Arkady Martine

Novella about an AI house created by a famous architect, deeded to one of his former students—who denounced him/was shaped by him in ways that are unclear from the story. The house reports a murder on its premises, but won’t let any human but the student in. I found it annoyingly elliptical, repetitive in language, and also imagining a Texas police force that apparently changed more in forty years than I would have thought plausible (for some reason they … respect the house’s wishes and don’t break in to examine the body). But if you like ghost houses, maybe?… (plus d'informations)

“When the house laughed, it sounded like the ripple of a storm, the hush and shudder of leaves and sand trickling down a dune.”

Shiver. Shiver. Shiver. What a creepy locked-room murder mystery! There is a haunted house, Rose House, that is also a ghastly AI.

I liked the sci-fi world building here, it is sparse, but the reader can easily fill in the blanks and paint a bigger picture. The world has a dystopian feel, but it’s not a dystopia. It’s just a version of the future, with good things and bad all mixed together. Sci-fi stories rarely wake my sense of wonder nowadays (I have read too much sci-fi, perhaps). This one did!

There are three POV’s in 120 pages, and they were masterfully done. This is not easy to write, I am very impressed. (Oliver’s POV was a respite from all the creepiness.)

How do you explain a dead body in a house to which only one person has access after the owner’s death; and that person has an alibi? The search for answers is very dark and kept me turning the pages.

I do hope that our future AI’s are not going to be like Rose House. This is during its phone call to the police to report a dead body:

“Cause of death,” said Maritza.
“I’m a piece of architecture, Detective. How should I know how humans are like to die?”

Maybe trying to come in is a bad idea, Detective…

“What is a building without doors, Maritza?” Rose House asked her, blandly inquisitive. “Have you opinions?”
“A prison”, Maritza thought, and went back to her car.”

The story grows more and more claustrophobic, you feel like you are getting lost in Rose House and mental fog. I have mixed feelings about the ending: it was anticlimactic and not quite clear, but it did seem fitting.… (plus d'informations)

A Desolation Called Peace is a follow-up novel to the earlier work A Memory Called Empire. This book again revolves around the characters Mahit Dzmare and Three Seagrass, but this time it throws them into the middle of a war with an alien species who no one can understand (linguistically or otherwise) in the role of negotiators. While the aliens themselves are pretty alien and we mostly don't get their point of view, there is a lot of political maneuvering within the factions on the human side, with each having their own preferred outcome of the war--reconciliation, genocide, never-ending war, conveniently eliminating people loyal to a certain regime, etc. I did enjoy the interplay of sympathetic characters working at cross-purposes, and especially the adventures of Imperial heir Eight Antidote (who is the best-written character in the book). However, it is still a step below the first book, which set a very high bar.… (plus d'informations)