While the book is an exploration of a culture that venerates and practises poetry, there's precious little actual poetry in the book. There are a few instances where Martine's written the odd couplet. The rest is a description of what the poetry means and how it's expressed. It could be an example of "tell, don't show". Does Martine's approach work in this context? Would you have liked more poetry written verbatim?

Martine's thoughts on writing poetry: https://www.torforgeblog.com/2021/01/07/poetry-of-a-memory-called-empire/

Poetry is a medium where the words have multiple meanings and the reader has to interpret them. How does that fit with the politics of the Teixcalaani court, where no-one says what they actually want? 

How did the poetry act as being a barrier between native Teixcalaanlitzlim and outsiders like Mahit? What other markers have you seen in fiction to separate cultures?

There are also wider ideas. Does this book help you with games of high politics, or clashes of cultures, or portraying different societies generally? Does it help you bring art and culture into your games? Should you have more food and cooking?

Did the description work? Did it immerse you in that world? Was it too much or not enough? 

And, more generally, what did you think of the writing overall? 

Mahit goes to Teixcalaan. Eleven Lathe went to the Ebrekti. Three Seagrass idolises Eleven Lathe. What should we take from these parallels?

Could Martine have told a story of Teixcalaanli politics without the viewpoint character being an outsider? Would the story have worked if told from the viewpoint of Three Seagrass or Five Agate?

Mahit loves all things Teixcalaani, even though she realises she can never be one. Three Seagrass loves outsiders, even if she instinctively looks down on them. Yskander and Darj Tarats want to manipulate Teixcalaan into getting a pragmatic response. Amnardbat wants to expunge Lsel of every trace of Teixcalaani influence. Six Direction wants the imago technology. Lsel is below Nineteen Adze's attention.

What about Gorlaeth, the ambassador from Dava?

In various interviews. Martine says she was motivated by a small state being annexed by the Byzantines, which traded political sovereignty for cultural freedom. 

What's the right response to an encroaching, possibly unstoppable, empire? Do you preserve your heritage and culture, or your freedom and agency? Does this book help you understand some possible responses?

And how important to the story was it that Petal died?

One Lightning and Thirty Larkspur want power. Six Direction wants immortality, settling for a legacy. Nineteen Adze becomes a Platonic philosopher-king, wielding power without desiring it; but she saves Mahit for no reason beyond not wanting to watch someone else die in agony. Yskander loved and lusted, as well as using those emotions as tools. Mahit and Three Seagrass are both xenophiles, as well as flirting with each other and trying to save their homes. Mahit feels Yskander's spillover love for Six Direction and Nineteen Adze. The Sunlit have no identity, having all their personality subsumed into the City's algorithm.

Do you think it an accurate portrayal of how politics is motivated and carried out? Were there wider forces at play than just what a few people wanted?

What about Yskander's changing impact? From out-of-date informant to source of unexpected lusts to traumatised political operator?

How do these different understandings and misunderstandings of memory drive the plot? 

There's a lot in this book, and many things I couldn't frame into neat discussion starters.

• Violence, and its role in diplomacy and politics.
• Identity, belonging, exile, and bridging gaps between cultures.
• Gender identity and gender roles
• Privilege and aristocracy
• Individuals vs groups, diversity vs homogeneity

What else should we talk about?

It won the 2020 Hugo.

Blurb:

Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining Station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn't an accident—or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court.

Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her Station from Teixcalaan's unceasing expansion—all while navigating an alien culture that is all too seductive, engaging in intrigues of her own, and hiding a deadly technological secret—one that might spell the end of her Station and her way of life—or rescue it from annihilation.