"This book is dedicated to anyone who has ever fallen in love with a culture that was devouring their own."
If you like Dune you need to read this, if you like Ann Leckie books you need to read this, if you like language or court intrigue or spy novels you need to read this, if you like action movies that are actually mostly incisive barbs and diplomacy - you need to read this. Picture a delicate mashup of the Giver and the Expanse series but set in an ancient empire (one could also call it a militaristic death cult) that names its warships after poetry.
Arkady Martine absolutely deserves to be up there with science fiction greats like Herbert, Leckie, and Tepper.
