1. A system, comprising: a plurality of compute nodes that together implement a distributed database, wherein one the plurality of compute nodes is a master node that performs read and write requests to data maintained for the distributed database, wherein a different one of the plurality of compute nodes is a read-only node that performs reads of the data maintained for the distributed database; a common data store maintaining the data for the distributed database; the read-only node, configured to: upon startup of the read-only node: request from the master node a view of the distributed database to initialize the read-only node for servicing queries directed to the distributed database; in response to receipt of an indication of the view of the distributed database at the read-only node: read from the common data store one or more portions of the data according to the indicated view of the distributed database; based, at least in part, on the obtained data portions from the common data store, initialize one or more in-memory data structures at the read-only node for servicing queries directed toward the distributed database; and in response to the initialization of the one or more in-memory data structures at the read-only node, make the read-only node available for servicing queries.