Memory Called Empire | 
pickA beautifully written political sci-fi mystery epic. Initially I had some trouble absorbing everything in the world building, but as soon as the plot kicked in I was hooked. I‘m happy to have dived into this complex story, and I hope to continue the series at some point. 4.5⭐️
pickI really enjoyed this book. The worldbuilding is complex and fascinating, and Mahit is a great character. I had some trouble following all the weird Teixcalaani names and wasn‘t always sure I was associating the right character with the right name. The plot was twist after twist and I was just along for the ride!
pickI absolutely loved this nearly unconditionally. It was exactly the book I wanted to read after slogging through book commitments I'd made earlier. Mahit was an enchanting POV character and her adventures had me eagerly turning pages late into the night.
Very complex inter-relationships
- impressive atomosphere and world building
- Beautifully written with lots of introspection and consideration of events
- not as important as other aspects of the tale.
- guess who's on who's side. politics....
- loyalties tested, and sometimes with unexpected results
- I really enjoyed it. And am moving on to book two immediately.
Reading this for a second time, this time for book club and I‘m annotating the heck out of it. This is one of my favorite books of all time, so no complaints! 💕
“There is, Tarats believes, a kind of inevitability to empire unchecked.”
pickThis was so good! Fast paced, the story spans 2 weeks, the first 2 weeks of our very relatable and likable main characters new job on a new planet. She has been studying their language and culture most of her life and now she will be her planets ambassador, only problem is she also has to figure out who killed her predecessor, but wait are they trying to kill her too!!
Liked everything about this.
#weeklyforecast
I am trying to get to one last #WomensPrizeLongList before the short list announcement on Wednesday. -Trespasses
Maybe You Should Talk To Someone is my #DoubleSpin for this month, still waiting on the library for my #bookspin title.
I am doing 1 reread of my favorite books each month to see if they hold up, Bel Canto is my April reread.
Finishing up Quietly Hostel which has been hit or miss 4 me.
I also have the tagged on audio.
pickI know I‘m late to the party, but I still really liked this Jadzia Dax / Aztecs / Byzantine Empire mashup. Excited to read book 2!
Plus, I finished my #bookspin and #doublespin for November, read one book for #aam, did some damage to my backlog from challenges, and got a bingo. Surprising for a month where I said I‘d be doing more “relaxed” reading!
Update on #20in4 special readathon progress:
-7 hours listening to Bonds of Brass (did not like)
-1 hour reading Horror Film: A Critical Introduction by Murray Leeder
Starting the tagged book today. We'll see how it goes.
pickMahit, Lsel Station‘s newest ambassador, arrives in Texicalaan in response to urgent summons from the empire deeming her predecessor unfit to continue his duties. As Mahit attempts to unravel Yskandr‘s political web, she finds herself pulled deeper into the tangled web he has weaved during his tenure. It‘s one of those books where you know something is coming but it manages to surprise you all the same.
So good! Really interesting story telling and immersive world. The ending was okay but everything else was great! Some big words was using the dictionary a lot with this one.
Books in SPAAAAAACE 💫
1. ✨ D R A M A ✨ If it‘s not giving me the same level of drama as watching a soap opera with my grandma when I was little, it‘s just sparkling sci fi.
2. Done! On my #NewYearWhoDis list, just waiting for the hold to come in!
3. What‘s the planet where it rains diamonds? I think it‘s Neptune. 🚀
#SundayFunday Have an out of this world day, and don‘t forget to tag me!
Another recent book buy that‘s on my TBR now. So many books, not enough time!! 🤗
pickAn inexperienced ambassador from a backwater station is posted to the glittering seat of Teixcalaan. Political intrigue, a potential friend in a court that considers her, at best, a barbarian, and the unreliable voice of the past ambassador in her head. She may have even been set up to fail by her own people. A story of identity on many levels: personal, cultural, and political.
Full review at https://lamp.works/bwl?s=B07C7BCB88
#sciencefiction
pickA great space opera that won Hugo Award in 2020 about an ambassador from a small station to the Teixcalaan empire, caught in the middle of the empire's succession crisis. I really enjoyed Arkadi Martine's writing and while it doesn't mean anything about her craft, I was happy to hear she is married with Vivian Shaw, another author I like a lot, of the Greta Helsing series. A definite pick!
And with this I get my #BookSpinBingo for this month!
pickLibby has been such a great resource- I started with the ebook switched to the audio book when my loan ran out : glad I did because I had a hard time pronouncing a lot of the words . This is a truly enjoyable science fiction story. Great world building, interesting story . Recommended to anyone who loves Ann Leckie‘s Ancillary Justice trilogy
pickThis is thoroughly enjoyable. I love a good space adventure.
#BookSpinBingo square 7
@TheAromaofBooks
Taking a page out of @SilverShanica ‘s book and sharing a random book from my TBR pile. What a great way for me to get back into posting after a 2 year hiatus. Day 1. #tbrpile
pickFantastic book! A great page turner and a detailed universe! Already ordered book 2!
pickI started this after a year, because I was worried it might not be my thing. I shouldn't have worried, I couldn't put it down! The story follows a new ambassador to a big empire, where she tries to find out what happened to her predecessor. She's clearly the center of the story, in contrast to many other scifi books with multiple povs and a much wider scope (which doesn't mean that the world building is bad! I'm just a character driven reader).
pickA Memory of Empire has top notch political intrigue, neural implants, fantastic world building and a world consuming empire at the center of it all. This was a hard one to put down. It feels both smart and easily digestible. While it doesn‘t reach the stratospheric heights of The Light Brigade it is a fantastic book all the same and I‘ll soon be getting my hands on the next one by Arkady Martine
Birthday Book Haul #3!!!
My fiance went way overboard and got me soooo many books! 😍 Plus Aziraphale! I don't even know where to start! 💕📚
#birthdaybookhaul #bookhaul
pickMahit is a young diplomat sent to the capital of a vast and omnivorous empire, tasked with protecting the independence of her remote home system. Caught up in palace intrigue and elaborate plots, Mahit must avoid her predecessor's fate while balancing her love for the seductive allure of imperial culture with her duty to her home. Loved the world-building and looking forward to the next book!
pickAs a Space Opera that combines palace/political intrigue with a stranger in a strange land tale, this book is extremely my jam. Martine trained as a historian and it shows, as the empire of the title echoes both Byzantium (her area) & the pre-Colombian Aztec empires. The pacing drags at times but there are plenty of big ideas and fascinating details* to carry the reader through. Looking forward to the sequel!
pickIntricate plotting, rich world building, & fascinating, complicated queer characters—this sci-fi #audiobook read by Amy Landon kept me awake late into the night. It‘s almost too obvious to compare it to Ann Leckie‘s Imperial Radch trilogy, since a blurb from Leckie graces the cover of some editions, but if you like stories of an amazing, queer, lone representative from elsewhere embroiled in political intrigue, both authors will appeal. #LGBTQ
“Three Seagrass said, perfectly metrical, ‘The honour of meeting you in person is like stumbling on a fresh spring in the mountains,‘ which had to be an allusion, if not an outright quotation.”
I‘m getting Tale of Genji flashbacks in the way poetry plays a central role in the alien culture depicted in this science fiction novel.
pickFinally finished this book for #bbbbc and answered @InLibrisVeritas questions over on her posts.
Loved this book so much! Took me forever, but it was so worth it. The world building, the echoes of Aztec culture, the ideas of personality and memory and how they can be saved and integrated for future generations. So many thought provoking ideas here that I‘m still working through. I‘ll definitely read the second book.
The final set of questions are up!
Please feel free to answer here or on your own posts using the tag #BBBBC! Also feel free to ask your own questions!
#scififantasybookclub
#BBBBC
Here are the first set of discussion questions!! Please feel free to answer here or in your own posts, make you use the group tag so we can stop by!
If you have any questions you would like answered by the group as a whole feel free to post those a well! More questions will be posted tomorrow. If you did not read the book or do not wish to join the dicussuon, let me know and I will make sure not to tag you tomorrow and Wed.
#bookclub
Hey guys! Just wanted to do a quick update just in case the dicussion came a bit late! #BBBBC #scififantasybookclub
My brother is doing alright and has had a mild case so far. He is getting tested again soon as it seems he is on the other side.
#wintergames2020 Week 4 Total: 230 + 4,090 word game = 4,320 points #teamreadnosedreindeer
Thank goodness for this week‘s game which was a ton of fun!
Very little reading time. Finished 3 stories in the Romancing Wisconsin series - fast, fun reads. Continued making progress on buddy reads.
Watched 2 seasons of Home for Christmas - highly recommend!
Watched 4 movies: Godmothered is really good, Arthur Christmas is always fun, other 2 were meh 😕
pickAn interesting concept, how memory and personality are tied together. A rather good space opera. I enjoyed reading this book and will definitely get the sequel once it comes out.
There are so many books I need/want to finish this year.
#BookSpin - Silent Night
#BBBBC - tagged book
#Booked2020 - Iron Hunt (bottom of my TBR which is why I haven‘t read it yet 😂)
#LMPBC - Entwined
And one more Christmas read with Jane Austen
If I finish 4 of those specific books I can potentially get 3 bingos! So we‘ll see. I‘m also hoping to get to When No One is Watching but I might have to push it to January.
#DashingDecember
pickWhat a fabulous adventure! ❤️ This story swept me through a sci-fi version of the Aztec Empire with them as the colonialists. Told from the point of view of an ambassador from a small space station community, I was immersed in this new world and a political uprising. Absolutely engrossing!
pickWhile simple in structure, “A Memory Called Empire” is narratively complex and loads of fun to read. I really enjoyed many of the plot devices (e.g. imagos). I also loved digging into Martine‘s beliefs about personal identity which are embedded throughout the story. Suffice it to say that I am ready for the second book in the series (due out in March).
Hey @InLibrisVeritas the book for the #BBBBC read for November and December is on sale on Kindle in the US today! So if anyone is interested and hasn‘t been able to get it yet, today‘s the day!
pickThe Aztec Empire in space! I love political sci-fi and this book was full of crafty manoeuvrings, double-crossing, and unreliable allies. It‘s about colonisation, cultural domination, and dividing the world into ‘citizens‘ and ‘barbarians‘. It‘s also a damn good story!
#30daysofgratitude Day 3 🙏 Today I‘m grateful for this little monster. I‘m not sure who‘s adopted who, but she waits for me outside my condo every morning to demand fusses. @jb72
Reading Envy Podcast Episode 204: BookTube Season with Scott
While a lot of readers have struggled during the pandemic, Scott had a reading breakthrough this past year. We talk about BookTube, places for readalongs, and books we've read and liked recently.
https://tinyurl.com/ReadingEnvy204
