BOOK REVIEW | A Desolation Called Peace

Cover of desolation called peace by Arcady Martine.

Introduction

This book won the Hugo award for best novel of 2022, as well as several other awards. It is Book 2 in a well done space opera, with a complex world-building (galaxy-building!) setting. If you enjoyed the first book, A Memory Called Empire, you will want to read this one as well, despite its slow start.

Summary of A Desolation Called Peace

An armada appears on the edges of space of the known empire. It is incommunicado, it is destroying ships, and none of the empire’s ships appear to be able to counterattack.

The fleet captain sense for a diplomatic envoy, and Mahit Dzmare and Three Seagrass (the protagonist and ally from the first volume) are tasked with trying to communicate with the aliens. How they investigate language, and the resulting discoveries about the aliens, could result in the destruction of the empire or the salvation of all.

This is an epic tale of first contact, diplomacy, politics, military maneuvering, along with some interesting characters and plot twists.

Review

The first chapter contains a tremendous amount of narration and thoughts or recitation about past events. Perhaps this is because the author is afraid a reader might read this book without reading the first one. It is true that the rule “show don’t tell” it’s not hard and fast, but this certainly goes way beyond. I found myself thinking frequently, “Let’s get on with it!”

When a scout ship returns early, coming in fast, the reader gets excited. Finally, some action. But the scene ends abruptly, and we switch to a different location and characters, which continue the same plodding narration. This probably would’ve been fine—even a good narrative device—if there hadn’t been so much narrative material before.

It is not until the last couple pages that it feels like we are suddenly into the story, with some elements of mystery and excitement in anticipation.

Some of this continues in the rest of the novel, though not as extensively. We are treated to lengthy sections of what a character is thinking, and much of it does not advance the plot or character development (more on the latter below). In my opinion, this would’ve been a much better novel if 30% of the internal monologue was deleted. Or at least a brief summary. Often it was as if someone were telling me what had happened before, or what a person was thinking, yet had a little to do with anything I needed to know.

We know the protagonist from the previous novel, and she is basically the same here. There is not a lot of growth in any of the characters in this novel. The interest and excitement comes from the mystery of the aliens, the techniques and epiphanies used to learn to communicate, and the resulting issues.

The characters are problematic as well. They are full but rather flat. Brusque military commanders who only care about victory, and bigotry between planetary races, and a pointless lesbian love affair involving the protagonist. Occasionally, characters do things that don’t make sense based on their positions and titles. The future emperor, eight antidote, is an 11-year-old who sometimes seems like a big baby, and at other times might be precocious. It felt to me like the author doesn’t remember what it’s like to be an 11-year-old.

The main character also struggles with some of her own issues, much based on what happened to her in the first volume. Yet she doesn’t really learn anything or get better (or worse). I would have liked to have seen these issues connected with the main plot of the article, but they really aren’t. Just a side issue that Mahit deals with as she tries to save the Empire.

These issues could doom most novels. But the world of space politics, intrigue, and first contact issues are so well done, and the plot moves the story forward (aside from the first chapter and later sections), made this story interesting. Despite my initial dismay, I found myself intrigued by the story itself, but I didn’t want to stop reading.

These issues did not exist in the first volume, although there was some “telling not showing,” but it was necessary to help the reader understand the characters in the world that Martine has built.

Recommendation: A Desolation Called Peace

I recommend this book if you really loved the first one, only because it is a sequel, and it does add more to the story of Mahit and the universe she inhabits. It is also a Hugo award-winning novel, so for those who want to keep up on the award winners, you will want to read it.

But I suspect if you enjoyed the first book, you will find this one merely serviceable as a nice space opera.