A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

Review Part One

Originally published on February 24th, 2021 on Instagram.

Arkady Martine starts building on the themes of her story even before the masterfully painted opening pages of her Prelude. Indeed, it is in the book's dedication that the true heart of the story is revealed, and Arkady Martine chooses to dedicate her novel to anyone who is in love with a culture that is devouring their own. She then proceeds to, with every page of her story, breathe life into a rich and intricate culture with thousands of years of history, a culture that is as beautiful as it is xenophobic, and one that uses its xenophobia as a tool of its never-ending conquest.

The Teixcaalan empire considers all that are outside its borders to be barbaric and it prides itself on bringing culture and civilization to all the places it conquers.

After her predecessor gets murdered, Mahit Dzmare must become the new ambassador to the hungry empire as it looms threateningly at the edge of her station's space. Equipped only with her predecessor's out-of-date memory built into her using her station's secret and proprietary technology, Mahit leaves for the city-planet in the heart of the empire.

The empire is hostile and encroaching, and nothing it touches remains itself, and Mahit Dzmare must steer the course of its expansion away from her station using whatever means necessary.

But the empire is also intoxicating, it is the home to poets who weave stories of its glorious conquests and beaming architecture and it is also the centre of civilization, and Mahit Dzmare has dreamt all her life of one day becoming a citizen of the empire.

Mahit Dzmare must not only navigate the duplicitous waters of diplomacy in a court where everyone is trying to use her for their own plots and intrigues but also her own experience and identity in the empire that refuses to see her as anything other than a barbarian. There is deep poetry in her intimate experience, and it makes reading this book achingly beautiful.

Review Part Two

Originally published on February 26th, 2021 on Instagram.

A Memory Called Empire shares a lot of its DNA with the works of classic sci-fi such as Dune or Foundation series. Arkady Martine uses the almost scientific speculative process of these giants of the genre and adds her own modern, character-focused twist.

With no planet of its own, the colony of Lsel Station mines the nearby uninhabitable planets for metals that they trade for other resources. But much more interesting is their proprietary imago technology which they keep secret. It allows for a tiny implant to be surgically placed into a person's spinal cord in order to create an image of that person. When the person dies or retires, the implant with their personality is given to their successor, and their two personalities begin to meld together as the new person learns and grows from their predecessor's experiences. This process has many implications in the world Martine has built, from the simple fact that psychotherapy and neurosurgery are very advanced on Lsel Station, to the more fundamental aspect of informing us of the station's system of values.

With no planet of its own, the station is limited in both resources and workforce. As such, its people waste nothing. Simply put, to them, human experience is irreplaceable, and imago technology is the key product of that philosophy.

And this is where A Memory Called Empire shines. More than intrigues, more than politics, this book is about values, and it is about questioning those values—their nature, what they represent, and when they are no longer useful. Mahit Dzmare questions these things throughout the book. What is personality? Is it the sum of all our experiences, our skills, and our muscle memory, or our endocrine system responses to outside stimuli? Is it all of that combined and if so to what degree?

This is what I had hoped for with this book and why I love it! This is, in my opinion, aside from all the whacky ideas that it can pull off, something that science fiction does best. It takes a concept and creates a universe of a laboratory around it to examine it further.