A Desolation Called Peace

Overview: An expertly written book that challenges conceptions of identity and otherness while managing to to be gripping, moving with utterly beautiful use of language.

Thoughts: Ms Martine's debut novel utterly blew me away, combining the literary skill of a poet with the best traditions of Science Fiction, and (in my humble opinion) pushing the genre into the ‘next level'. I considered it the best novel of the year, and I was clearly not alone as it went on to rightfully be nominated for numerous awards and won the prestigious Hugo Award for Best Novel.

I was a little cautious and restrained myself from dancing in the street at the discovery of a literary genius. This was after all a debut novel and it might be a fluke. I reserved judgement until I could read at least one more novel.

Now I have read A Desolation Called Peace and it is good.

Ms Martine manages to easily hit my five key points for a great novel:
• Characters you care about.
• A fascinating setting you want to explore.
• A plot that makes you desperate to find out what happens next.
• A deeper question that leaves you pondering.
• Good use of descriptive, memorable language.

Ms Martine gets an absolute full five stars for each of these criteria.

To be utterly frank I'm not sure I'm able to explain how I feel about this novel.

Having read both novels back to back I'm deeply moved and left pondering the central question (“How broad is your definition of ‘we'?”).

As a sign of a good story I'm already missing the fascinating setting wondering how Teixcalaan will be affected by exposure to the group mind civilisation, and how Lsel will be affected by the trauma of near extinction at hands of the three ringed vessels and the central characters I'm desperate to see how Mahit and Reed's relationship pans out (I'm a softy - they should be together!) and how Mahit will react to exile. To be quite frank I really feel for Nine Hibiscus loosing Swarm, at least as the individual in the way she knew him. Also Eight Antidote is turning into a great character, but I wonder how his "Shard Trick" experiences will change him.. I don't know if there will be another story in this series, but I would love to read more.