Chloe McDermott

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine continues on from her first novel A Memory Called Empire. This time following Mahit Dzmare into space where she’s been tasked with making first contact with an alien species. An alien species that seems hell bent on destruction and cannot be understood by any human language.

This book does a great job of expanding further on the themes brought up in the first one. Those being what it is like to be in love with a culture consuming yours, fetishisation by an oppressive power and how war effects everyone.

Often this writer excels at exploring these themes – as she did in the first book – with complex characterisation and character interaction. For example, a scene between the main character and her love interest devolves into a lover’s tiff. Yet, bubbling under the surface of this argument is something far deeper. The argument is really about the complications of forming a romantic relationship when only one of you come from the privileged background. How even if they don’t mean it, they will sometimes hurt you in ways that remind you that they are the ones with power. It is this consistent ability to explore themes through engaging character dialogue that makes it such a thought provoking read.

On top of this Martine has chosen to make a rather bold decision to change up the format in the second book. She done this by flipping between a cast of characters rather than simply our main character, Mahit. She can manage all of these unique character voices with ease. This was a little hard to get used to and at first, I had concerns this would become distracting but trust me it actually works really well for the story being told. It shows her further development as a skilled writer that with her second book she was able to find a distinctive voice for each character. One of the new characters heavily featured in this book is the heir to the empire Eight Antidote is a shinning example of this skill as the writer can absolutely nail the balance of immaturity and embarrassment at his immaturity. He is often placed in adult situations, and we see him want to take part. We see his want to impress the adults around him. This feels very relatable to me at a similar age. Writing a child with such accuracy is not easy and Martine deserves much credit for capturing his voice so well.

The author often uses language to explore the question: what is considered civilised and what is not? The Aliens for example have no language. They use scream like noises to communicate to other species but can communicate in other non-vocal ways amongst themselves. In the scenes where we are trying to understand these aliens and thus attempt to prevent a war it gave me major Doctor Who vibes.

The inherent tension of trying to prevent trigger happy people from starting a war with something they do not understand matched with anti-military sentiment. After meeting the Aliens for the first time you feel like you’re simply waiting for all of the different characters to catch up to the fact these aliens can in fact be communicated and reasoned with. Therefore, it is possible to put a quick end to the war if they are willing to put in the work. This tension of waiting for them to catch up or snap by doing something rash hooks you in.

Along with the writer’s ability to build tension she also uses a lot of vivid imagery throughout the story. Most often when describing places through the eyes of different characters. Often, they have very different perspectives of the same place. Like when Mahit is back in Lsel Station she views it with some comfort familiarity. Yet, Three Seagrass sees it as new, strange and cold. She often captures a captivating atmosphere.

Overall, this book does an extremely good job of finishing off this story. It is a book with deeply rich themes, great characterisation and a well-paced plot. It is just as good if not better than the first one. It is definitely worth your time to read or listen to.