A Desolation Called Peace

The second book in Arkady Martine's Teixcalaan series opens with a Prelude narrated by an alien collective consciousness that refers to itself as "we." These spacefaring beings communicate through a telepathic "singing" that links their minds rather than through spoken language, and they have already destroyed human colonies for resources. The novel follows three intertwined storylines as this incomprehensible threat forces humans to confront the limits of communication, loyalty, and empire.

Nine Hibiscus, the newly appointed yaotlek (commander of Fleet commanders) of the Teixcalaanli military, monitors the war from her flagship Weight for the Wheel. Five colony outposts have gone dark beyond the Anhamemat jumpgate, a transit point linking distant sectors of space. When her scout-ship returns pursued by the first alien vessel any Teixcalaanli has survived to describe, the war begins. The alien ship deploys a corrosive substance that consumes a pilot inside her hull; Nine Hibiscus orders her own ship to fire on the dissolving fighter to grant a merciful death.

Nine Hibiscus also faces political pressure from Fleet Captain Sixteen Moonrise, who challenges her authority. Her adjutant and closest friend, Twenty Cicada, nicknamed Swarm, is a devoted homeostat-cultist—an adherent of a minority religion centered on achieving systemic balance and homeostasis—recognizable by his shaved head and green fractal tattoos. He warns Nine Hibiscus of the political maneuvering. After observing Sixteen Moonrise retake the devastated colony of Peloa-2, where all colonists have been killed and the planet's resources stripped, Nine Hibiscus defuses the challenge at a strategic dinner by assigning Sixteen Moonrise to a reconnaissance mission. She also requests a first-contact specialist from the Information Ministry.

On Lsel Station, a small independent station near the war zone, Ambassador Mahit Dzmare struggles with the aftermath of the previous novel's events. Lsel Stationers use imago-machines, devices implanted at the skull's base that carry the recorded memories and personality of a predecessor, creating chains of living memory across generations. Mahit carries two overlaid versions of her predecessor Yskandr Aghavn's imago in a single machine, a deeply unorthodox condition. Councilor Aknel Amnardbat, head of Heritage (the department overseeing imago-machines), orders an upload that would expose Mahit's doubled imago.

Seeking allies, Mahit learns the plans of Councilor Darj Tarats, who controls Lsel's mining operations. Tarats has spent 20 years cultivating a strategy to lure Teixcalaan into an unwinnable war so the Empire would exhaust itself. He threatens Mahit with removal of her imago-machine or exile. Three Seagrass, a young Third Undersecretary in the Information Ministry, intercepts Nine Hibiscus's request and assigns herself to the first-contact mission. She arrives on Lsel Station to recruit Mahit as a linguistic consultant. Mahit agrees, seeing the assignment as an escape, and offers herself to Tarats as his eyes on the war. Tarats demands more: She must work to keep Teixcalaan endlessly at war, serving as spy and saboteur.

Meanwhile, 11-year-old Eight Antidote, the imperial heir and a 90% clone of the late Emperor Six Direction, studies military strategy with Third Undersecretary Eleven Laurel of the Ministry of War. Emperor Nineteen Adze charges Eight Antidote with a covert mission: Determine whether the new Minister of War, Three Azimuth, intends to win the war or maintain permanent conflict.

Aboard Weight for the Wheel, Three Seagrass and Mahit discover that alien sounds amplify into nauseating infrasound when played from multiple directions. They compose a crude message splicing four alien sounds. Their relationship fractures when Three Seagrass suggests Mahit wear a Teixcalaanli uniform; Mahit erupts over the power imbalance between them and the impossibility of freely choosing when the Empire commands. Despite the rift, they broadcast the message. Two alien ships appear, play it back amplified, and Nine Hibiscus arranges a face-to-face meeting on Peloa-2.

Three Seagrass and Mahit meet two towering aliens with mottled skin, long necks, and killing claws. Three Seagrass sings the Teixcalaanli funeral poem to demonstrate human language; Mahit plays their synthesized greeting. Through hours of pointing and singing, they acquire about 20 words but discover no pronouns, tenses, or concept of individual identity. The aliens communicate silently with each other through some invisible means, confirming their true language remains impenetrable.

A medical cadet discovers white fungal structures growing from the dead alien's brain and dies from exposure to the fungus. Twenty Cicada seals himself inside the medbay under contamination protocols. At the second negotiation, two different aliens arrive knowing everything the first pair learned, confirming shared consciousness. Twenty Cicada brings preserved fungal samples, and the aliens react with intense fascination. Left alone with the aliens, Twenty Cicada reports his breakthrough over comms: The fungus is how the aliens create their collective mind, connecting all individuals into networked telepathy. He announces his intention to eat the fungus, arguing that his presence could open real communication. Nine Hibiscus protests, but he insists and cuts the connection.

Three Seagrass and Mahit reconcile and sleep together. The next morning, Mahit confesses that Tarats sent her to sabotage the negotiations but that she has decided not to follow through. Tarats himself then arrives at the Fleet and publicly accuses Mahit of failing her mission on the bridge, exposing her as his agent. The weapons officer puts a pistol to Mahit's throat. Three Seagrass places herself between all parties, arguing that killing Mahit would waste a vital resource. Mahit confronts Tarats, inadvertently revealing the existence of imago-technology to the Teixcalaanli officers present. Nine Hibiscus orders the pistol lowered.

Twenty Cicada's voice returns over the comms, altered, using "we" pronouns. He has eaten the fungus and joined the alien collective while retaining elements of himself. He requests a cease-fire and asks for human negotiators who understand collectivity. But the Seventeenth Legion comes under massive alien attack in retaliation for Sixteen Moonrise's approach toward the alien homeworld, and Sixteen Moonrise refuses all stand-down orders, continuing with nuclear shatterbombs primed.

In the capital, Eight Antidote overhears Three Azimuth and Eleven Laurel discussing the planetary strike and rushes to Nineteen Adze. The Emperor agrees, considering one act of destruction preferable to endless war. She reveals that Six Direction loved Yskandr, who offered the Emperor an imago-machine to live forever in Eight Antidote's clone body; Nineteen Adze helped kill Yskandr to ensure Eight Antidote could be himself. Eight Antidote refuses her reasoning, telling her "this isn't my Teixcalaan" (411). He composes an Imperial order forbidding planetary genocide and sends it by fastest courier. He then enters a Shard fighter, using the pilots' proprioceptive link to share perception across vast distances; through this collective sight, he convinces a pilot carrying the genocide order to destroy it, but he cannot reach Sixteen Moonrise's ships.

Nine Hibiscus, facing Sixteen Moonrise's insubordination, makes an agonizing choice. She gives Twenty Cicada the coordinates of Sixteen Moonrise's flagship, the Parabolic Compression, and authorizes the aliens to strike on the condition they target only the bridge and spare the crew. The aliens execute a precision strike, killing Sixteen Moonrise while leaving the crew alive. The cease-fire holds across the battlefront. Eight Antidote's countermanding order arrives shortly after, now unnecessary but establishing imperial policy against planetary genocide. Tarats tells Mahit she is permanently exiled from Lsel.

Mahit and Three Seagrass part on the ship's hydroponics deck. Three Seagrass offers to write wherever Mahit goes; Mahit accepts a distant posting on a provincial Teixcalaanli planet, promising to write back "all the time" (476). In the Postlude, Twenty Cicada exists within the alien collective as Swarm, teaching the aliens how humans are "known with language only, and still clearly" (469), bridging the gap between species through the imperfect medium of attempted understanding.