A Memory Called Empire

This is my least favorite book I've ever read and I only finished because it was for a book club. This book celebrates and gawks over poetry and politics both of which I don't understand or care for. It hypes itself up for being very smart and introduces so many side plots that never amount to anything. My eyes were strained after reading this book from rolling them so much. Nothing like the powered of poetry, friendship, and love to save something? It's like Indiana Jones, the outcome would not have changed at all had the main character not been there. I do not know why people like this book.

Very conventional, derivative and uninteresting. John Barnes wrote very similar young adult science fiction some years ago. His books, while not outstanding, are better written. I wouldn't write a review except to warn readers that this very mediocre book does not deserve your time

Interesting premis, but slow, a drudge to read, and not nearly as smart as it thinks it is - quite the contrary. For starters, a small sovereign spacefaring nation is under constant threat of invasion/annexation by a powerful neighbor. Yet they don't even keep track of public news, to stay up to date on current politics... Secondly, why would an emissary to foreign country (particularly a potentially hostile one) have to rely on a private secretary provided by that country to even read and sent their own mail.... Running an interstellar empire by physically mailing wax-sealed usb-sticks seems...impractical... Maybe Mahit should spent more time gathering tangible facts, than trying to get to the bottom of a political intrige by interpreting poetry and facial expressions. But then again, interpreting poetry fills half the book, and most of the rest is filled with idle chatter between the three main female protagonists. IMO Chrisjen Avasrala would wiped the floor with any of them.