Brought To Book
ARKADY MARTINE
THE SFX AUTHOR INTERVIEW
Why communication breakdowns fascinate the Hugo-winning writer
Words by Jonathan Wright
GIVEN THAT SHE writes so eloquently, there’s a certain irony in Arkady Martine’s abiding interest in what happens when people don’t understand each other. “I am deeply fascinated by communication failure,” says the author (real name AnnaLinden Weller), “and the places where people, worldviews or conceptions of reality just don’t match up, in such a profound way that people stop thinking about each other as people.”
It’s a theme that runs through Martine’s duology, A Memory Called Empire and A Desolation Called Peace. The books centre on Mahit Dzmare, an ambassador from a space station sent to the heart of the Teixcalaanli Empire, a place where being an outsider equates to being uncultured, a barbarian.