In Arkady Martine's debut A Memory Called Empire, she brought us into a universe indelibly marked by imperialism where the contours of state and self are formed by language and memory. Inspired by the real-life Byzantine and Aztec empires, the Teixcalaanli Empire is dazzling in its complexity and hierarchy as well as its hunger to assimilate the rest of space into its borders. Mahit Dzmare, from the small outpost of Lsel Station outside the Empire's control, is called to its capital to serve as ambassador under troubling circumstances. The universe of the Teixcalaan series unravels how our conceptions of self, community and nationality are inextricably tied to our language and to our sense of shared collective memory, whether that comes fro...