A Desolation Called Peace
Sequel to A Memory Called Empire. An alien armada lurks on the edges of Teixcalaanli space. No one can communicate with it, no one can destroy it, and Fleet Captain Nine Hibiscus is running out of options. In a desperate attempt at diplomacy with the mysterious invaders, the fleet captain has sent for a diplomatic envoy. Now Mahit Dzmare and Three Seagrass—still reeling from the recent upheaval in the Empire—face the impossible task of trying to communicate with a hostile entity. Whether they succeed or fail could change the fate of Teixcalaan forever.
Stats for nerds
8recommend
15mentions
12people
2021–2026years
67% recommend13% neutral20% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I'm reading A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine, it's the sequel to A Memory Called Empire. I'm enjoying it!
- I don't know what sales numbers look like, but from my perspective as a casual reader who's been trying to keep up with Hugo Award nominees of recent years... science fiction may not be trendy on BookTok, but it's far from dead.
Sure, fantasy has "corrupted" the Hugos, but there's plenty of hard science fiction, and science fiction that grapples with societal questions at large. Arkady Martine's Memory Called Empire and Desolation Called Peace, both Hugo winners, are incredibly thoughtful depictions of societies on the verge of disruption from new technology. Ryka Aoki's Light From Uncommon Stars, a 2022 Hugo nominee, while somewhat of a sci-fi-fantasy genre crossover, is both harrowing and exhilarating in its discussion of gender through a speculative lens (content warnings apply).
If you're looking for whether innovative science fiction is being adapted into popular media - the Three Body Problem (2015 Hugo winner) and the Murderbot series (won the Hugo most recently in 2021) are both being adapted. Andy Weir's post-Martian works continue to be hyped, if not quite adapted yet. The fanbase for Tamsyn Muir's Ninth series is rabid in the best possible way - and while ostensibly centered on necromancy, it's remarkably high in sci-fi hardness.
And outside of traditional publishing - democratized writing challenges like https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/, genre-crossing serial sci-fi like the works of Wildbow, and fanfiction in general (I continue to follow and adore the To The Stars, a Madoka fanfic which juxtaposes magic with a spacefaring future humanity, with masterful worldbuilding) continue to thrive.
Traditional publishing houses may indeed be in crisis, but contrary to the original article's assertion, there is no shortage of ideas.
- FWIW, A Desolation Called Peace is one of my favorite SF books I've read in the last 10 years. I really enjoy that series.
I like Project Hail Mary, too, and it's certainly more popular because the author is far more well known, but there's no question in my mind which one is "better", certainly in terms of deserving to win an award.
- A couple of my favorites from this year, I read a lot (50 to 100 a year)
Fiction:
- What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver
- Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky
- A Man with One of Those Faces by Caimh Mcdonnell
- Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
- A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine
- Antimatter Blues by Edward Ashton
- Where the Body Was by Ed Brubaker and Sean Philips
Nonfiction:
- Exiles by Preston Sprinkle
- Jesus and the Powers by N. T. Wright & Michael F. Bird
- With All Its Teeth by Joshua S. Porter
- In Praise of Shadows by Junichiro Tanizaki
- A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz
Copenhagen(play) by Michael Frayn done by BBC Radio, not really a book, but it's great. https://archive.org/details/michael-frayn-copenhagen
- I also read A Tale of Love and Darkness this year, it was great.
And A Desolation Called Peace, or really that series, is one of my favorite SF reads of the last 10 years, I've recommended it often.
- A Memory Called Empire and A Desolation Called Peace are two of the best SF books I've read in the last 10 years. I loved them.
Three-Body problem is one of the greatest SF books of all time, IMO.
