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This is a SF novel, space opera mixed with a mystery.

The book start with a new ambassador from orbiting station-habitat Lsel moving to the great empire Teixcalaan. Her name is Mahit Dzmare and she and her small station has an advantage over the giant empire, a device named imago, which is a repository of instinctive and automatic skill that previous specialists had, so new ones hadn’t waste time to acquire for themselves. With the memory comes a personality, in this case the previous ambassador Yskandr. Alas, his memories are a decade out of date and he personally is currently incommunicado. Our protagonist adores imperial culture, its poetry, epics, cultural heritage. At the same time for imperials she is just a barbarian.

She comes to a capital city and gets her cultural liaison at the command of His Imperial Majesty Six Direction, with the name of Three Seagrass, asekreta and patrician second-class. Noter on the imperial naming tradition: a numeral followed by a noun, sometimes quite imaginative ones like Thirty-Six All-Terrain Tundra Vehicle or 2e (the irrational number) Asteroid. Asekreta means that she is part of court intrigue and politicking.

They find soon enough that the previous ambassador was assassinated and the city is in the turmoil, for the emperor is near death and succession ups all the bets. The rest of the story Mahit and Three Seagrass roam around, gather information and face deadly threats to finally see a larger picture.

The book reminds me of Ancillary Justice and Ninefox Gambitin terms that there is an empire and this is presumably SF, but futurist part is just a background. The writing is fine, the pace is adequate but I cannot say I really enjoy this kind of story.