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Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover …
This book is dedicated to anyone who has ever fallen in love with a culture that was devouring their own (And for Grigor Pehlavuni and Petros Getadarj, across the centuries.)
— A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (Page 7)
this is such a good dedication for this book
Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover …
The problem with sending messages was that people responded to them, which meant one had to write more messages in reply.
— A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (Page 130)
Coder, décoder : un processus essentiel à la vie, à nos relations sociales, à nos …
I don't think I understood this one at all (at least partially because of language issues, but also does this ever have a lot of moving parts for a 25-page story)
Content warning thoughts on teixcalaanli succession laws
on the other hand, they claim to have been a stable empire for multiple thousands of years, so ig they have some way of dealing with that without too much instability and a year of five (or more) emperors every hundred years or so …
Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover …
Content warning thoughts on teixcalaanli succession laws
okay, so, i've not really thought about this before, but apparently one can become Emperor by being simply acclaimed by … one's soldiers? the people in general? (i don't think the protesters in plaza central seven are meant to be military?)
and sure, the general expectation is that this'll work out, and that one has enough military prestige that one either actually becomes emperor (is there any body deciding if an emperor is 'official'? i don't think one is mentioned?) or is defeated by whoever currently holds power.
… but like, this feels weird? like it feels like the lead-up to a crisis-of-the-3rd-century style empire fragmentation once the yaotleklim realise they can just have themselves be acclaimed emperor and try to take power, and that's an accepted mode to become the legitimate ruler that's not seen as even slightly iffy; Nineteen Adze says it's not even illegal to try. Like does this state just periodically fragment itself when multiple emperors can't defeat each other?
Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover …
Content warning Teixcalaanli reaction to imagos
i like how Twelve Azalea's immediate reaction is to assume the dead person takes over entirely. A neat bit to show how past-obsessed his culture is (& also a hint for later, of course)
Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover …
Content warning Nineteen Adze's epiphet
"whose gracious presence illuminates the room like the edgeshine of a knife"
turns out an adze is a cutting tool, so this isn't just a statement about her, it's also a pun, and i never realised before today
perhaps i should look up more of the less-obvious names? i bet there's more things like this
Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous …
Coder, décoder : un processus essentiel à la vie, à nos relations sociales, à nos …
This one's fun, and not too long. Also I'm jelous of the food now (it's about an alien species which mainly communicates through things humans can only perceive as taste, so 'talking' means 'creating elaborate dishes')
but also it ends so sad, and unrevokable? i like it though
Coder, décoder : un processus essentiel à la vie, à nos relations sociales, à nos …
have read a few of the novellas in here already, but mostly this has been lying around here.
iirc i mostly got it since more non-english fiction + a new story by Ada Palmer sounded appealing
@jana oh hm, wanted to start reading sth else, but now i'm kinda tempted to reread this again just so we can have conversations about it as we read?
Phileas Fogg, gentleman anglais, parie avec les membres de son club qu'il fera le tour …
I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought! It's a fun adventure story, and I think probably fits in a lot better with other 19th century adventure stories than it does with other science-fiction of the time, though it's also not as if they were too distinct back then. But while it does obviously focus on technology and how it has changed (and continues to change) the world, it's definitely meant as a realistic, contemporary (published as a serial in 1872, afaict with the dates in the story roughly matching with actual dates) story — e.g. at particularly desperate moment the idea of crossing an ocean by balloon shows up, but is dismissed immediately as undoable.
Definitely the best parts are when Verne pokes fun at the whole British-Empire-gentlemen culture and its absurdities. It's not in any way anti-imperialist, but ig it's refreshing to read this sentiment in …
I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought! It's a fun adventure story, and I think probably fits in a lot better with other 19th century adventure stories than it does with other science-fiction of the time, though it's also not as if they were too distinct back then. But while it does obviously focus on technology and how it has changed (and continues to change) the world, it's definitely meant as a realistic, contemporary (published as a serial in 1872, afaict with the dates in the story roughly matching with actual dates) story — e.g. at particularly desperate moment the idea of crossing an ocean by balloon shows up, but is dismissed immediately as undoable.
Definitely the best parts are when Verne pokes fun at the whole British-Empire-gentlemen culture and its absurdities. It's not in any way anti-imperialist, but ig it's refreshing to read this sentiment in "the other way", given how embedded making fun of frenchness often is in english culture and writing?
(also, since at some point i got asked: the voyage in the book is fictional, but apparently its popularity led to people actually trying this, and Nellie Bly did it in 72 days in 1890)
Oh also it's a product of its times, so expect racism and such, but tbh i have read much, much worse from this period, and in most of the chapters it's easy enough to ignore.
This edition contains only the story "Insert Knob A in Hole B," printed on a …
Jana shoved this at me. It's fun, but a little longer than it needs to be i think.
Phileas Fogg, gentleman anglais, parie avec les membres de son club qu'il fera le tour …
done! still think the best parts are whenever Verne can poke fun at Britian & its empire. The adventure stories are also fun to read, but well, they are 150 years old now, and not everything has aged well …
