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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
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
Not as genius as the trilogy, but it has Ann Leckie's brand of awkward interspecies relations and weird plots. It's a story about who we are and who we can be, and how the things that matter to us shape our lives. It is also a strange murder mystery involving spider bots, aliens and interstellar law.
3.5 stars. Doesn’t carry the same heft or majesty that the original Imperial Radch trilogy does, but it’s still an interesting (yet smaller) tale set in the same universe. I might have to read it again because I feel like I missed some of the nuances that Leckie was trying to convey. As a storyteller, she is a consummate shower, not a teller. So you simply can’t blink while you’re reading her work or you will fail to get points that she’s conveying in the narrative. I do love that she maintains her thematic focus on politics and culture rather than relying on the clichéd action set pieces that you find sometimes in other sci-fi literature.
I found it a little difficult to get into but great by chapter five
I wanted to like this. I loved the “Ancillary” trilogy, but I had to give up on this one ~ 100 pages in. Not enough going on to hold my interest.
Back into to the Radch universe but at a different angle, Leckie brings us a much more politically bent adventure. Ingary, in a desperate attempt to be the heir of her mother's political title, puts all her cards on one risky move to get a criminal out of prison and to reveal the location of lost, precious "vestiges" that her home planet of Hwae depends on as a society. As things go awry, Ingary is forced to consider what is important to her and to her society, and whether truth can dismantle belief. It's all fresh, Leckie filling in the edges we were missing while we romped with in the trilogy, and asks us all new questions.
JUST SO GOOD. OK, I really want to give it 4/5 stars but since I can't I'm erring on the side of positive.Why not truly 5? Because the Imperial Radch trilogy was perfect or basically perfect enough for me. That said, this is just so so so good, especially once it gets going. And the Geck! And mechs! And plenty of culture-specific manners and particularities, brilliantly woven in, to make this real-life ethnographer very happy indeed. Really it's kind of a romp, and has more of the flavor of Lois McMaster Bujold (of whom I am an abject fan) than the Radch trilogy did--not as dark and manic as those. It's delightful. Just read it.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No