Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie

11 reviews

violerwolf's review against another edition

adventurous funny reflective medium-paced

• 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

4.5

I absolutely love the world Leckie has crafted. While this book feels more like an interlude between the main conflicts, the characters, the prose, and the politics more than compensate for the less urgent tone of this book. So excited to read the third.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Colonisation, Slavery, and Infidelity

Moderate: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Rape

Minor: Medical content, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Sexual content, Drug abuse, Death, and Gun violence

booksthatburn's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

ANCILLARY SWORD follows Breq to the station where the sister of the lieutenant she murdered lives. The lieutenant served her when she was a ship, but now Breq has only one body. Knowing that the lieutenant's sister would not welcome her, she nevertheless makes an offer intended to provide material support and to assuage whatever level of guilt she quite understandably feels, even after all this time. As a sequel, this means that the stated point of the book (at the outset) is to wrap up this obligation which was left hanging from ANCILLARY JUSTICE. Once Breq arrives on the station, a new storyline unfolds relating to abuse of some of the colonized people. She pursues and obtains a small but very important piece of justice. Along the way the narrative spends a lot of time showing the way that the Radch Empire's ideals of fairness and justice can still allow for quite a bit of unfairness and injustice when people play fast and loose with precisely whom is a real citizen, and therefore whom is due basic protections and rights. 

I love the way this series approaches identity, holding space for individuality and autonomy even though Breq is the last body of a collective identity which cycled through hundreds or thousands of bodies over her long existence. It seems as though this is part of why she cares about individual's rights to their own bodies so much, she had a duty of care and a sense of well-being tied up in her many bodies when she had them. In her strange existence as the last of her own ancillaries she is turning that care outward even more than when she just had charge of her ancillaries and crew.

Very importantly for the middle book of a trilogy, this has a complete storyline that could stand alone and be very comprehensible to someone who hadn't read the first book. Enough is explained about how the ancillaries work that even though Breq's backstory was told in the ANCILLARY JUSTICE, there's enough here for ANICLLARY SWORD to make sense without those specifics. Because of the way key details are explained towards the end of the book, to a new reader this could easily feel like the solution to a mystery, just as it does to most of the people around Breq. 

The worldbuilding once again is complex and robust, but it's focused on people in a way that feels very accessible. I prefer soft sci-fi, and while I don't know if this technically counts, I do know that I've made it through two books so far without being forced to learn the technobabble for how the space travel gates work, so I'm happy with it.

I have some guesses as to what the third book could focus on, the only thing I know for sure is that breck leaves the station in the end, something I don't consider to really be a spoiler as her one constant is travel. Wherever she goes now and what happens because of the people she got to know in ancillary sword the third book is likely to deal with the Emperor's crisis of identity that is brewing in the background (and occasionally the foreground) of this book

I want to know how the Emperor's identity crisis will resolve (or not), really I want to know what Breq will do next. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Colonisation, Classism, Xenophobia, Slavery, Trafficking, Blood, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Medical content, Child abuse, Gun violence, Grief, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and War

Minor: Sexism, Rape, and Sexual assault

bleepbloop's review against another edition

slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation and Xenophobia

Minor: Sexual assault, Pedophilia, and Suicidal thoughts

alatarmaia's review against another edition

• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

Kalr 5 my beloved. Tisarwat my "oh god what the fuck is happening" of the beginning of this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Slavery, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Death, Sexual assault, and Torture

jakobvongunten's review against another edition

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism and Torture

Minor: Sexual assault

kylieqrada's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

4.0

I'm continuing to love this series. It's not cozy per se, but it feels cozy to me. I tried to explain the plot to my mom and I think I broke her brain, but Ann Leckie does a much better job explaining what's going on than I can. Continuing to binge!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Slavery, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Death, and Gun violence

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, and Addiction

cornfusedsnow's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual assault

pvbobrien's review against another edition

adventurous tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Violence, Blood, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Medical content, Gun violence, Slavery, and Trafficking

Minor: Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Rape, Sexual assault, War, Vomit, Addiction, Body horror, Classism, Death, and Drug abuse

ricksilva's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

More character-driven than the first book, this story puts Breq in command of Mercy of Kalr, a small ship, assigned to protect a remote system as the civil war between the fractured Radch Emperor's factions intensifies. 

This was great, from the details of the worldbuilding, to the political themes of justice in the face of colonialism, to the small details and character interactions. I loved the expanded cast of characters aboard Mercy of Kalr, and at the destination system.

There was some good political intrigue, and a nice setup for the third book in the series. 

Builds on the world and themes established in the first book, but it stands alone surprisingly well.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation and Police brutality

Minor: Sexual assault

katie_the_librarian's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Trafficking, and Slavery

Moderate: Bullying, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Sexual assault