#38 in Science fiction
A Desolation Called Peace
- 496
- Pages
- about 9 h
- Reading time
- Hugo Award for Best Novel
- Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
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Our view
“A Desolation Called Peace” takes its series out of the imperial capital and into a war and a first-contact puzzle. Where “A Memory Called Empire” stayed inside one outsider’s head, the sequel moves between several viewpoints while keeping its fascination with language and culture. It must be read after its predecessor, and suits readers who want space opera that thinks about empire and identity as hard as it fights.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
A Desolation Called Peace is a 2021 space opera science fiction novel by Arkady Martine. It is the sequel to A Memory Called Empire, and the second novel in Martine's Teixcalaan series. Like its predecessor, the book won the Hugo Award for Best Novel. It also won the 2022 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.
Reading order · Teixcalaan
Full order & progress →- A Memory Called EmpireStart here
8.38.3 / 10 - A Desolation Called PeaceThis book
8.48.4 / 10
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.5 across 492 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 77% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Science fiction average of 7.8. That is how 8.4 comes out. A further +0.10 comes from the small bonus for major awards.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.3 | 8 | 2% |
| Hardcover | 8.5 | 484 | 98% |
Frequently asked
How long is A Desolation Called Peace?
It has 496 pages — longer than 63% of the ranked books in Science fiction.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Science fiction — with scores between 8.4 and 8.5, closest to this book.
