You make me realise I haven't read the sequel yet and I neeeeed to I need this like burning.
Interesting re: the pronouns! I hadn't thought of that about it possibly hiding a male-dominated society... I guess that when I step back I sort of feel as if given the way Raadchai society is presented, "male" and "female" don't make sense as categories for them - basically, that their society only has the one gender ("default") and all Raadchai we see are that. Which may be a cop-out or may be a very trans* view to take, idk. However, reading I was definitely just picturing everyone as female with the occasional staticky blip (as bluemeridian put it) when someone was described in male terms.
Agree on being bugged by Seivarden. I guess what annoyed me about her (...him...) is that I could never make sense of Breq's actions regarding her (...fuck it I'm sticking with 'her') and I feel like this was kind of hand-waved away with 'traumatised ex-spaceship dealing with MAJOR identity issues is traumatised'. But Breq's actions *always* followed a certain logic, if sometimes a rather corkscrewy one that was not apparent at first glance... except at the start re: Seivarden. It's jarring. And then Seivarden's character development seemed a bit out of nowhere? IDK.
Anyway, I also went squee! over the identity stuff way more than the pronouns, the identity stuff was why I read the book and what hooked me from the very start. SO FREAKING COOL. I want Ann Leckie's brain because hoooooly shit things I had NO IDEA you could do with first person.
INCIDENTALLY if you are interested in a rec for another "holy shit identity I had no idea you could do this with pov" book, I've got the Matthew Swift series by Kate Griffin... main character is sort of a mind-merge between a human and a collective consciousness and the book is therefore written in first person singular and first person plural simultaneously. The identity stuff is not quite as forefronted in the plot but there are all sorts of subtle interesting things going on regarding when the 'pov' if you want to call it that switches and how 'we' reacts to a situation versus 'I' and how much they *realise* that they are having separate reactions if you pay attention.
no subject
Interesting re: the pronouns! I hadn't thought of that about it possibly hiding a male-dominated society... I guess that when I step back I sort of feel as if given the way Raadchai society is presented, "male" and "female" don't make sense as categories for them - basically, that their society only has the one gender ("default") and all Raadchai we see are that. Which may be a cop-out or may be a very trans* view to take, idk. However, reading I was definitely just picturing everyone as female with the occasional staticky blip (as
Agree on being bugged by Seivarden. I guess what annoyed me about her (...him...) is that I could never make sense of Breq's actions regarding her (...fuck it I'm sticking with 'her') and I feel like this was kind of hand-waved away with 'traumatised ex-spaceship dealing with MAJOR identity issues is traumatised'. But Breq's actions *always* followed a certain logic, if sometimes a rather corkscrewy one that was not apparent at first glance... except at the start re: Seivarden. It's jarring. And then Seivarden's character development seemed a bit out of nowhere? IDK.
Anyway, I also went squee! over the identity stuff way more than the pronouns, the identity stuff was why I read the book and what hooked me from the very start. SO FREAKING COOL. I want Ann Leckie's brain because hoooooly shit things I had NO IDEA you could do with first person.
INCIDENTALLY if you are interested in a rec for another "holy shit identity I had no idea you could do this with pov" book, I've got the Matthew Swift series by Kate Griffin... main character is sort of a mind-merge between a human and a collective consciousness and the book is therefore written in first person singular and first person plural simultaneously. The identity stuff is not quite as forefronted in the plot but there are all sorts of subtle interesting things going on regarding when the 'pov' if you want to call it that switches and how 'we' reacts to a situation versus 'I' and how much they *realise* that they are having separate reactions if you pay attention.