Well, so much for that fucking idea.

Everyone knows that I haven't had any natural teeth for well over a decade. most of you know I don't wear my dentures because they are useless when it comes time to chew things, due to the amount of bone mass I lost in my jaw during chemotherapy. The lower plate just floats free.

I kept wearing them when I was still driving a truck and then through my time as a limo dispatcher, but after the stroke, I just stopped. There's no need. I'm not out to impress people with my smile, I can eat well enough, why spend spoons on the daily ritual of inserting, removing, and cleaning the teeth?

My feelings started to change when I started work as a crossing guard. It'd be nice to be able to smile at the kids. Hope for actual working dentures rose when Kirsten's insurance changed, and I was able to get covered under her dental plan. We knew it'd still be expensive, but with insurance and Go Fund Me, we could at least ask.

I'm just back from the dentist. $27,000 for each arch and the doctor wasn't sure if she'd even be able to do the lower jaw. Just for the record, we'd be able to fly back to Istanbul for another week, fly home, buy the custom Hiker trailer we wanted cash on the barrelhead, and still be able to afford season tickets to the San Jose Giants.

Healthcare in this nation is outrageous.

A Memory Called Empire, my review.

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This novel won Best Novel at the 2020 Hugo Awards. It's easy to see why. Here's the summary blurb"

"Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining Station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn't an accident—or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court.

"Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her Station from Teixcalaan's unceasing expansion—all while navigating an alien culture that is all too seductive, engaging in intrigues of her own, and hiding a deadly technological secret—one that might spell the end of her Station and her way of life—or rescue it from annihilation."

The Teixcalaanli people and state are vivid and well-written. You get the grandeur of this mighty empire and that scheming banality of its power players. The book is a mystery wrapped into a court intrigue covered in a looming threat. Mahit makes an excellent narrator as someone familiar with the ideas of Teixcalaanli culture, but unready for the full force of reality of the city/world/empire that is Teixcalaan.

I also appreciate a space opera with actual opera in it, as poetry and historical epics are vital to the empire's identity. There is relatively little action, and it works in this tale. The real action is figuring out what everyone's motives are and how they relate to the previous ambassador's death.

This was a stunningly fun book to read. I am eagerly looking for ward to the sequel being released in paperback (just no room for hardbacks on my shelves) to learn more about this fascinating universe.



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