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Teixcalaan #2
by Arkady Martine
A Desolation Called Peace is the spectacular space opera sequel to Arkady Martine's genre-reinventing, Hugo Award-winning debut, A Memory Called Empire.
An alien armada lurks on the edges of Teixcalaanli space. No one can communicate with it, no one can destroy it, and Fleet Captain Nine Hibiscus is running out of options.
In a desperate attempt at diplomacy with the mysterious invaders, the fleet captain has sent for a diplomatic envoy. Now Mahit Dzmare and Three Seagrass―still reeling from the recent upheaval in the Empire―face the impossible task of trying to communicate with a hostile entity.
Their failure will guarantee millions of deaths in an endless war. Their success might prevent Teixcalaan's destruction―and allow the empire to continue its rapacious expansion.
Or it might create something far stranger...
1000 Books February 2026 Read: The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
Hugo Award Winners since 2016, but I haven't read any of these books. Proceed with caution! (Year, author, title) 2016 Jemisin. The Fifth Season 2017 Jemisin. The Obelisk Gate 2018 Jemisin. The Stone Sky (I sense a great author here! Also known for The Broken Earth series, of which some of the ab...
-NanK
Hugo Awards, 2022
"[E]xhilarating...Martine's aliens are viscerally unsettling and utterly believable, and she deploys them masterfully to underscore themes of colonization, assimilation, and cultural violence. This complex, stunning space opera promises to reshape the genre." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Martine weaves a dramatic and suspenseful story of political intrigue and alien first contact...each character is rendered in exquisite detail." - Booklist (starred review)
"This follow-up to Martine's debut, A Memory Called Empire, contains beautiful prose and complex worldbuilding that will immerse readers in a dazzling story of alien contact and colonization." - Library Journal
This information about A Desolation Called Peace was first featured
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Arkady Martine (she/her) is the Hugo Award-winning author of A Memory Called Empire. She is a speculative fiction writer and, as Dr. AnnaLinden Weller, a historian of the Byzantine Empire and a city planner. She is currently a policy advisor for the New Mexico Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department, where she works on climate change mitigation, energy grid modernization, and resiliency planning. Under both names, she writes about border politics, rhetoric, propaganda, and the edges of the world. Arkady grew up in New York City and, after some time in Turkey, Canada, and Sweden, and Baltimore, lives in Santa Fe with her wife, the author Vivian Shaw.
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