A Memory Called Empire

An ambassador from a small independent station arrives at the capital of an empire that runs on poetry, carrying an implant that should hold her predecessor’s memories and personality — except the version she was given is fifteen years out of date, and he is dead. It won the 2020 Hugo Award for Best Novel. Martine is a Byzantine historian, and the book is about the specific problem of a small polity keeping its independence from a culture so attractive that assimilation feels like promotion.

Context: B tier, “also worth reading,” volume one of the Teixcalaan entry. a16z’s read is that the tech is not the novel part — the themes are culture, identity and the use of language, “an empire that runs on poetry” — plus, they note, an uncomfortably realistic depiction of what an overflowing inbox does to a person.

Connections

• a16z Infra Reading List — the list this came from.
• Arkady Martine — the author, a historian of Byzantium.
• A Desolation Called Peace — volume two.
• Memory — the imago implant, and the book’s title.
• Identity — what the implant costs.
• Power — empire as attraction rather than force.
• Science Fiction — the genre page.