A Desolation Called Peace

As someone who has spent most of his life immersed in other cultures, speaking and thinking in a language that I love but that's not my own, Mahid's sens of not-belonging resonated well with me. She and all the other major characters were well realized, and had complex interior lives that made this book very enjoyable.

If I am not mistaken, “They should have sent a poet” is a quote from Contact, which is very fitting because this book deals with a very unusual first contact scenario, so much of Teixcalaan culture revolves around poetry, and because Martine writes beautifully.

The spin on the alien hive-mind is what elevates this book to five stars for me, the parallels to Lsel's imago technology and the empire's Sunlit and Shard pilots were wonderfully drawn.

A worthy successor to what was a spectacular first book in this series.