Ancillary mercy (edition 2015)

Read 2015, favourite. ( )

3.5 rounded down

Such a weird experience while reading. it actually feels like I've been reading this series for years. I tend to exaggerate...

But even though I enjoyed the reading experience I don't think I actually knew what was going on half the time. Which means that a reread will probably bump up the rating because I do want to reread this. ( )

While on the surface Ancillary Mercy may feel like a retread or simple continuation of Ancillary Sword, since it has the almost entirely the same setting and cast of characters, the focus was shifted in an important way towards the AI and alien characters-- Breq, Mercy of Kalr, Station, Sphene, Tisarwat, and Translator Zeiat were really the heart of the book. While Ancillary Justice was an action-packed space opera about the trauma of Justice of Toren One Esk Nineteen losing the rest of herself and her crew, and Ancillary Sword was a tensely human political story about Fleet Captain Breq trying to pass as Radchaii, this third installment is about the strange, the other and the different, about Breq becoming her own person, and beginning to really find herself.

However, all of that said, I felt like there were some missed opportunities. The effects of the Presger gun, and the Presger themselves, are entirely off-camera. Station, Mercy of Kalr, and Sword of Atagaris are all given their freedom but then all act in almost exactly the same way. The AI cores are no more than MacGuffins. There's the tiniest hint that younger Mianaiis are less capable than their older bodies, but it's never expanded upon, and she never really feels like a threat. We never actually got to encounter the crewless Sphene ship. And finally, ever since Tisarwat had her implants removed I thought we would see at least one ancillary partially regain its body's original personality. But I guess there's only so much you can fit into three books.

Ultimately, about the ending: While I would have liked more of a conclusion for several things-- what about the Lord of the Radch's argument with herself, and how many parts does she really have? What's going on outside of Athoek System? What does the future hold for Two Systems? -- I thought that the ending was fitting for the book, and the acknowledgment of the AIs as separate and Significant beings was a true emotional resolution for Breq, much more than the destruction of the Lord of the Radch she had been wanting for the whole trilogy would have been. A classic want vs. need story, if a bit abrupt at the end. ( )

This series was really great. The point of views and gender wordplay seem like gimicks at the start, but they develop through significant phases to become core parts of the theme. By the end there were several characters whose gender became irrelevant to me in the exact way that it seemed to the Radachaii. Those differences in perspective formed a brilliant lens through which to understand the Preseger, the fully "other" alien race that held humanity in check.

The ending is intensely satisfying, but even were it otherwise the character growth demonstrated by the full cast was impressive as hell. ( )

I blew through this book in just under a week, it was so good. The characters are coming into their own, there's humor, and Breq's manipulation of everyone is fun to read. The Presger translator may be my favorite supporting character in the book, but I also have lots of love for Kale Five and her tea sets. ( )