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Title: Ancillary Sword
Author: Ann Leckie
Genre: Space opera
Thingummies: 4
Synopsis: The loneliest ship AI gets command of her own ship and is sent to a system where things are very much not what they appear to be.
Thoughts: It's not uncommon, when a book is dazzlingly original, for the sequel to be a bit of a let down. This follow up to Ancillary Justice lacks much of the stakes and urgency of the first book, and is clearly intended mostly to bridge the gap between the first and third books of the series. One Esk spends the first book trying to bring down the invulnerable government of an empire that spans star systems and millenia; in the second, she needs to figure out if a couple of government officials are maybe corrupt. A lot of what made the first book so compelling--the flashback structure, the efforts to puzzle together the past, the fascinating take on gender--are either discarded or simply repeated here.
But just because it's not as brilliant as its predecessor doesn't mean that this book isn't still very, very good. One Esk is a fascinating character--not actually human, but having spent millenia essentially in the heads of thousands of humans. There's both a distance and a wisdom that makes for interesting interactions. And really, that's what this book is about--it's less concerned with plot and more concerned with the delicate relationships between the characters. Leckie has a deft touch, leaving so much unsaid. It's a hard balance to achieve, not to over or understand too much, and Leckie has a gift for it. So we take a lovely, leisurely tour of a planet simmering with class tension and unsaid resentments, where One Esk has inadvertantly become a lightning rod. The result, while not ground-breaking, is haunting and engrossing.
Author: Ann Leckie
Genre: Space opera
Thingummies: 4
Synopsis: The loneliest ship AI gets command of her own ship and is sent to a system where things are very much not what they appear to be.
Thoughts: It's not uncommon, when a book is dazzlingly original, for the sequel to be a bit of a let down. This follow up to Ancillary Justice lacks much of the stakes and urgency of the first book, and is clearly intended mostly to bridge the gap between the first and third books of the series. One Esk spends the first book trying to bring down the invulnerable government of an empire that spans star systems and millenia; in the second, she needs to figure out if a couple of government officials are maybe corrupt. A lot of what made the first book so compelling--the flashback structure, the efforts to puzzle together the past, the fascinating take on gender--are either discarded or simply repeated here.
But just because it's not as brilliant as its predecessor doesn't mean that this book isn't still very, very good. One Esk is a fascinating character--not actually human, but having spent millenia essentially in the heads of thousands of humans. There's both a distance and a wisdom that makes for interesting interactions. And really, that's what this book is about--it's less concerned with plot and more concerned with the delicate relationships between the characters. Leckie has a deft touch, leaving so much unsaid. It's a hard balance to achieve, not to over or understand too much, and Leckie has a gift for it. So we take a lovely, leisurely tour of a planet simmering with class tension and unsaid resentments, where One Esk has inadvertantly become a lightning rod. The result, while not ground-breaking, is haunting and engrossing.
