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A review by midici
Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
~Spoilers~
I was wondering how the entire situation with multiple versions of the empress fighting and Breq's quest for revenge was going to wrap up in just one book and the answer is - it did not! But I found the answer pretty satisfying anyway.
Throughout the last couple of books we've seen how Breq tries to address injustice when and where she can, while acknowledging that most of the harm has been done over multiple years of colonialism, genocide, and forced assimilation, and she isn't really capable of solving every problem. There's also been a lot of discussion on what it means to be an autonomous person. As an ancillary, Breq, like all the ships and stations that are run by AI, is considered to be property. Basically infrastructure. But her time as an independent being has taught her that not only is that incorrect, but that her fellow AIs might have their own opinions on how they want to live.
The climax of this book resolving itself around Breq and her allies giving autonomy back to the AIs and then declaring their little section of space to belong to them as Significant, Non-human beings and forcing Anaander to back off lest she run afoul of the Presger, who's alliance is on very shaky ground, was very clever and I really enjoyed it. There were many more AI characters in this one, from Breq and Tisarwat and Station, to all the new ships that enter the system and Sphene, their unexpected enemy turned ally. The decision to all call each other cousin is super cute honestly.
Also, confirmation that there IS more than two Anaander factions - at least three but who knows, maybe there's more. A being who had lived for three thousand years, occupying multiple cloned versions of herself, and secretly battling herself for at least a thousand of those years in multiple factions is a fascinating villain. She can't trust herself and no one can trust her and all versions of herself have ultimate authority because that's how she set up her empire. I wouldn't mind seeing more of this play out.
To my delight we got a lot more time with the Presger-human hybrid translators. I didn't get the sense that they understood individual existences or were particularly occupied with states of being (alive vs dead), so I was surprised when translator Zeiat said the translators had an invested interest in keeping the alliance intact so the translators would have a reason to be kept alive by the Presger. Still don't understand them, still fascinating.
I was wondering how the entire situation with multiple versions of the empress fighting and Breq's quest for revenge was going to wrap up in just one book and the answer is - it did not! But I found the answer pretty satisfying anyway.
Throughout the last couple of books we've seen how Breq tries to address injustice when and where she can, while acknowledging that most of the harm has been done over multiple years of colonialism, genocide, and forced assimilation, and she isn't really capable of solving every problem. There's also been a lot of discussion on what it means to be an autonomous person. As an ancillary, Breq, like all the ships and stations that are run by AI, is considered to be property. Basically infrastructure. But her time as an independent being has taught her that not only is that incorrect, but that her fellow AIs might have their own opinions on how they want to live.
The climax of this book resolving itself around Breq and her allies giving autonomy back to the AIs and then declaring their little section of space to belong to them as Significant, Non-human beings and forcing Anaander to back off lest she run afoul of the Presger, who's alliance is on very shaky ground, was very clever and I really enjoyed it. There were many more AI characters in this one, from Breq and Tisarwat and Station, to all the new ships that enter the system and Sphene, their unexpected enemy turned ally. The decision to all call each other cousin is super cute honestly.
Also, confirmation that there IS more than two Anaander factions - at least three but who knows, maybe there's more. A being who had lived for three thousand years, occupying multiple cloned versions of herself, and secretly battling herself for at least a thousand of those years in multiple factions is a fascinating villain. She can't trust herself and no one can trust her and all versions of herself have ultimate authority because that's how she set up her empire. I wouldn't mind seeing more of this play out.
To my delight we got a lot more time with the Presger-human hybrid translators. I didn't get the sense that they understood individual existences or were particularly occupied with states of being (alive vs dead), so I was surprised when translator Zeiat said the translators had an invested interest in keeping the alliance intact so the translators would have a reason to be kept alive by the Presger. Still don't understand them, still fascinating.