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I've found the Baru parallel and the same reasons that lost me then are losing me now.

Not having read Baru or Ninefox I'm curious what the parallels are with those if anybody wants to go into that in more detail. (in the spoiler thread maybe?)

Beth wrote: "Not having read Baru or Ninefox I'm curious what the parallels are with those if anybody wants to go into that in more detail. (in the spoiler thread maybe?)"

Baru: protagonist from outside (forcibly) appears in the Empire, which has both good and bad parts
Ninefox: technologically advanced but stagnant empire

a pretty good summary, i'd say, Oleksandr! i'd add writing style is a similarity for me with Baru

I have it on my iPad and since I’ve got the writing so big it’s 901 pages. Yeahhhhh fun times I reckon that should class it as a 500+ chonk for Around the Year lol Anyway I was going to start it this afternoon but got distracted by my daughters dog pissing on my Nordic Noir section of my bookcase. Shows what he thinks of the genre. Girl with the dragon tattoo and it’s sequels, and Ice Princess by Camilla Lackslberg along with 2 Jane Harpers I haven’t read yet, an Anthony Horowitz and a few more. Seems that most of the Girl with the dragon tat series was lucky. Ice Princess, Force of Nature, The Lost Man, Magpie Murders and Girl With the Dragon Tattoo not so lucky.

Jacqueline wrote: "... Anyway I was going to start it this afternoon but got distracted by my daughters dog pissing on my Nordic Noir section of my bookcase ..."

Eww. That's one of most convincing distraction excuses I've heard. Sorry. At least it wasn't the iPad.

I was sure we were going to lose books when we got a new puppy a couple of years ago. However despite his insistence on shredding junk mail and dismembering his toys he's never gone after anything of ours (not even a single tooth mark on a book). If we don't actually hand it to him he considers it off limits. I'm not sure how we got so lucky there.

Yeah my own pup (they’re Border Collie brothers and are nearly 8 months old now) won’t eat anything unless I tell him he can and he leaves my books and stuff alone. He knows what toys are his and what ones are mine. I collect bears and that and he doesn’t touch mine at all. He seems to understand when I tell him what’s mine and what’s his. Once I tell him no he doesn’t go anywhere near it again.

My daughters on the other hand eats everything he sees and I had to put my toys away from him. And he’s a poop machine. 3 times yesterday (along with the peeing on my books) on my mats in my library/sewing room. And the back door was open right beside where he did it sonits bot as if he couldn’t have gone out. There’s also mud on my good footstool (just lucky there was a towel on my good reading chair) and on my sewing table where he got up to get through the kitchen window after we had locked them in the back half of the house. I was just lucky I saw him and closed the window before he could get through and break everything that had been washed up. The library/sewing room is on what used to be a verandah that’s been closed in and made into a decent room. Mine sits and watches him with this “you’re going to get into biiiiggg trouble when she catches you�� look on his face.

I definitely got the best deal when we got the dogs. Mine is quiet and mostly good and perfect for an older woman. My daughter does work a lot so the dog is home by himself a lot so he hasn’t quite learned his manners I suppose but it’s still annoying. And she works different shifts all the time so can’t commit to dog training classes. I need to take this one to some classes as well. He needs to learn not to pull on the lead and to come back when he’s called every time and not just when he feels like it.

My daughter came and picked her dog up today so the house has settled down a bit. Mine is currently sleeping. He doesn’t get to do much of that when he’s with his brother.

I have an hour until I need to cook my Husband and Father in law their dinner so I might pick up my iPad for a bit of a quick read of Memory called Empire. Let’s see how long this lasts....

Nope....Hubby has just turned up from doing work at his Father’s as soon as I picked my iPad up. Not happening once again. Apparently it’s cup of tea time and I have to make it.

I’ll try again tomorrow.

I just noticed this phrase in the first post: "This book has been taking the book world by storm"

Any citations for this claim?

Ryan wrote: "I just noticed this phrase in the first post: "This book has been taking the book world by storm"

Any citations for this claim?"

It's a Tor release from less than three months ago with a 4.3 rating, over a thousand ratings already and glowing reviews from Kirkus, NYT, most outlets, the Locus publication and several well-known book reviewers.

Hmm, I hear about new book releases mostly from goodreads groups and newsletters. I guess this would make a good general discussion topic: what are the best sources for news in Fantasy/Sci-fi books?

That would be an excellent topic for a thread!

Anna wrote: "I didn't get any Ancillary vibes from this at all, but I kept thinking of Baru and Ninefox."

Interesting. Yoon Ha Lee on Patreon today:

"Arkady Martine's space opera A Memory Called Empire is my favorite science fiction novel of the past five years. Maybe longer."

There's a general post, and also a analysis.

The spoilery post is lovely and I would recommend it for anybody who's finished the book. It almost makes me long for his experience of it rather than the one I actually had.

Beth wrote: "The spoilery post is lovely and I would recommend it for anybody who's finished the book. It almost makes me long for his experience of reading the book rather than the one I actually had."

That was my same reaction!

Yeah I'm definitely going to reread this with YHL's post in mind when the next one comes out!

Anna wrote: "Interesting. Yoon Ha Lee on Patreon today:

"Arkady Martine's space opera A Memory Called Empire is my favorite science fiction novel of the past five years. Maybe longer."


There's a general non-spoilery post, and also a spoilery analysis.
"

Great ^^'. Now I feel like a moron, cause I still feel nothing for this novel, apart from the usual "how many hours are left? Is it over soon?" feeling that accompanies rather a few audiobooks lately.

We don't all have to like the same books! ^_^

Yeah, no morons here, comprehending something and finding it enjoyable are two different things!

LOL! Sorry, I phrased it too harshly. I'm totally okay with having another opinion. ;)

Gabi I had read the promotional line too when I finished this book back in February.

My thoughts were: Yoon Ha Lee must not be reading very good sci-fi.

I have more to say but I think it’s better left for the spoiler thread. Just know that it is not you.

I don't think it's a matter of whether you read good scifi or not, it's whether you find a connection with the book. When you do, you forgive a lot, but other times will find you nitpicking at every little thing.

But yes, maybe this would be better moved over to the spoiler thread. I posted the links here because I'd made my Ninefox comment here.

Oh it’s okay Anna. I don’t need to keep whining about it- I just didn’t want to put them here because though I wouldn’t really consider them spoilers, they definitely weren’t first impressions.

It would be interesting though, when people comment something like this about X being the best book in Y years, to see which other books they'd read in that time period!

Sarah wrote: "
My thoughts were: Yoon Ha Lee must not be reading very good sci-fi."

LOL

Well...I've been lurking in this thread and looking at the ratings from you all - my trusted buddies and reviewers - made the book even lower in the list....

Sarah wrote: "My thoughts were: Yoon Ha Lee must not be reading very good sci-fi."

What struck me about his promo line is that so far (half way through) I agree with him on A Memory Called Empire compared to at least what I've read this year. That's even though I just couldn't get into his Ninefox Gambit. Weird.

I'm looking forward to going through the spoiler thread once I'm done. This sounds like a very polarizing book.

I haven’t read either of them and I am enjoying A Memory Called Empire very much. Just started Chapter 5. I wasn’t going to read it but ended up picking it up this afternoon anyway.

I am on Chapter 11 of the Audible version. I am enjoying it so far, it is very character driven. The only flaw are a couple of thoughts from the MC that seem to be repeated extremely often.

Now on the chapter 23, this is so detailed, and the play-by-play makes the pacing quite slow, so you take really long to read. But I'm still liking it, I just have to mix with faster paced books in between.

At 41% and it’s reminding me strongly of The Goblin Emperor. The same sort of character who kinda knows what they’re doing but still gets tripped up by court intricacies, a threat that is very real but feels distant, the weird names...

Like TGE, I’m enjoying it rather than loving it.

This is MUCH better than TGE. The Goblin Emperor was a DNF for me.

MadProfessah wrote: "This is MUCH better than TGE. The Goblin Emperor was a DNF for me."

This is a case of “six of one, half-dozen of the other�� for me. Unless something truly spectacular happens, this will likely end up as a 3-star read, same as TGE.

Necroposting to say I’m finally diving into this, having been a little scared off by some of the split reactions around these parts, and having been discouraged by my disappointed response to one of the other novels of last year to be nominated for both the Hugo and the Nebula, The Ten Thousand Doors of January. I can safely say that after the preface and the first chapter, I’m quite intrigued. Curious to see how I’ll wind up at the end.

I saw your update come through my feed this morning, Anthony. Looking forward to reading your thoughts about this one in the long run!

The only minor quibble I have at this point is a bit too much of a use of italics. (Three chapters in.) Otherwise, I’m really enjoying this in the early going.

Oh... I've been struggling to get through this, and was just about to comment on your update, how I'm starting to doubt the audio option; if perhaps this could be more palatable a 'straight text', without the offered voice.

(Not that that has anything to do with me necessarily still noticing any italics *ha*).

Great to 'hear' it's working for you!

I love(d) the naming convention. I think it’s more subtle and interesting than Leckie’s method of masking gender in the ANCILLARY X trilogy.

I love(d) the naming convention. I think it’s more subtle and interesting than Leckie’s method of masking gender in the ANCILLARY * trilogy.

27 Laurel is my new name apparently. I'm enjoying it, especially the idea of the Imago. Interesting tidbit, I'm reading Imago by Octavia Butler after I finish this book for another book club, so the word showing up in this novel pleases me greatly! I'm about 50 pages in, so I've got a long way to go!

For me, both were 5 star reads but I read vs listened so I don't know how it might be in audio. However this (and the sequel) are books I can see being harder to follow in audio unless you gave it your full attention and maybe not even then.

Have just started this for the re-read program here in the group and it has quickly become one of my favorites so far. I'm about a 1/4 into it and the characters, political workings and the grand scope of the world have really sucked me in.
In a couple posts back, Ann Leckies Ancillary trilogy was mentioned and I'm actually working through Justice right now also. A memory called empire seems to hold a slight advantage In which one I enjoy more so far, but I'm extremely early still in both. Will continue to update that opinion the deeper I go.

Ahhh, I want more time to concentrate on this book. It was recommended to me so many times. It started strong. The Imago thing reminded me of symbionts from Star Trek :)

I'm back to reading AMCE and I just hit the halfway point. It was kinda slow, with a lot of setup to the plot. Then I got to the Interlude, which is a game changer, and wow, I'm totally invested.

Good to know.

I'm about a 1/4 of the way in now and it has quickly become my new favorite. The characters have been interesting and the world building has been phenomenal so far. I'm a huge sucker for stories with an epic feel to them, ( The wheel of time being one of my all time favorites), and AMCE has that feel so far. I keep finding myself coming back to read more after putting it down.

Finished the novel and I'm really glad to have read it. I'm still processing the ending, and I won't spoil anything, but I will be reading the next novel, A Desolation Called Peace next month for sure. I took half a point off for the slow start, so I'm calling it 4.5 stars.

I’m glad to see so many folks enjoying and appreciating this novel. It’s one of those that I think of fondly as I look back on my time reading it. I enjoyed the sequel very much as well.

Huh! I seem to have never come back to this thread to say, that this book worked infinitely better for me without the audio narration.

So, this is me now joining the choir of praises.

I was rather disappointed to learn after finishing the second book, how there wasn't going to be a third instalment. Just as I was getting into it!

Yeah I hope she changes her mind and writes a third

I haven't read the second so I'm not sure whether there's loose poor points at the end, but I'm okay with authors not continuing series. A duology is fine with me because there series that do go on well past their freshness date. 🙄