it took me a minute to warm up to the world of teixcalaan and the main cast of characters, but it was really worth it to stick around for all of the well-paced the twists and turns. i was initially fascinated by the concept of an imago and mahit's relationship with the previous ambassador, and it was so easy to be drawn into the mystery of his death and why things were going so wrong that i was almost not expecting so much political drama to follow. the conflicts that rise and fall throughout the novel are like parts of a symphony, it was very cool to experience.

then beyond the surface level conflicts, i really fell in love with mahit and three seasgrass' dynamic, as well as mahit's ruminations on the concept of home and belonging and her desire for the culture of teixcalaan. extremely fun things happening with culture and language and interpersonal conflict. loved it

tw: there is an on-page suicide (by knife) in chapter 21, be careful out there

I was reeled in by the ace/autistic representation and I was reeled all the way back out by the vancouver and pop-culture oversaturation.

holy pronouns, this was good. i was not expecting there to be so much cannibalism (nor was i expecting to like it so much as a narrative device), but here we are! i'm usually not attracted to novels with more than two pov's but there was just something about these three - enae, reet, and qven - that was very easy to love. it's a good sign if i keep coming back even after i've had to look up the plot on wikipedia

i really enjoyed the way that the author and the characters discussed gender identity and expression as a normal fact of life, one that didn't require any justification or explanation; it was difficult to keep up with the audiobook narrator sometimes, but the challenge was actually so fun. and i REALLY enjoyed the discussion of bodily autonomy and agency, wow. what an interesting take on codependency or convergence or whatever you want to call it when two people in a relationship slowly melt into one. very cool use of imagination there

the setting was a bit confusing, especially once dimensionality got kind of warped, but i don't think that it made a huge difference in my comprehension of the themes and plot and characterization. there were also a lot of characters to remember, some of which i admittedly forgot about along the way, but the audiobook narrator really locked in with a million different accents and tones for each person. sending her a little kiss on the forehead rn

i was also really disappointed by the ending mostly because of the time jump where we learn that something extremely important happened with reet and qven - it would have been SO interesting to see that unfold and to hear their perspectives on that transition. i love them sm it hurts

i had just finished all systems red before this, so the pirate exiles tv program in this one really reminded me of murderbot's entertainment feed, it was such a funny coincidence

trigger warnings for body horror/gore, sexual assault (on-page, not extremely graphic but it affects the MC very strongly), blood, injury, misgendering/using incorrect pronouns, and cannibalism (mostly discussed or thought about)

a heartwarming story about a murder-robot saving humans' lives was not something i ever thought i'd encounter but now that i have, i really vibe with it. we love a literary exploration of free-will/autonomy, and we love a snarky, sassy MC who's obsessed with its favorite tv program.

i won't lie, some of the sci-fi elements went a little over my head, as did some of the plot points surrounding cause-and-effect or deductive reasoning. it felt like listening to experts talk about something that i only know at the surface level, which i did a lot of in grad school, but in this context, it mostly didn't affect my comprehension of the story. at the end of the day, i don't think those details were the focus of the novella, so i don't feel too bad.

content warning for suicide: the MC is able to regrow up to 90% of its organic/non-organic body mass, and it's job is to keep humans safe, so it often puts itself into dangerous, near-fatal situations on purpose to that end. this includes, at the end of chapter four, an (unsuccessful) attempt to kill itself with a gun.

excited to keep reading! can't wait to see where the MC ends up