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A Memory Called Empire Q6: People
We get to know many characters in the book: Mahit, Three Seagrass, Twelve Azalea, Yskander, Nineteen Adze. What do you think about these characters? Were they distinct, well-drawn, interesting? Were they believable, acting for reasons of character over plot?
And how important to the story was it that Petal died?
Comments
Some were inevitably more thoroughly drawn and more rounded than others: this is not a fault but the consequence of some people playing more of a part than others. There was a general trend that people who were higher up in the hierarchy were more loosely sketched, and their behaviour was more stereotyped and conventional, than those lower down. This is probably a generally true feature of society, and in particular is a credible feature of Teixcalaani society.
I regretted that we didn't get more of an inside view of Stationer culture, and the little flashbacks recalling how it was that Yskander's imago was flawed didn't really add to this. Mahit's own occasional soliloquy memories helped. Maybe there's more about this in the second book?
I wasn't that bothered about Petal as a character, but thought that his death was important as a plot driver. The various women were more interesting and more fully described.
Of these, I thought Six Seagrass was too much a cliche - the bureaucratic ‘aid’ who turns out to be on your side and helpful before the end. Like Steve Zissou’s insurance company stooge. Yskander was interesting but might have been developed more.
I think it was the Mahit and Adze pair that held up the novel, and they were my favourite characters.
@RichardAbbott , we get to see a bit more of Lsel in the sequel, but a lot of the action is set in the Teixcalaan Fleet.
I thought Nine Azelea's death was a bit peripheral to the story, and the escalation to firearms not handled well in the book. I think Martine wanted to show us that politics could easily switch from talking and gestures to bloody death, but I don't think she managed it. I think it would have worked better if, while in the conference room, there had been a bit of discussion of what could happen to Mahit & co, or news coming in of executions of officials. Something, I think, to more clearly signal the change in potential consequences.
I agree that Three Seagrass's loyalty was a little too secure. Of course she'd be recruited as a spy by one or more factions. Who would she be feeding information to? When did we see her make a big character choice between her self-interest, her faction, Teixcalaan as a whole, and her loyalty to Mahit?
As in "War is the continuation of politics by other means" (von Clauswitz)?
I saw her more like the character of Jorah Mormont in Game of Thrones, who began working for Daenerys as a spy but then switched loyalties away from spying into dedicated loyalty to D.
Indeed. Byzantine politics may have been lots of poetry and double-meanings, but there was plenty of exile, blindings, and executions. (Blinding someone was a way of permanently eliminating them from holding power, without going quite so far as killing them.)
Indeed. But I don't think we saw that transformation in Three Seagrass, but we did in Jorah Mormont.
Ah, I loved all the characters! I thought they were all well drawn, as much as the plot would allow. The bad guys were not so much doing bad things as acting inappropriately for the situation. This was my kind of book all the way. As soon as I finished - late last night, I ordered the sequel.
We never really say One Lightning, but Thirty Larkspur was acting for entirely relatable reasons, of ambition. I thought Nine Adze was interesting, especially when it wasn't clear how much she was just using Mahit for her own objectives.