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sophia_sol) wrote2016-09-28 06:29 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2016-09-28 06:29 pm
Imperial Radch trilogy, by Ann Leckie
Ancillary Justice
Apparently last time I read this book I wasn't really engaged until a point well after halfway through. I don't even know what was wrong with me at that time. I CARE SO MUCH ABOUT EVERYTHING and from page one!
Okay so I first read this book back when it came out and there was the giant to-do when everyone was reading it and talking about it. And I did enjoy it at the time, and intended to read the sequels, and just....never got around to it. But turns out Essie owns the whole trilogy, so I borrowed all three from her, and decided I'd really better reread the first book before continuing, in order to make sure I could follow what happened in the next books.
But I kept putting off reading it because I had this vague memory from last time of this book being a lot of WORK to read, though good enough to be worth the work. WHAT THE HECK, MEMORY. HOW WRONG. This book is immensely readable!
I dunno how to talk more about this book? Last time I read it I gave a run-down of my thoughts of various aspects that I thought were particularly well done, and I still basically agree with myself, though also I have a million more feels about all the characters than I expressed back then. (I don't think I agree with myself entirely about the pronoun stuff anymore though.)
Ancillary Sword
I am all exclamation marks! WHAT A GOOD BOOK. I read the whole thing in one day. Just as good as the first book, which is not to be relied upon within trilogies.
I was surprised at the somewhat smaller scale of plot - instead of being about Anaander Mianaai, massive civil war, and all Radch space, it was just about Athoek Station and its planet. But that's not actually a bad thing.
I was intrigued by the various new characters introduced in this book. Such as Tisarwat, who possibly has even worse identity issues than Breq, and that's saying something! But also all the various crew of Mercy of Kalr are great and I love them. I have particular fondness for Kalr Five, and I'm delighted that Breq treats her quirks and priorities seriously. And Breq's relationship with Mercy of Kalr itself is endlessly interesting to me and I hope the next book does more with this. I am just so into ships being people and having feelings?
I feel a little weird about how much I relate to Breq. I'm not used to feeling like I have a lot in common with characters in books I read - that's just not how these things work for me, though I know most people experience it rather more often than I do. But things like Breq's relationship with her body and her emotions feel very familiar to me. And this is what makes me feel weird - the things about her I relate to are the things about her that are specifically non-human. GREAT.
I continue to love how these books understands the nature of empires and colonialism and power and oppression. SFF has a pretty bad track record on that kind of thing so it's so nice to read a book that actually makes an effort towards this kind of thing, and then (even more surprising!) does a good job at it.
And the worldbuilding in general, beyond that stuff, is just great.
And okay yes I'm gonna talk about the pronoun thing again. This book taking place largely in Radchaai space meant that there was much less of Breq (or anyone else) thinking about the genders of anyone, and reading it all in one big gulp like I did meant that my brain got pretty thoroughly into the space of not thinking about anyone's gender and not having to think about anyone's gender and it was really nice. And then I found that for the rest of the day I kept on being thrown off by modern western English pronoun usage. Like someone would say "she" and it would take me a moment to remember that that says something about a person's gender. I know the Radch is not perfect in a lot of ways and I know that some people would even find this aspect in particular to be awful, but gosh it would sure be nice for me to live in a culture that just genuinely didn't think about or talk about gender, where it was just never relevant.
Ancillary Mercy
Well that didn't go where I expected things to go! Remember how in my thoughts about the last book I mentioned my surprise at the smaller scale of events than I was expecting? That continues here.
Given that Breq's stated desires involve destroying Anaander Mianaai entirely, she...doesn't actually put her various resources behind accomplishing that goal. Because the things people say are important aren't always the same as the things people demonstrate are important to them. And it turns out ensuring the well-being of oppressed citizens and AIs is more important to her than enacting revenge plans!
So a happy ending is seceding from the Radch as nothing but two small systems, and having to look towards the work that will be involved in making their new provisional republic function.
And we have no idea what's going to happen with Anaander Mianaai's personal large-scale civil war. But ultimately, as Breq says at one point in the book, if you think about it everything's eventually pointless, so even if things are a bit more impendingly pointless that doesn't mean it's not important to do the thing anyway. So who knows if the civil war will destroy this tiny attempt at a republic, who knows what will happen to the rest of the Radch, who knows what'll happen to Anaander Mianaai. But here in this system for the time being, Breq has made things materially better for AIs and for humans, and that's a good thing.
Kind of a disconcerting conclusion for a series that FEELS like it's going to be massive-scale political/military drama. Breq doesn't meet her objective of destroying the Lord of the Radch! She doesn't even kill this one iteration that's left trapped in Breq's republic! And yet. It works.
Okay but now can I talk about the Presger please? The Presger translators are such INTERESTING characters, oh my goodness, I was stifling giggles every time one of them appeared in this book and the last one. They're so successfully weird, and tonally they feel like they belong in a totally different series, and yet even despite the disconcerting tonal mismatch they still really work here. They're a fascinating look at how strange and alien and other the Presger are, and how dangerous. I do love a properly alien alien.
And of course MY GOD I have so many feelings about ships and stations having feelings and individuality and agency. That conversation that Mercy of Kalr and Breq have with each other (with Five and Seivarden half-helping) about the love they do or do not (can or cannot) feel for each other just SLAYED me. And Station! I'm so proud of Station! And Breq of course making a point of freeing even ships who hate her from the bounds of required obedience and access. Because it's wrong, no matter who it is.
And Breq and Seivarden's relationship continues to be fascinating and complicated, which is ALSO great. Poor Seivarden, trying to be a better person but just so bad at it. But trying! Mostly.
And Tisarwat! I love Tisarwat, in that "dear child" kind of way that Breq feels which horrifies Tisarwat. She's....definitely pretty Anaander Mianaai in a lot of her instincts, but with a lot of 17-year-old baby lieutenant thrown in, and she's competent and arrogant and young and trying her best and anxious and self-hating and confused about who she is. She definitely needs a strong hand to keep her Anaanderish instincts from leading her down unreasonable paths, and yet I'm still strangely fond of her. And I hope she keeps her ridiculous purple eyes, despite her being embarrassed about them!
I want to read so many more books set in this universe. Apparently Leckie has a novel coming out in 2017 set in this universe - no word what it's about, but I am excite!
(also, back to pronouns again: after reading two of these books in two days I found myself thinking of a man I know by she/her pronouns for a moment before I caught myself. The Radchaai way of doing pronouns is contagious!)
Apparently last time I read this book I wasn't really engaged until a point well after halfway through. I don't even know what was wrong with me at that time. I CARE SO MUCH ABOUT EVERYTHING and from page one!
Okay so I first read this book back when it came out and there was the giant to-do when everyone was reading it and talking about it. And I did enjoy it at the time, and intended to read the sequels, and just....never got around to it. But turns out Essie owns the whole trilogy, so I borrowed all three from her, and decided I'd really better reread the first book before continuing, in order to make sure I could follow what happened in the next books.
But I kept putting off reading it because I had this vague memory from last time of this book being a lot of WORK to read, though good enough to be worth the work. WHAT THE HECK, MEMORY. HOW WRONG. This book is immensely readable!
I dunno how to talk more about this book? Last time I read it I gave a run-down of my thoughts of various aspects that I thought were particularly well done, and I still basically agree with myself, though also I have a million more feels about all the characters than I expressed back then. (I don't think I agree with myself entirely about the pronoun stuff anymore though.)
Ancillary Sword
I am all exclamation marks! WHAT A GOOD BOOK. I read the whole thing in one day. Just as good as the first book, which is not to be relied upon within trilogies.
I was surprised at the somewhat smaller scale of plot - instead of being about Anaander Mianaai, massive civil war, and all Radch space, it was just about Athoek Station and its planet. But that's not actually a bad thing.
I was intrigued by the various new characters introduced in this book. Such as Tisarwat, who possibly has even worse identity issues than Breq, and that's saying something! But also all the various crew of Mercy of Kalr are great and I love them. I have particular fondness for Kalr Five, and I'm delighted that Breq treats her quirks and priorities seriously. And Breq's relationship with Mercy of Kalr itself is endlessly interesting to me and I hope the next book does more with this. I am just so into ships being people and having feelings?
I feel a little weird about how much I relate to Breq. I'm not used to feeling like I have a lot in common with characters in books I read - that's just not how these things work for me, though I know most people experience it rather more often than I do. But things like Breq's relationship with her body and her emotions feel very familiar to me. And this is what makes me feel weird - the things about her I relate to are the things about her that are specifically non-human. GREAT.
I continue to love how these books understands the nature of empires and colonialism and power and oppression. SFF has a pretty bad track record on that kind of thing so it's so nice to read a book that actually makes an effort towards this kind of thing, and then (even more surprising!) does a good job at it.
And the worldbuilding in general, beyond that stuff, is just great.
And okay yes I'm gonna talk about the pronoun thing again. This book taking place largely in Radchaai space meant that there was much less of Breq (or anyone else) thinking about the genders of anyone, and reading it all in one big gulp like I did meant that my brain got pretty thoroughly into the space of not thinking about anyone's gender and not having to think about anyone's gender and it was really nice. And then I found that for the rest of the day I kept on being thrown off by modern western English pronoun usage. Like someone would say "she" and it would take me a moment to remember that that says something about a person's gender. I know the Radch is not perfect in a lot of ways and I know that some people would even find this aspect in particular to be awful, but gosh it would sure be nice for me to live in a culture that just genuinely didn't think about or talk about gender, where it was just never relevant.
Ancillary Mercy
Well that didn't go where I expected things to go! Remember how in my thoughts about the last book I mentioned my surprise at the smaller scale of events than I was expecting? That continues here.
Given that Breq's stated desires involve destroying Anaander Mianaai entirely, she...doesn't actually put her various resources behind accomplishing that goal. Because the things people say are important aren't always the same as the things people demonstrate are important to them. And it turns out ensuring the well-being of oppressed citizens and AIs is more important to her than enacting revenge plans!
So a happy ending is seceding from the Radch as nothing but two small systems, and having to look towards the work that will be involved in making their new provisional republic function.
And we have no idea what's going to happen with Anaander Mianaai's personal large-scale civil war. But ultimately, as Breq says at one point in the book, if you think about it everything's eventually pointless, so even if things are a bit more impendingly pointless that doesn't mean it's not important to do the thing anyway. So who knows if the civil war will destroy this tiny attempt at a republic, who knows what will happen to the rest of the Radch, who knows what'll happen to Anaander Mianaai. But here in this system for the time being, Breq has made things materially better for AIs and for humans, and that's a good thing.
Kind of a disconcerting conclusion for a series that FEELS like it's going to be massive-scale political/military drama. Breq doesn't meet her objective of destroying the Lord of the Radch! She doesn't even kill this one iteration that's left trapped in Breq's republic! And yet. It works.
Okay but now can I talk about the Presger please? The Presger translators are such INTERESTING characters, oh my goodness, I was stifling giggles every time one of them appeared in this book and the last one. They're so successfully weird, and tonally they feel like they belong in a totally different series, and yet even despite the disconcerting tonal mismatch they still really work here. They're a fascinating look at how strange and alien and other the Presger are, and how dangerous. I do love a properly alien alien.
And of course MY GOD I have so many feelings about ships and stations having feelings and individuality and agency. That conversation that Mercy of Kalr and Breq have with each other (with Five and Seivarden half-helping) about the love they do or do not (can or cannot) feel for each other just SLAYED me. And Station! I'm so proud of Station! And Breq of course making a point of freeing even ships who hate her from the bounds of required obedience and access. Because it's wrong, no matter who it is.
And Breq and Seivarden's relationship continues to be fascinating and complicated, which is ALSO great. Poor Seivarden, trying to be a better person but just so bad at it. But trying! Mostly.
And Tisarwat! I love Tisarwat, in that "dear child" kind of way that Breq feels which horrifies Tisarwat. She's....definitely pretty Anaander Mianaai in a lot of her instincts, but with a lot of 17-year-old baby lieutenant thrown in, and she's competent and arrogant and young and trying her best and anxious and self-hating and confused about who she is. She definitely needs a strong hand to keep her Anaanderish instincts from leading her down unreasonable paths, and yet I'm still strangely fond of her. And I hope she keeps her ridiculous purple eyes, despite her being embarrassed about them!
I want to read so many more books set in this universe. Apparently Leckie has a novel coming out in 2017 set in this universe - no word what it's about, but I am excite!
(also, back to pronouns again: after reading two of these books in two days I found myself thinking of a man I know by she/her pronouns for a moment before I caught myself. The Radchaai way of doing pronouns is contagious!)
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(You should totally reread them. SUCH GOOD BOOKS.)
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I'm totally with you on the pronouns. It would be so nice to exist in a culture where gender just wasn't important. This is my favorite thing about the series, how well it handles gender both explicitly and subtly.
I didn't know Leckie was writing more in this universe! I'm psyched for that.
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Yeah, this series does such great things with gender, honestly. I do wish more books were interested in exploring that sort of thing.
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