This series is absolutely unique in the SF space today. The dedication from the first book, which so many repeat and I will again-- "To all those who fall in love with a culture that is slowly devouring their own"--is a completely accurate description of the perspective. This second volume builds off the scaffolding of the first to tell a more intimate story about protagonists Three Seagrass and Mahit Dzmaire. It is set against the large and exciting space opera of an existential threat to both Teixcalaan and Lsel Station. In the reviews I see some DNFs at around the 60-70 percent mark. You gave up at the wrong time. The book sort of revels in Teixcalaan during the first two thirds while the action is constructed, but then it becomes something you can't put down.
And who wouldn't love Teixcalaan? A society where all regulations and court proceedings have to be conducted in verse, where poetry is so woven into the culture that everyone writes it and the best are rock stars? Beauty and brutal destruction are inseparable. The cultures of Lsel Station and Teixcalaan are recognizable (marry British global ambition to Asian aesthetic sensibilities) but very different from America so that the lessons are easier to handle. Three Seagrass repeatedly illustrates microaggressions while growing to love Mahit, and Mahit is scarred by them but not able to help loving her back. Ambition so large it has its own gravity is compelling, and Martine very ably conveys that it's not an individual thing--everyone in Teixcalaan behaves as they do because they are part of it. I can only give it four stars because it took a bit of grinding to read the first part, but overall it really is better than the first book and is incredibly worthwhile. I desperately want to know more about Teixcalaan in all its flawed glory.
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