A Desolation Called Peace
- 467
- Pages
- about 9 h
- Reading time
- Hugo Award for Best Novel
- Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
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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
- 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 73% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Rankings 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% |
Reader voices
The most-liked reviews on Hardcover (credited to their authors).
“But what better way to draw a monstrous thing to its death than to use its functions against itself? Wow. Damn. This was epic in every sense of the word. This second part of the Teixcalaan dulogy takes all the same themes—imperialism, identity, culture, language—as A Memory Called Empire and tackles them in a pretty different format. Where the first installment purposefully hid its true scope behind the single POV of a fish-out-of-the-water protagonist (save for a few interludes) and kept the reader guessing a lot, here we get multiple POVs and go far beyond the limits of the City. Lsel sta…”
“Writing this a couple weeks after completion, so forgive me as I try to place my mind back into the world of Teixcalaan and it's carnivorous Outreaching Palms. I'll try to keep this short and casual. In A Desolation Called Peace, Martine continues her microscopic study of culture and language as our protagonist duo Mahit Dzmare and Three Seagrass are reunited at the frontlines of war and thrust into a first-contact scenario with a race of highly intelligent yet confoundingly violent aliens. I wouldn't say this is a “perfect” sequel, as some led me to believe (we'll get more into why not later…”
Frequently asked
What is A Desolation Called Peace rated?
8.4 out of 10, from 492 reader ratings across 2 independent sources.
Is A Desolation Called Peace worth reading?
Readers give it 8.4/10 from 492 ratings, which puts it ahead of 90 % of the Science fiction shelf.
How long does it take to read A Desolation Called Peace?
About 9 hours at an average reading pace — 467 pages.
Which volume of the series is A Desolation Called Peace?
Volume 2 of 2 in Teixcalaan. The full reading order is one tap away above.
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