Book 44: A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

This book is basically what you get if you combine a space opera with the bureaucracy of the Byzantium Empire, and use that as a vehicle for examining how we build and tell and internalize the cultural stories of empires. It is full of court intrigue, with missing information in a much more literal sense than we often get from these kinds of stories. Our protagonist is the classic fish out of water, a new ambassador to the City from a small outpost, who is underprepared for this post and also has a secret she's trying to keep while navigating a world she doesn't quite know what to do with. But she's done the homework she's supposed to do; if anything, she's a fan of this empire, and has internalized so much of what it finds valuable. But she still exists outside of it, no matter how well she knows the ancient poetry. I really loved this book and the themes it explores, and how there are no easy answers for any of the questions it poses about culture.

Grade: A