A Memory Called Empire

Arkady Martine’s A Memory Called Empire was published in 2019 and is the first novel in a science-fiction series featuring the Teixcalaanli Empire. It has been translated into several languages—including Turkish, Czech, French, and Romanian—and won the 2020 Hugo Award for Best Novel and the Compton Crook Award for 2020. Arkady Martine, the pen name for Dr. Anna Linden Weller, is a historian of the Byzantine Empire and a city planner who serves as a policy advisor for the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department’s Office of the Secretary. Depicting a futuristic empire controlled by AI, A Memory Called Empire is a hybrid of science/dystopian fiction and historical fiction, reflecting Martine’s research on the Byzantine Empire (ca. 330 CE-1453 CE) and professional interests as a city planner. Emphasizing the role of memory in identity, the novel critiques imperialism, bureaucracy, and technology.

This guide refers to the 2020 paperback edition of A Memory Called Empire, published by Tor, an imprint of Pan Macmillan.

Content Warning: A Memory Called Empire depicts death, including death by ritual suicide, violent suppression of protest, and imperialism—as dehumanizing language is used against those targeted by the fictional Teixcalaanli Empire.

Plot Summary

A Memory Called Empire features a futuristic empire—the Teixcalaanli Empire—that consumes planets in an ever-expanding effort to “civilize” outer space. Each chapter opens with two epigraphs from documents—one from the Empire and one from Lsel Station—that expand the reader’s view of the culture surrounding the Empire and Lsel Station. To navigate the capital, the City, cultural liaisons or asekretim use cloudhooks—devices that fit over one’s eye, allowing them to watch media and access select spaces. An old empire, Teixcalaan brings these technological advances and the past together, as Teixcalaanli bureaucrats manage the Empire with memorized poetry from their storied past.

The novel opens with the Empire’s urgent request to replace the Lsel Station ambassador Yskandr Aghavn on the home world. Lsel Station, the focus of much of the novel’s intrigue, lies far from the center of the Empire, situated near a stargate that leads to alien civilizations. Governed by a council represented by pilots, miners, and Heritage, Lsel Station selects Mahit Dzmare as their new ambassador, who excels on aptitude tests for Teixcalaanli culture and literature. Being relatively small and distant from any planets, the space station has preserved their knowledge and memories for 14 generations using imago devices, a state secret. Controlled and guarded by Heritage, a group led by Aknel Amnardbat, these imago devices are placed at the base of the skull and supply memories from previous wielders. Former ambassador Yskandr’s imago device will provide Mahit with the necessary knowledge to navigate the City. However, Yskandr has not been to Lsel Station in 15 years, so his imago device only supplies Mahit with his first 5 years of ambassadorial experience.

Mahit arrives at the City, transported by the Ascension’s Red Harvest, a Teixcalaanli warship. Once she arrives, with her imago device only integrated with memories devoted to Teixcalaanli poetry, history, and customs, Mahit meets her assigned cultural liaison or asekreta—who works with the Ministry of Information. This liaison, Three Seagrass, offers protection from the City’s intrigue. Yskandr’s memory helps acclimate Manit to the City, though she doesn’t know Yskandr’s fate or why another ambassador was urgently requested. Soon, she and Three Seagrass visit the Judiciary, where they see Yskandr’s body. Mahit’s imago asks her to closely examine the body, and then malfunctions. The city ministers discuss the circumstances of Yskandr’s death and funeral arrangements. Mahit tells them that, on Lsel Station, they burn the dead and their loved ones eat the ashes. A friend of Three Seagrass, Twelve Azalea, tells Mahit that Yskandr died after dining with the Minister of Science, Ten Pearl.

At Mahit’s ambassadorial apartment, she and Three Seagrass open her mail, and their bond deepens. Twelve Azalea visits, telling them that he scanned Yskandr’s body and discovered metal in his brain. They all revisit the Judiciary to examine the body, and Mahit realizes Twelve Azalea found an imago device, which she can’t clarify due to secrecy. Interrupted by Nineteen Adze, a confidant or ezuazuacat to Emperor Six Direction, Mahit and the others lie, telling her that they’ve come to honor the dead. Nineteen Adze calls Yskandr her friend, leaving the trio more confused.

Recognizing that Yskandr’s death and her imago’s silence put her in danger, Mahit asks Three Seagrass to meet with Fifteen Engine, Yskandr’s former asekreta and a man potentially involved in insurrection. They have an awkward meal, made dangerous by a nearby explosion which kills Fifteen Engine and wounds Mahit. Three Seagrass attempts to spirit her away, but the AI systems that govern the City malfunction and hurt Three Seagrass. The Sunlit appear, and after much convincing, Mahit forces them to take her to Nineteen Adze’s apartment and Three Seagrass to a hospital. Nineteen Adze, offers Mahit and Three Seagrass sanctuary. Nineteen Adze knows about imago technology and attempts to talk to Yskandr, mistakenly believing that imago technology effectively captures his spirit. Mahit explains that imago technology doesn’t recreate the person, only their memories for utilitarian purposes.

Mahit and Three Seagrass go to a Palace banquet days later, with Three Seagrass helping her navigate it. She meets two of Emperor Six Direction’s three heirs: Thirty Larkspur and Eight Antidote, a ninety-percent clone of the Emperor in child form. As she drinks, Mahit encounters a follower of One Lightning, a general or yaotlek vying for power. Seemingly opposed to Thirty Larkspur, he shakes her when she questions his military record. She is rescued by Thirty Larkspur himself, and he declares the deal with Yskandr is no more. Unaware of this deal, Mahit discusses it with Three Seagrass after the party.

Later, Mahit touches a poisonous flower hidden among her mail. Before she can smell it, Nineteen Adze stops her, using mineral oil to wash off the deadly toxins. Nineteen Adze later admits she received the flower from Thirty Larkspur, but refused to involve herself in another Lsel Station ambassador’s death; she was complicit in Yskandr’s death. She asked Twelve Azalea to retrieve the imago device from Yskandr’s corpse to find answers. Mahit learns Eight Loop, the third of Six Direction’s heirs, is the person who requested a new Lsel Station ambassador; furthermore, Dekakel Onchu, a Lsel Station councilor, warned Yskandr that Heritage was involved in sabotage. With this new information, Mahit meets with the Emperor, who offers her the same deal that he offered Yskandr: control of an imago device to transplant his consciousness into Eight Antidote, his ninety-percent clone. He declares a war of annexation, trying to control the City.

As Mahit thinks about the deal and how the Teixcalaanli people misunderstand imago technology, she receives a message from Lsel Station with encrypted news. In a breach of both Teixcalaanli culture and Stationer ethics, she inserts the updated imago, and Yskandr returns. Able to read the encrypted information, she gains knowledge of an alien threat as powerful as the Empire and noticed by Lsel Station. As the factions supporting Thirty Larkspur and One Lightning collide, violence rocks the City: Thirty Larkspur takes over the Ministry of Information, and new head Six Helicopter imprisons Mahit, Three Seagrass, and Twelve Azalea until Nineteen Adze sends servants to rescue them. Twelve Azalea dies in the process. The Empire’s violence begins to devour the City, and Mahit and Nineteen Adze warn the Emperor of the alien threat. He declares war on the alien threat, names Nineteen Adze as regent and successor until Eight Antidote reaches maturity, and dies by ritual sacrifice and consecrates the war. The novel ends with Mahit, Three Seagrass, and Nineteen Adze going their separate ways: Mahit returns to Lsel Station, Three Seagrass accepts a promotion in the Ministry of Information, and Nineteen Adze promises to send for Mahit should she need her in the future.