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lakmus's review against another edition
4.0
So in essence, we have an AI gaining personhood and fuller agency through the power of cognitive dissonance from being ordered to shoot a human they loved? And going on a twenty year mission to make their evil overlord fully aware that the same cognitive dissonance is already happening to them, which throws society into open civil war. Greek tragedy level shit, love it.
Notes to self:
- soooo Breq/Justice of Toren is legally non-human because it's an AI with ancillaries, but Anaander Mianaai is essentially a god-king, a position that she is able to hold because she's....an AI with ancillaries? That's a realistic level of societal hypocrisy actually.
- multi-body AI is an extremely cool and neat concept
- Radchaai-Alethi solidarity: imperial conquest and being horny about hands
- Radchaai society seems to be so strongly modelled on everything being soldier barracks (everyone gets an assignment, basic clothing/food/lodgings for citizens) that it starts morphing into space communism, as per horseshoe theory.
- cultures having strong opinions about tea is also very realistic actually
- love the Finnish/Mandarin solution to pronouns adopted here. Why have even the three standard pronouns when one does the job? "We are an extremely conservative culture with a fetish for tradition – our tradition says we don't care about gender expression, but all our pronouns will be 'she' because we don't particularly care for personal preferences either". Or have them in that way. See point about re: horseshoes.
- all this horseshoeing creates the effect of making a picture of society with utopian and dystopian features simultaneously – I've seen this before in the Terra Ignota books, and think this is a good way of doing sci-fi and fantasy worldbuilding. Creates a nice feeling of cognitive dissonance.
- hope to see more of Seivarden's internal thought process in later books, because boy, this guy is doing some personal growth very fast here, it's a little suspicious without the inner monologue.
Notes to self:
- soooo Breq/Justice of Toren is legally non-human because it's an AI with ancillaries, but Anaander Mianaai is essentially a god-king, a position that she is able to hold because she's....an AI with ancillaries? That's a realistic level of societal hypocrisy actually.
- multi-body AI is an extremely cool and neat concept
- Radchaai-Alethi solidarity: imperial conquest and being horny about hands
- Radchaai society seems to be so strongly modelled on everything being soldier barracks (everyone gets an assignment, basic clothing/food/lodgings for citizens) that it starts morphing into space communism, as per horseshoe theory.
- cultures having strong opinions about tea is also very realistic actually
- love the Finnish/Mandarin solution to pronouns adopted here. Why have even the three standard pronouns when one does the job? "We are an extremely conservative culture with a fetish for tradition – our tradition says we don't care about gender expression, but all our pronouns will be 'she' because we don't particularly care for personal preferences either". Or have them in that way. See point about re: horseshoes.
- all this horseshoeing creates the effect of making a picture of society with utopian and dystopian features simultaneously – I've seen this before in the Terra Ignota books, and think this is a good way of doing sci-fi and fantasy worldbuilding. Creates a nice feeling of cognitive dissonance.
- hope to see more of Seivarden's internal thought process in later books, because boy, this guy is doing some personal growth very fast here, it's a little suspicious without the inner monologue.
allison_reader's review against another edition
4.0
Book club book plus I wanted to read it anyway. Yes, the whole naming & pronoun system is a little hard to grasp but I just decided to not fight it. It made reading much better and eventually I just got it. I’m a big Star Trek fan and the style was very Star Trek-esque: less action, more thought, more emphasis on detail, contemplation of ethics. The ancillary Justice of Toren One Esk 19 (aka Breq) is not human but not machine, an A.I. Intelligence that has no memory of who it was when human yet has echos of its humanity: singing, empathy, love, desire, despair, but it is not an emotional being. It does what it is told but it also knows when those commands are wrong. There were some nit-picky issues (I mean, I love tea but it’s not the ONLY thing I drink), wasn’t too sure about Seivarden- was that character even necessary? He slept most of the book. Overall I enjoyed it but wasn’t overly excited to find out what was going to happen. I would like to read the next two in the trilogy but am not waiting with baited breath.
mkl_dvd's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
hjswinford's review against another edition
4.0
2023 reread: I enjoyed not having to struggle my way through orienting in this world this time around. It was nice to just enjoy the complexities of the worldbuilding and character. This time, I'll be continuing onto book 2!
2021 read: My brain is flooded to overflowing with thoughts, but they feel difficult to grasp after closing this book. I'm not sure that this book made a statement about anything so much as presented some complex ideas and said, "Here, reader: consider the existence of the self. What does 'I' mean?" The narrator believes that they are mostly dead...however they are viewed as "human" by even those who come to discover their identity because even in a society with "corpse soldiers" who have no thought or feeling (wink wink), anyone can be a *person* who shows humanity in their actions. The book was fascinating, but difficult to really get immersed in at first because the POV was so dang confusing. It was unique and in retrospect, I totally understand what's going on, but it was difficult to get into at first with no ability to get oriented. I did really like the development of the plot, though, and found the end very exciting. I look forward to reading the rest of the series.
2021 read: My brain is flooded to overflowing with thoughts, but they feel difficult to grasp after closing this book. I'm not sure that this book made a statement about anything so much as presented some complex ideas and said, "Here, reader: consider the existence of the self. What does 'I' mean?" The narrator believes that they are mostly dead...however they are viewed as "human" by even those who come to discover their identity because even in a society with "corpse soldiers" who have no thought or feeling (wink wink), anyone can be a *person* who shows humanity in their actions. The book was fascinating, but difficult to really get immersed in at first because the POV was so dang confusing. It was unique and in retrospect, I totally understand what's going on, but it was difficult to get into at first with no ability to get oriented. I did really like the development of the plot, though, and found the end very exciting. I look forward to reading the rest of the series.
bugsbunny495's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
smalefowles's review against another edition
challenging
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Is One Esk just a more complex Murderbot? Perhaps not precisely, but I'm definitely here for it.
jenamanda1228's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
sonjaha's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5