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Kiki's Reviews > A Memory Called Empire
A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan, #1)
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I've attempted to read this book three times. Once, I came close to finishing it, but it feels disingenuous to say that, because I did not come "close" to "finishing it" so much as I moved my eyes over the text sequentially until I reached a page that was reasonably close to the final one. Note that I did also attempt to listen to the audiobook, and I couldn't get through that either.
I understand what this book is trying to do. I appreciate the nuanced discussions around identity and colonialism. But those conversations could have taken place in a lecture theatre, or in an academic text, or in an online thinkpiece. In my personal opinion, to which I am entitled, it doesn't work as narrative fiction. The author gets bogged down in this dense, impassable hedge of worldbuilding (which is riddled with inconsistencies; how on earth can an empire this sprawling and technologically advanced hinge on paper mail that is encrypted with poetry? And why are the imago machines not connected to some sort of cloud? That's basic technology that we have today, here on Earth) so much that she forgets to develop her characters beyond one or two basic traits. Even that's being charitable: Mahit has one trait, which is that she is enamoured of Teixcalaan. She wanders through this story like a ghost, formless, merely reacting to stimuli in order to nudge along the treacly plot, which is in itself not even remotely interesting. I am extremely sick of these incredibly phoned-in, poorly-plotted, toothless murder mysteries that have been crowding the market in SFF across the past few years. I love a good murder mystery, but if you're going to write one, please, for the love of god, explore the genre. Read a few thrillers. Look into some true crime. And recall that, in order for such a plot to work, the reader needs to actually care about the characters. Because these bland, joyless, dispirited people chasing ghosts in this clinical, over-explained world did absolutely nothing for me. Three times over.
FIN
I understand what this book is trying to do. I appreciate the nuanced discussions around identity and colonialism. But those conversations could have taken place in a lecture theatre, or in an academic text, or in an online thinkpiece. In my personal opinion, to which I am entitled, it doesn't work as narrative fiction. The author gets bogged down in this dense, impassable hedge of worldbuilding (which is riddled with inconsistencies; how on earth can an empire this sprawling and technologically advanced hinge on paper mail that is encrypted with poetry? And why are the imago machines not connected to some sort of cloud? That's basic technology that we have today, here on Earth) so much that she forgets to develop her characters beyond one or two basic traits. Even that's being charitable: Mahit has one trait, which is that she is enamoured of Teixcalaan. She wanders through this story like a ghost, formless, merely reacting to stimuli in order to nudge along the treacly plot, which is in itself not even remotely interesting. I am extremely sick of these incredibly phoned-in, poorly-plotted, toothless murder mysteries that have been crowding the market in SFF across the past few years. I love a good murder mystery, but if you're going to write one, please, for the love of god, explore the genre. Read a few thrillers. Look into some true crime. And recall that, in order for such a plot to work, the reader needs to actually care about the characters. Because these bland, joyless, dispirited people chasing ghosts in this clinical, over-explained world did absolutely nothing for me. Three times over.
FIN
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Reading Progress
July 16, 2019
– Shelved
July 16, 2019
– Shelved as:
to-read
February 14, 2020
–
Started Reading
February 14, 2020
–
35.0%
"I don’t know how much more of this I can bear. Someone please tell me if this gets better. Really well written book but hideously slow, and the overdone worldbuilding completely overshadows any semblance of plot or character. Less time spent picking apart the minutiae of porridge and more time actually telling a story would help."
February 15, 2020
–
36.0%
"The thing about this book is that even though it’s so overwritten and stodgy, it’s not as boring as it could be, mostly because the prose is so good and the aesthetic of the worldbuilding is so pretty. But the logic gaps are just INSANE. Where do you even begin with an advanced interstellar empire that still hands out PAPER MAIL??!!!???"
February 15, 2020
–
37.0%
"It also continually amazes me that Mahit witnessed a terrorist bombing so closely that there was someone else’s blood on her face, and yet she doesn’t seem affected by it at all?? She mentions it in passing once or twice in relation to something else, but it’s as if it’s no big deal, which is so weird and icky to me"
February 15, 2020
– Shelved as:
i-am-but-a-mortal-woman
February 17, 2020
– Shelved as:
adult
February 17, 2020
– Shelved as:
could-have-been-worse
February 17, 2020
– Shelved as:
meh
February 17, 2023
– Shelved as:
sci-fi
February 17, 2023
– Shelved as:
masochism
February 17, 2023
– Shelved as:
lgbt
February 17, 2023
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-5 of 5 (5 new)
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message 1:
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MariaR
(new)
Feb 21, 2023 04:17AM
you're really dedicated to make so many attempts 😀
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It’s won a bunch of awards and seems pretty well-loved, so I wanted to know what all the fuss was about! In the end it just really wasn’t for me.
You perfectly encapsulated my own feelings about this wooden, and surprisingly amateurish, misfire of a book. The only good thing about this was the gorgeous, gorgeous book cover. The near universal praise this story received baffled me then, and continues to baffles me now.
Same. I really wanted to like this book. The world building is great but it takes forever for anything to happen. And as you say, the characters are not well developed
"I moved my eyes over the page" described my experience as well. My eyes were glazing over and I wanted to ike it because aliens and poetry. But it felt like the author was just shoving her unedited draft in my face. Everything was too long and dull.
