land quite as well with me due to its wider scope, but is still a worthy successor.

The aliens clearly set up as antagonists in the first book are back, and they brought so, so many new characters along for the ride. Many of them POV characters too, I don't remember there being anywhere near this many POV shifts (if any?) in the first book. Off the top of my head we see things from the perspective of:

• Mahit of course, returning as main protagonist
• Eight Antidote, the child heir to the imperial throne
• Three Seagrass, Mahit's former cultural liason now with a major promotion and added recklessnes
• Nine Hibiscus, yaoltek of the ships sent to combat the alien menace

That's a lot of moving parts to keep track of, and while Martine does pull it off I still feel like the story lost something by expanding its cast.

The overall plot was pretty good, though things are pretty telegraphed in general so I wasn't exactly blindsided at any point like the ending of the first book. I feel like this book leant a little too much into the 'look how cool and smart I am' Doctor-Who-like monologues compared to the first, which definitely still had them, but it's not unbearable and that's kinda just how Three Seagrass is.

This has mostly been complaints but I really did enjoy it overall; watching the characters grapple with a truly alien species as opposed to Mahit grappling with Teixcalaan's somewhat alien culture is an interesting mixup and some of the new characters are entertaining. Definitely an enjoyable read, though similar to the Goblin Emperor follow ups doesn't quite hit the high notes of its predecessor.