Paperback, 330 pages
English language
Published Dec. 26, 2015 by Orbit.
For just a moment, things seem to be under control for the soldier known as Breq.
Then a search of Athoek Station's slums turns up someone who shouldn't exist — someone who might be a refugee from a ship that's been hiding beyond the empire's reach for three thousand years.
In the meantime a messenger from the alien and mysterious Presger empire arrives, as does Breq's enemy, the divided and quite possibly insane Anaander Mianaai —ruler of an empire that's at war with itself.
Anaander is heavily armed and extremely unhappy with Breq. She could take her ship and crew and flee, but that would leave everyone at Athoek in terrible danger.
Breq has a desperate plan. The odds aren't good, but that's never stopped her before.
For just a moment, things seem to be under control for the soldier known as Breq.
Then a search of Athoek Station's slums turns up someone who shouldn't exist — someone who might be a refugee from a ship that's been hiding beyond the empire's reach for three thousand years.
In the meantime a messenger from the alien and mysterious Presger empire arrives, as does Breq's enemy, the divided and quite possibly insane Anaander Mianaai —ruler of an empire that's at war with itself.
Anaander is heavily armed and extremely unhappy with Breq. She could take her ship and crew and flee, but that would leave everyone at Athoek in terrible danger.
Breq has a desperate plan. The odds aren't good, but that's never stopped her before.
I did enjoy this one a lot great ending for the series, and I liked the kind of open ending for this book. fun.
This trilogy was so great. I love everything that the author did with gender and language. I love everything about how the series spends so much time on the question of who deserves respect and why...or perhaps rather why we attribute respect to certain individuals.
It's just so good. I'm so excited to read the standalone novels as well. Especially because I want to learn more about the Presger!
This trilogy was so great. I love everything that the author did with gender and language. I love everything about how the series spends so much time on the question of who deserves respect and why...or perhaps rather why we attribute respect to certain individuals.
It's just so good. I'm so excited to read the standalone novels as well. Especially because I want to learn more about the Presger!
This final book in the Breq trilogy is so satisfying. We get action and infiltration, we get multiple emotional tangles from Seivarden and Breq, we get station politics and the protest line, and we get plenty of thematic discussion around self-determination.
The Translator Zeiat and Sphene comedy routine in this book is also so good, even if it feels tonally out of place at times. (I also think Zeiat and Dlique work better on a reread where Translation State has provided some more context about the Translators and it feels less wacky.)
In the end it’s only ever been one step, and then the next.
I think this trilogy could be unsatisfying to some, in that nothing gets fixed or is truly resolved. To me, it feels like a satisfying model for incremental change, starting with making things better for the people and spaces around …
This final book in the Breq trilogy is so satisfying. We get action and infiltration, we get multiple emotional tangles from Seivarden and Breq, we get station politics and the protest line, and we get plenty of thematic discussion around self-determination.
The Translator Zeiat and Sphene comedy routine in this book is also so good, even if it feels tonally out of place at times. (I also think Zeiat and Dlique work better on a reread where Translation State has provided some more context about the Translators and it feels less wacky.)
In the end it’s only ever been one step, and then the next.
I think this trilogy could be unsatisfying to some, in that nothing gets fixed or is truly resolved. To me, it feels like a satisfying model for incremental change, starting with making things better for the people and spaces around you.
At its best, science fiction is able to use a broad canvas to explore very human concerns. And the Imperial Radch trilogy -- and especially Ancillary Mercy -- really is science fiction at its best.
Ancillary Mercy is a superb finale to an excellent trilogy and a remarkably good novel in it's own right. And while this story arc comes to a very satisfying conclusion, there is clearly a great deal of space for more stories to be told in the same universe. I sincerely hope that Leckie finds the time to tell some of them.
At its best, science fiction is able to use a broad canvas to explore very human concerns. And the Imperial Radch trilogy -- and especially Ancillary Mercy -- really is science fiction at its best.
Ancillary Mercy is a superb finale to an excellent trilogy and a remarkably good novel in it's own right. And while this story arc comes to a very satisfying conclusion, there is clearly a great deal of space for more stories to be told in the same universe. I sincerely hope that Leckie finds the time to tell some of them.
I loved this book. It was delightful and interesting. Definitely better than the second in the trilogy and truly apples to oranges to the first one. A delightful read.
