I was looking for some evasion from work and that mean Science fiction for me. But As I have not been following up what was released in the last few years, except for Neal Stephenson’s book, I was absolutely unaware of what to read (and was not in a mood for reading classics as I am doing for movies).

So I took the easy path as the Hugo Award was just announced a few weeks ago so I bought this year’s nominee: A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine.

Some Foundation vibes

If you ar expecting a space opera, forget it. It’s more a political story set in an interplanetary systtem (though 95% of the story takes place on on planet).

This strongly reminded me of the first volume of the Foundation serie. Which is a book which kept me going in STEM at a difficult time during high-school (and put me in the path to data science in general but that is the topic for another blog). And this is not what I was expecting or a theme which is that common in sci-fi books.

And I LOVED it.

What is culture anyway?

Beyond the diplomacy aspect of the story, the difference in culture between the main character and the main protagonists on the planet was extremely interesting. How well you know the language, how people see you, how to play the cultured barbarian, what you (or they) consider to be common knowledge… This is pretty much a description of my life in Japan for the last 6 years…

Final word

Just read it!