Mostly Murders

There was nothing safe; there were only gradations of exposure to danger.

Mahit Dzmare is the newly appointed ambassador to the Teixcalaanli Empire. Coming from a small, independent mining Station, Mahit’s diplomatic mission is to try to ensure that the Empire allows the Station to continue to stay independent while still allowing for trade and travel between them.

But Mahit has a problem. Her predecessor was murdered while serving as ambassador for the Empire, and her imago, the name for Station-exclusive technology allowing for a person’s knowledge and memories to be integrated into someone else’s mind, is malfunctioning. Alone, on a foreign planet surrounded by strangers who see her as a barbarian, Mahit has to navigate the treacherous court politics of the Empire, while trying to solve the murder of her predecessor and make sure she doesn’t end up as yet another dead barbarian ambassador.

A Memory Called Empire delves deep into themes of colonialism and identity. It is a view of colonialism seen not through the lens of hate or fear, but from the point of view of someone who is enamoured with the culture of the Empire threatening to swallow up her home Station. Mahit has grown up admiring the Empire, and its poetry, resources and splendour are both attracting and repelling her. She is an outsider, a noncitizen, ashamed of her “barbarian” identity, and torn between admiring Empire and feeling ashamed of herself for being ashamed of being a simple stationer.

Poetry, and the way an Empire can frame its oppression and conquest through linguistic means, is another key theme of this novel. Flowery adjectives, ambiguity and double meanings are ways in which the Empire justifies, skews and establishes world views and political agendas. It is powerful, sophisticated and a very efficient way of establishing a “them” and “us” distinction of the galaxy into Empire and those who are yet to be subjugated and assimilated.

A great sci-fi mystery with big, powerful themes, linguistic determinism, slow-burn romance, and subtle humour, asking a poignant question. Is it worth it to get something you’ve always dreamed of, if you have to lose yourself in the process?

Science fiction – Space opera