This book is dedicated to anyone who has ever fallen in love with a culture that was devouring their own.

So basically: an empire of Space Aztecs with funny Number Thing names and a proclivity towards politics and poetry (and especially political poetry)–

The Empire, the world. One and the same. And if they were not yet so: make them so, for this is the right and correct will of the stars.

–and a new Ambassador who should have memories of her maybe murdered predecessor to help her out… and doesn’t.

Our memory is a more perfect world than the universe; it gives life back to those who no longer exist.

Things, of course, get messy.

It’s a crazy sort of book, chock full of some takes on the ‘barbarian’ in a civilized land, the politics and political instabilities of empires, and a bunch of surprisingly touching moments about humanity and what it means to be ‘you’.

On a potential downside, it’s slow, even in the midst of growing upheaval and unrest. There’s an awful lot of dialog and a bit less really digging into how the imago tech or the Teixcalaanli Empire actually worked. And … there might be aliens?

Despite all that–or for some readers, because of it–I really did enjoy this book. I’m curious how the sequel will go. Onwards!