I enjoyed A Memory Called Empire so much that I couldn’t wait to read this one, so I didn’t.
It’s just as much fun as the prequel with all my favorite characters. This is a completely different story, but you definitely have to read A Memory Called Empire in order to understand what’s happening in this book.
Speaking of which, this review will absolutely contain spoilers for A Memory Called Empire, so consider this your SPOILER ALERT.
It takes place three months after the first book ends. Mahit is back on Lsel Station, but that doesn’t mean she’s safe.
She now knows Amnardbat is the one who sabotaged her imago. She doesn’t know why, but she knows that, if she lets them access her imago, it’s all over.
She has to figure out a way to prevent that from happening, which gets a lot harder when Amnardbat orders her to have her memories uploaded by the end of the week.
Fortunately, that’s when Three Seagrass shows up saying she needs Mahit for an important diplomatic mission. Mahit is still the Lsel Ambassador to Teixcalaan, so there is some basis for the request, but it’s still more of an excuse for Three Seagrass to see her crush than because she really needs her for this particular mission.
In the meantime, Mahit has managed to get another Lsel councilor to side with her against Amnardbat, but only on the condition that she sabotage Three Seagrass’s mission.
Said mission is to try to talk to some aliens who made a few brief appearances in A Memory Called Empire. Teixcalaan agreed to let Lsel have its independence on the condition that they get to use Lsel’s jumpgate to travel between Teixcalaan and the edges of the empire where these aliens are attacking.
But the aliens are getting closer and Lsel would really like to keep Teixcalaan busy with the aliens so that both the empire and the aliens will leave them alone.
Meanwhile, Nine Hibiscus, a general leading the Teixcalaan defense against the aliens is fighting multiple battles at once — literally and figuratively.
The aliens seemingly come out of nowhere and eat ships and their inhabitants slowly and painfully.
Of course everyone around her thinks she should retaliate, but the empire’s policy is to attempt diplomacy first and only resort to violence if diplomacy fails.
Then there’s the fact that she’s only just been made a general and she’s already facing a coup within her own ranks.
When Three Seagrass finally shows up with Mahit, Nine Hibiscus loses no time in telling them what she needs and how this is going to work.
Nine Hibiscus and her communications manager managed to use images to communicate with the aliens and arrange a time and place to meet up on a nearby planet for negotiations.
The task Mahit and Three Seagrass are facing is to try to understand the alien’s language enough that they can negotiate a cease fire.
Mahit and Three Seagrass always work well together, but their relationship is complicated by their differences in status.
Mahit has always loved Teixcalaan language and culture and longs to be a part of it, but knows she never can. No matter how well she knows the language or recites poetry or references Teixcalaan dramas, they will never accept her as one of their own.
Three Seagrass knows this, but doesn’t really understand how it affects Mahit mentally and emotionally.
She also doesn’t consider what it means for her to appear out of nowhere and “ask” Mahit to join her on this mission.
Yes, she technically phrased it as a question, and as a result, convinces herself that Mahit had the option to refuse.
But of course the ambassador of a space station can’t refuse a “request” from a representative of the galaxy’s biggest empire. It’s an order, whether phrased as one or not.
Mahit and Three Seagrass fight about this, and then they have makeup sex, and through some more events, Three Seagrass starts to become aware of where she went wrong.
As a hopeless romantic, I wish Three Seagrass and Mahit had ended up together, but narratively, I kind of like that Martine gave us an ending that wasn’t quite what I had expected.
That said, it is super sad because, by the time Three Seagrass realizes all this, the aliens have destroyed Lsel Station, which has been evacuated, and Mahit has been exiled from wherever they end up because she refused to sabotage the mission.
She chooses not to return to Teixcalaan with Three Seagrass, so it’s not clear where she’ll end up.
I really wish there were more books in this series because I would love to spend more time with these characters!