Published in the English language in 2021 by American historian AnnaLinden Weller under her pen name Arkady Martine, A Desolation Called Peace is the second and final novel of the Teixcalaan duology of speculative fiction, following A Memory Called Empire. The title is a reference to Tacitus' quote in his Agricola, attributed to the Caledonian leader Calgacus, regarding the empire of ancient Rome: "Robbery, poverty, and slaughter, they falsely call an empire. They create desolation and call it peace."
This novel continues to follow Ambassador Mahit of Lsel Station, Three Seagrass, and Yskandr, in their efforts to navigate empire politics. At the same time, there is a new alien threat on the horizon, and the ingenious military leader Nine Hibiscus (who may be a character allusion to Scipio Africanus) has been sent on a mission to investigate and confront the threat. Eight Antidote (his name likely a reference to the Buddhist concept of five faults and eight antidotes), the Emperor's child clone of himself, gets dangerously involved in political upheaval on the primary Teixcalaan empire-planet, and Nineteen Adze has to balance safeguarding him with her escalating administrative duties in the wake of the first novel.
A Desolation Called Peace continues to extend the first novel's themes of empire, annexation, assimilation into hegemony versus maintaining indigenous cultural identity, and differing concepts of the limits of "self" in a world where the mind can persist after death. The lesbian relationship between Mahit and her partner continues to be developed in this novel, presented with a refreshing matter-of-factness rarely seen even in science fiction, as Teixcalaan does not stigmatise same-sex relationships.
The recommendations previously given for A Memory Called Empire persist with A Desolation Called Peace, but the addition of a mysterious alien threat, using very different communication from ours, means that this novel may also appeal to those who enjoyed Peter Watts' Blindsight and Max Barry's Providence.
Iron Noder 2021, 7/30